LETTERS

PRIESTS AND VOLUNTARY HOSPITALS
SIR,—In your recent correspondence on the comparative merits of hospitals a matter of grave interest to Catholics was overlooked. I refer to the official attitude towards priests which obtains in most of the voluntary hospitals. I would begin by enquiring how it is that these institutions which make it their proud boast that they are supported by voluntary contributions from all classes, have become appropriated by the Church of England. Every big hospital has a C. of E. chaplain. I have no complaint against the chaplain as such he is usually an amiable gentleman, anxious to be friendly with the priest and often very helpful. tic has a tine chapel, an office. and a competent salary. He is not over walked, for in a general hospital the majority of the patients are not even nominal members of his church.
But the Catholic priest is only tolerated. He has no official position and his status is barely different from that of any ordinary visitor. Often enough he has to fight his way through a pervading obstruction of bigotry and offensiveness I have known hospitals in which every newcomer in the shape of a perky little pro or a vinegarsouled sister seemed to think that it was her duty to display her importance and her zealfor her religion by putting the priest in his place. I have known others in which there appeared to be a carefully planned plot to obstruct a priest from giving Holy Communion to a patient who desired it, and to make his visit as uncomfortable as possible. Priests can take care of themselves and are not deeply affected by this churlish treatment. But if a priest is popular with thestaff and gets on well, as I think most of us do, so that his visits are welcomed and his work a success. it is by sheer force of personality.
There arc poor par.s,hes in London which have to bear the burden of supporting an extra priest because the calls, day and night, of the local voluntary hospital arc too heavy to be met unaided by the required number of parochial clergy.
A very different condition of affairs exists in the modern L.C.C. hospits1 I would note, in passing, that these fine institutions arc at least equal to the best of the voluntary hospitals in equipment and staffing. The stigma of the old workhouse infirmary has long ago been obliterated. Patients are no: treated as mere cases to be got rid of as soon as they cease to be professionally interesting, but in a way which preserves their self-respect as ratepaying citizens. I know of only one voluntary hospital in London where the set vices of the priest are considered worthy of recognition in material form, and this only by way of a small honorarium, a mere pittance when measured with the long hours of visiting which he puts in and the numerous sick-calls Still, it gives him a status and ensures proper facilities and respectful attention.
On the other hand, every L.C.C. hospital has a priest on the staff, and although with the childish snobbery and pompous superciliousness of midVictorian Protestantism he is still offensively designated as "Roman Catholic Religious Instructor." his position is that of a senior officer. He is entitled to go in and out at all times, and is treated everywhere with courtesy and friendliness He is also in receipt of a reasonable salary In the larger institutions he has a chapel where Mass is said every Sunday and the Blessed Sacrament reserved In these council hospitals the priest can always rely on being summoned as soon as a Catholic patient shows any signs of being irt danger. In the voluntary hospitals Catholics are dependent upon the good will of the nursing staff, and while on the whole there is little to complain of, it does sometimes happen that through lack of appreciation on the part of a sister or a nurse, a poor Catholic dies without the Sacraments.
The voluntary hospitals—not so voluntary inasmuch as few patients escape without having to pay—are for ever appealing to us to support their numerous money-raising stunts, and they never fail to ask Catholic churches to contribute. In the course of the year quite a number of circulars of the begging kind are sent to the clergy and not a little Catholic money flows into the hospital coffers If as a body we were to decline to have anything to do with voluntary hospital appeals we might effectively draw public attention to the unsatisfactory conditions under which so many priests have to administer to their sick
patients. T can safely say that the clergy arc not looking for salaries All that is desired is that the authorities of voluntary hospitals should give visiting priests an official status which would protect them front affronts and obstructions, and permit them togo peacefully about their good work without being treated as intruders.
An example has been set in one great hospital where, after putting up for long years with offensiveness which at last reached a climax of insult, the parish priest. under threat of exposure, exacted from the secretary for himself and his curates signed documents recognising them as voluntary chaplains with right of entry.
J. P. R.