The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in a wealth of new protocols and programs, including the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis’ COVID-19 Anointing Corps ministry. Since its inception in April 2020 and as of early November, the specially trained corps of priests has provided the sacrament of the anointing of the sick for 1,636 people in hospitals, nursing homes and other settings.

The COVID Corps began as a brainchild of (then-Auxiliary) Bishop Andrew Cozzens, in conjunction with Sydney March, a member of Transfiguration in Oakdale and a nurse who works in the emergency room at Abbott Northwestern Hospital in Minneapolis, as well as other pastoral and medical professionals. Priests with the corps are trained in using personal protective equipment and other protocols to prevent spread of COVID or other infectious diseases.

As Bishop Cozzens was installed last December as bishop of the Crookston diocese, Father Tom Margevicius, the archdiocese’s director of worship, assumed oversight of the Corps, ensuring that March and the priests involved have what they need to carry out their ministry.

“Health care facilities have been doing heroic, selfless work under stressful, exhaustive and heart-breaking conditions. To watch patients who they care about be refused access to spiritual practices (such as receiving the sacraments) has deeply grieved the medical community,” Margevicius said of the corps’ efforts to fill that gap. “Many are faith-filled Catholics who want all Catholic patients, irrespective of health condition, to be able to receive the sacraments. Even non-Catholic health care professionals acknowledge that practicing some kind of spiritual life benefits patients beyond what medicine alone can do.”

March said that while the ministry’s efforts have slowed as the pandemic itself has waned, it is still active until Archbishop Bernard Hebda says otherwise.

“It will remain that way until more priests for their deaneries are trained or pastors step up to be trained,” March said. “It also is important for pastoral care duties to go back to the level of the parishes, so that the sacramental obligation of sick and dying needing our Lord in his sacraments and in the form of the priest for the salvation of their souls is spread evenly, now that COVID and isolation precautions in facilities are a ‘new normal,’” March said. “Parishes and pastors need to be equipped to minister to a virus that is here to stay.”

March also stressed that the Anointing Corps will not go into any type of “hibernation” until a clear plan has been implemented, hospitals are notified, and parishes and pastors are ready to step into the role of anointing COVID patients. Even when this happens, the COVID hotline number will remain active for at least six months or more to ensure things go smoothly.

“I am confident that there won’t be a single soul that desires the sacraments, missed. If there is a new unknown disease, the Corps may need to ‘rise again’ and plans will definitely be in place for that to happen,” March said.

Currently, 29 priests serve on the COVID-19 Anointing Corps. The anointing structure varies with availability — some are for their parish only, some are only within their deanery, and some serve with no limitations.

Father John Paul Erickson, pastor of Transfiguration in Oakdale, volunteered to serve on the corps soon after its inception.

“It’s been a very beautiful and powerful experience of my priesthood,” Father Erickson said. “To be able to be present to the sick and dying in their moment of profoundest need is certainly one of the principle reasons I became a priest. I have been able to anoint and absolve dozens of the dying who otherwise may not have been able to receive the sacraments, and even baptized the baby of a COVID-positive dad.

“It’s also been a great grace to be a witness to hospital staff that the Church has not been afraid to be on the front lines of a health crisis,” Father Erickson said. “This is where we belong, as instruments of mercy, following all necessary safety precautions, of course.”

Father Timothy Sandquist, parochial vicar of Holy Family in St. Louis Park, joined the Anointing Corps about six months into the pandemic, as cases were starting to multiply.

“I regard the sacraments as the most important thing we brought COVID patients we served,” Father Sandquist said. “In fact, since many patients we served were no longer alert, the sacraments were sometimes the only thing we could offer,” he said.

“The sacrament of anointing of the sick fortunately carries with it the power of forgiveness of sins, even if the recipient is unconscious,” Father Sandquist said. “Nevertheless, for those patients who were alert, the presence of a priest was usually a great consolation. Last week, after I anointed an elderly woman who had COVID and was dying, she said to me, ‘I’m ready to go home.’ I knew that she was not talking about her earthly home.”

Deacons have not been trained for the Anointing Corps, but that might change, March said. “It will be a part of my recommendation for ongoing and preventative measures,” she said.

A rebound of COVID, or another pandemic or medical emergency, will require priests and others to continue safely providing pastoral care. “Having hammered out many of the details for how to do so during this COVID pandemic has given us a template for how to approach future crises,” Father Margevicius said. “It has also strengthened the cooperation between the medical community and religious caretakers, inasmuch as both recognize the essential role each plays in providing holistic care for all patients suffering, both bodily and spiritually.”

Father Erickson said it’s important that the Church be ready to minister to the sick and dying in whatever circumstance may arise.

“Unfortunately, this will not be the last time visitors to hospitals, including family members and clergy of the actively dying, will face severe restrictions to entry,” Father Erickson said. “I hope the local Church can continue to utilize a version of the Corps for true health emergencies, but I also hope that all pastors and priests see it as their duty to minister the saving sacraments to their people in moments of public health crises,” Father Erickson said.

“The time needed to train for proper donning and doffing is brief, and this training will open doors to my brothers that otherwise may be closed,” he said. “Behind those doors are the sick and suffering, waiting to know of the healing presence of Christ.”

‘PROFOUND CONSOLATION’

Father Andrew Jaspers, chaplain at North Memorial Health Hospital in Robbinsdale, was assigned as chaplain at Hennepin County Medical Center in Minneapolis in May 2020, just as the COVID-19 pandemic was hitting Minnesota. Recognizing pandemic anointings would be part of his ministry, he asked his housemate, then-Father Joseph Williams (now auxiliary bishop) if he would have concerns. “He did not, and so I signed up for the COVID Corps,” Father Jaspers said.

“My first anointing was in a home, which is the ‘stickiest’ contamination environment,” Father Jaspers said. “That is, unlike a hospital, homes have no clear zones of decontamination, so effectively, every surface represents a contamination hazard. And at the time, we did not yet know either the mortality or contagiousness of the disease. Thus, I thought it possible in the first few weeks that I would contract the illness and die from it. But the lesson of St. Damian of Molokai taught me that it would be a good death if that should pass. After about 10 visits to less sticky places, like hospitals and nursing homes, my trepidation about the anointings vanished as I never got the disease and the anointings consistently brought profound joy to the sick and dying. As the pandemic grew, I was often anointing four or more people with the disease each day at the hospital. I have anointed 427 people to date and have not gotten sick.”

The corps has made the “ultimate difference for many of those who died, as receiving anointing, apostolic pardon, and sometimes confession are the best assurances that one will go to heaven,” Father Jaspers said. “It brought profound consolation to families who learned that their loved one died with sacraments.”

A decrease in mortality from the disease and effective vaccines should decrease the fear of any priest to anointing the shrinking number of people dying from the disease, Father Jaspers said.

“That is to say, nearly every priest will effectively join the corps and pastors will be able to take care of their own sheep without outside priest help,” he said.