Catholic churches have a candle burning at all times (except Good Friday and relit on Easter), usually in a red holder. We place it by the Tabernacle, which holds the Eucharist. We keep it burning to symbolize the presence of Jesus Christ.
Our devout Catholic president’s administration threatened the Saint Francis Health System in Oklahoma over its sanctuary candle, the eternal flame.
The Department of Health & Human Services told the system “it would lose its ability to accept Medicare, Medicaid or the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP)” if it did not remove the candle from the chapel.
The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty and the law firm Yetter Coleman LLP told the Biden administration to back off because where has the government been for 15 years:
You have threatened to deny accreditation because Saint Francis keeps a candle— an eternal flame—in its hospital sanctuary. For 15 years, that flame has burned without problem or concern in Saint Francis Hospital South in Tulsa; and for 63 years, the eternal flame has burned at Saint Francis Hospital Yale Campus, the largest hospital in the state of Oklahoma, without problem or concern. From the moment Saint Francis opened its doors in 1960, this flame has been maintained without interruption. In requiring Saint Francis to extinguish its flame, you are trying to extinguish not just a candle, but the First Amendment rights of Saint Francis Health System, as well as vital healthcare for the elderly, poor, and disabled in Oklahoma.—Now, you put not just Saint Francis Health System in peril but the entire State of Oklahoma and any person in need of Saint Francis Health System’s preeminent care, all because Saint Francis maintains a single, enclosed, and reverently kept eternal flame in its chapels. Two months ago, and for the first time since Saint Francis’s founding in 1960, a surveyor from one of the federal government’s official hospital accreditors took issue with the sanctuary candle and issued a fire-safety citation demanding that it be snuffed out. Saint Francis cannot do this as a matter of faith. And so, in twenty-five days, the federal government intends to disaccredit (and thereby effectively shutter) this premier health system, which includes the number one hospital in Oklahoma and the 12th largest hospital in the nation. All because Saint Francis refuses to abandon its religious beliefs and extinguish the sanctuary lamp.
HHS told the Saint Francis Health System it’s no longer going after it over the candle and can keep it lit:
The Department of Health and Human Service (HHS) informed Saint Francis Health System on Friday that it was backing down from its prior threats and that it was free to keep the sanctuary candle lit, according to The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, a law firm representing the hospital system.”The government has seen the light and has abandoned its attempt to force an Oklahoma hospital to blow out a small candle or stop serving elderly, disabled, and low-income patients,” said Lori Windham, a vice president and senior counsel at Becket. “[HHS] has told Saint Francis that it can keep its living flame—a sacred candle housed in the hospital chapels.””The government knew it was playing with fire — today it announced its decision to allow the living flame so Saint Francis can continue to serve God and its community, as it always has,” Windham added.
I am so tired of the federal government targeting Christians, especially us Catholics.
Every Catholic chapel has an eternal flame. Are you really going to go after every single one and put people at risk?
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