Father Andrew Jaspers stands outside the room of a COVID-19 patient at Hennepin County Medical Center in Minneapolis Nov. 9 whom he anointed as part of his ministry in the Anointing Corps for the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis. DAVE HRBACEK | THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

Of all the items Father Paul Hedman expected to need as a priest, “COVID shoes” wasn’t on the list. But now the associate pastor of St. Peter in Forest Lake, who was ordained in May, keeps worn-out dress shoes in a bag in the trunk of his car, ready for a quick change if he’s called to administer the sacrament of anointing of the sick to someone gravely ill with COVID-19.

Those shoes are part of the personal protective equipment Father Hedman is responsible for as a member of the Anointing Corps in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis. Inspired by a similar group in the Archdiocese of Chicago, Bishop Andrew Cozzens in April organized the team of more than a dozen priests trained in the necessary safety precautions to offer the final sacrament to those dying in the pandemic.

In the months since, they’ve anointed more than 500 people with COVID-19. Most of the patients were near death. After a lull in calls this summer, with several days passing between requests, the team is now responding to multiple calls per day, as the number of COVID-19 cases sharply rises.

Father Matt Shireman, 34, admits he was a little afraid for his own health when he joined the corps in its early days. His decision also worried some friends and family, he noted, but he felt it was the right thing to do. He is young, healthy and, as a parochial vicar at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton in Hastings, without the heftier responsibilities of a pastor. As he became accustomed to the precautions, his fear of contracting the virus has diminished, and he’s seen the beauty in providing the sacrament for people often dying in isolation. He’s done about 40 COVID-19 anointings, he said.

“I would want to receive those last rites close to my death, so to be able to offer it to those who are especially facing this very difficult illness … it seemed like something that I could say yes to,” he said.

Of all the items Father Paul Hedman expected to need as a priest, “COVID shoes” wasn’t on the list. But now the associate pastor of St. Peter in Forest Lake, who was ordained in May, keeps worn-out dress shoes in a bag in the trunk of his car, ready for a quick change if he’s called to administer the sacrament of anointing of the sick to someone gravely ill with COVID-19.

Medical professionals train priests in the corps — whose membership and size has fluctuated over the months as priests have joined and left, due to other responsibilities. They learn to properly don and doff N95 masks, goggles, gowns and gloves, and prepare the elements of the sacrament, including the Oil of the Sick, that they bring with them into the patient’s room. Most of the anointings have taken place in hospitals, nursing homes or assisted living facilities, with very few in private homes.

When priests first volunteered for the Anointing Corps, experts were still unclear about how contagious COVID-19 was, and what conditions aided its spread. The level of training the men received, however, gave Father Andrew Jaspers, a corps member and chaplain at Hennepin County Medical Center in Minneapolis, “100% confidence” from the start that they could administer the sacrament safely.

“We were under the impression that we were at serious risk of our health — and possibly life — if we’re going into contact with people who were infected,” Father Jaspers said. “Now, it’s become quite routine. I’ll see two or three people a day. … It’s not something that is scary anymore.”

Father Jaspers, 42, was appointed HCMC chaplain in March, and because of his role, he’s done more than 150 COVID-19 anointings — by far the most of any corps member. The medical center COVID-19 patients he’s anointed have largely been immigrant, Latino men, he noted, and the sacrament has been a chance for many of them to reconnect with the Catholic Church. Ministry to those families led to one man being baptized on his death bed, Father Jaspers said.

Behind the priests is a well-orchestrated network of volunteer nurses evaluating requests for anointings and ensuring those who are dying are connected with a priest for the sacrament. People who want a loved one to be anointed request it through their parish, or, at a medical facility, a nursing director or spiritual care director, which connects with a triage coordinator, who assesses the situation. If the person is actively dying or at the end of life with little chance of recovery, the triage coordinator connects with a member of the Anointing Corps, who hastens to perform the sacrament and sends out an alert. The triage nurse also alerts another volunteer to send a prayer text.

TEXT SUPPORT

When the Anointing Corps was created, the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis added an option for people to receive text notifications so they could pray when a priest was dispatched for a COVID-19-related anointing. The text alerts ask people to pray one Our Father for the person in danger of death, one Hail Mary for the person’s family and friends, and one Glory Be for protection for the priest anointing and the person’s medical team. The texts also invoke St. Roch, a 14th century French-Italian pilgrim who has been traditionally asked to intercede in times of plague. “It’s really beautiful,” said Father Paul Hedman, a member of the corps. “It really shows the unity of the Church, that we’re all praying for each other, that we’re all in this together.” To sign up to receive the texts, text “archspmanointing” to 55321. Learn more at archspm.org/covid19.

Sydney March, an emergency room nurse with a background in theology and bioethics, coordinates the dozen other nurses volunteering as triage coordinators. She also tracks the Anointing Corps’ work and troubleshoots snags in the system, like miscommunication with a hospital or an uncooperative nursing facility. If a request for anointing comes through for someone not yet fitting the ministry’s criteria, or the facility will not allow a priest in until a person is actively dying, the team keeps that person on a “pending” list, and a designated nurse follows up to see if their condition declines and a priest should be dispatched.

She said that having nurses — with their health care expertise, ability to relate to other nursing staff and compassion-imbued vocation — contact the hospitals and nursing facilities has been instrumental in opening doors and cutting through red tape. They’ve coordinated anointings at 16 hospitals and 80 nursing facilities.

Total confirmed cases in Minnesota are rapidly increasing. On Sept. 14, the total confirmed cases in Minnesota in one day passed 1,000 for the first time, according to the state’s Department of Health. Now, daily new cases are routinely in the thousands, reaching as high as 6,900 Nov. 6. Total positive cases hit 231,018 Nov. 16, with 179,614 no longer requiring isolation.

Since March, nearly 3,000 people statewide have died of COVID-19, according to the MDH. About two-thirds of them have lived in long-term care or assisted living facilities.

The requests for anointings have generally followed infection rate trends, March said, with the number of calls increasing as statewide numbers go up. The most anointings coordinated on a single day so far was 13. As of press time, the team had received 70 calls in November alone — and was only part way through the month. The previous highest month of calls was May, when the team was first dispatched.

The priests are typically only sent to anoint people who are in danger of death, said Father Paul Kubista, an Anointing Corps member. “They’re on hospice or they’re shortly going to die,” he said of the people who receive the anointing.

“It is an important ministry,” he noted, because when people are dying, they are most in need of the anointing of the sick. “(In general), the sacrament can be given to anybody who’s seriously ill, but when they’re close to death, we not only give them anointing of the sick, but also the apostolic pardon.” The inclusion of the apostolic pardon — which imparts full pardon and remission of all the person’s sins — within the anointing of the sick is what makes the sacrament the “last rites,” he explained.

The corps has been efficient, and very few of the people they’ve been sent to anoint have died before a priest has arrived. The times when a priest doesn’t make it in time are crushing for March, who takes her role very seriously.

A parishioner of Transfiguration in Oakdale, March, 34, said that although it is hard, she trusts in God’s mercy and knowledge that he isn’t bound by his own sacraments, and she also trusts his timing of a person’s death.

But it’s her job to help the triage coordinators remove as many barriers to anointing as possible. In June, the team at a facility with a dying COVID-19 patient was reluctant to allow a priest in for an anointing, but the triage nurse on call was able to persuade the facility’s team of the importance. Father Shireman finally got “the green light” and rushed to the anointing, he said. The person died as he was finishing the prayers.

“The triage nurse and I were able to just praise God for that, that it all worked out, that it worked out in God’s timing,” he said.

Beyond the use of the PPE, COVID-19 anointings are different than regular anointings of the sick, Father Jaspers said, because the people often are dying alone, with very little human contact. Chaplains from other Christian denominations don’t go in patients’ rooms, he said. Nurses and doctors come and go as quickly as possible. Father Jaspers spends only about 15 minutes with each person during the anointing, but it feels significant, especially when he anoints their head and hands with his gloved fingers.

“Spiritually, it’s being St. Damian of Molokai, or it’s like ministering to lepers,” he said. “We’re going in where few will tread.”

People who are anointed and their families are grateful, he said, although sometimes the person receiving the anointing is unconscious. And sometimes, the circumstances surprise him. In one case, he anointed a 70-year-old COVID patient only to find out from family that the man — a lifelong Catholic churchgoer — had never been baptized. Father Jaspers returned to baptize and confirm the man, who died a short time later.

There have been a few other rare circumstances when the anointing priest has administered additional sacraments, including two instances when people received baptism, confirmation and anointing of the sick.

March said that the Anointing Corps – and even priests anointing outside of the pandemic — offers an important witness to the beauty of the Church and the sacraments. “From the public witness standpoint, it’s just amazing” and needed, she said.

She encourages families with a loved one seriously ill with COVID-19 to talk to the hospital chaplain, or the nursing facility’s chaplain or director of nursing, to make their desire for an anointing clear. Many facilities won’t allow a priest to enter before someone is actively dying, but others may allow a priest when it’s clear the patient is unlikely to recover.

“I would strongly encourage families to reach out and know what the understanding of the facility is, in terms of allowing those spiritual needs” that are inherent, she said. “And at the same time, I would encourage families to be bold and brave (in fighting for spiritual needs), because the sacraments are best received when someone is alert.”

Healthcare, she added, is more than care of the body — it’s the care of the body and the soul.

Father Hedman, 26, has done about a dozen anointings since he joined the corps in the summer. His first, he said, was a fellow priest who later recovered. Being a corps member deeply drives home the reality of the COVID-19 pandemic, he said, especially after he spent the spring quarantined as he finished studies at The St. Paul Seminary.

“It’s a real blessing to be able to be there at the end of life,” he said. “You just know that even though they might be passing away in hours or in minutes, you’re giving them the final graces, the forgiveness and the indulgence to have no time in purgatory. According to our faith, you’re making their transition to heaven as speedy as possible, even under such unfortunate situations.”