With COVID-19 numbers rising in Minnesota due in large part to the delta variant, the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis’ COVID-19 Anointing Corps ministry is responding to an increase in calls for the sacrament of the anointing of the sick.
Since its work began in April 2020 after the pandemic arrived in Minnesota, the ministry of priests and nurses has provided immeasurable spiritual value to patients, family members and hospital staff, said Sydney March, who leads the program. As of Sept. 9, Corps members have anointed 967 people.
Sydney March
“As nurses, we can witness what our role is supposed to be — bringing Christ’s healing to the bedside,” said March, a nurse who works in the emergency room at Abbott Northwestern Hospital in Minneapolis and is on staff at Options for Women East, a nonprofit prenatal and pregnancy medical clinic. “We can evangelize through our conversations with family and staff during the coordination process, and we can provide compassionate comfort and reassurance of the Church’s presence through our words and prayers.”
Initiated with a team of about a dozen priests, the Corps has never stopped working, though the number of priests involved has fluctuated as priests have joined and left due to other responsibilities. Most of those anointed were near death.
Calls for the ministry’s service have ebbed and flowed as well. Last January, for example, priests anointed 56 COVID-19 patients. That number gradually declined to seven in June before climbing again to 12 in July, 23 in August. In the first nine days of September, 21 people were anointed. If the pace established early in September continues, more than 60 people could be anointed by the end of the month.
March is quick to move away from numbers and concentrate on each person anointed as an individual. “They are indeed someone’s mother, father, sister, brother, etc.,” she said. “Each one is very precious to me.”
In April 2020, as many people were becoming seriously ill, Bishop Andrew Cozzens organized the Anointing Corps ministry in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis. From April to mid-November 2020, Anointing Corps priests specially trained in COVID-19 protocols anointed more than 500 people, or an average of about 62 per month.
RISING NUMBERSWhile the numbers of anointings in 2021 conducted by members of the COVID-19 Anointing Corps have been lower per month than in 2020, they are again tracking upward. Monthly totals in 2021 to date:
January 56
February 39
March 29
April 32
May 12
June 7
July 12
August 23
Sept. 1-9 21
Of the 23 anointings in August, 21 were hospital visits and two were in long-term care. Corps hospital chaplains conducted 16 anointings and Corps priests conducted seven (five in a hospital and two in long-term care). Eleven calls were made to the Corps telephone line, about double the number in July.
Sydney March, leader of the ministry, said she is concerned about the impact of coronavirus variants. And she wants to be sure the Church, no matter what, can be there for “this vulnerable population.” “We have a duty, and it is important for their souls,” she said, “as well as a public witness.”
Even with the recent increase in calls, the Anointing Corps may not be getting as many calls for assistance as in the past, March said. Pastors may feel more comfortable making their own visits, and facilities may have relaxed visitor restrictions, allowing visits from priests outside the Anointing Corps. In addition, some facilities might not know the Anointing Corps continues to offer its ministry. Meanwhile, the natural course of the disease as it makes its way through a community and the implementation of preventive measures can play a factor in how often the Corps is called, March said, adding that it is hard to identify which factors are at play and to what impact.
March, 35, a parishioner of Transfiguration in Oakdale, has been involved with the Anointing Corps since its inception. She was asked to train, start up, develop and sustain the program. She coordinates the other nurses who are involved and tracks the Anointing Corps’ work. March also credits her husband, Michael, also a nurse, for his support of her ministry.
The nurses help evaluate requests for anointings and ensure 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, through a nursing director or spiritual care director, who connects with a triage coordinator, who assesses the situation.
If a patient 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. The triage nurse also notifies another volunteer to send a prayer text alert that the archdiocese set up for parishioners to pray for the patients and their families, the priests and medical teams involved.
To learn more about the prayer texts and join the effort, go to archspm.org/covid19/covid19prayers.
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