ENHCC
European Network of Health Care Chaplaincy
Health Care Chaplaincy in Lithuania
May 2002
I have now been working in patients' pastoracy for 18 months. I am blessed by God's provision to carry out this difficult but necessary service to patients' spiritual needs. Despite all of my good intentions I cannot carry out this mission as it should be done. I can clearly understand that I have little practice in this field. That is why there has been little fruit achieved in this pastoracy so far. This fact is determined by:
- My poor preparation in general pastoral theology;
- Considerably short term experience in the field;
- Poor development of tradition of pastoracy of this kind in Lithuania etc.
On 1 November 2000, I became the first chaplain of the biggest Clinic of Santariskes in the Republic of Lithuania. The Clinic contains 1200 beds and 2500 staff. Earlier there had been a temporary place for praying in the Hospital. About 10-15 patients would come there every day. We have the same task as we did a year before to serve the spiritual needs of patients. That is why we started developing the activities necessary for this purpose: attending patients, praying for them, inviting them to place God in the central position of their life. I think we have to develop our pastoral abilities and to make our life more perfect so that we could carry out our duties better. At the beginning, having no idea what I should refer to, I sought for advice from those who were skilled in general pastoracy. I discovered, however, that pastoracy in hospital is a very specific kind of pastoracy in many respects. Most probably God gives me a chance to participate in the consultation organized by the European Network of Health Care Chaplains. A year after the start of the pastoral activity we built a new chapel in the Hospital because of the increase in the number of patients wanting to pray. Today over 100 patients can pray at the same time in the chapel. This place was dedicated to "God's Mercy". We have 60 patients every day who participate in celebration of the Eucharist. On Sundays up to 150 patients come.
The task for the next five years, I suppose, should be to continue developing and organizing the network of the centres of this pastoracy throughout the republic. We must admit, however, this to be our weak point. I hope to get useful information and experience from the meeting in Turku which will help me to settle this problem at home later on.
Fr Bernardas Augaitis
Roman Catholic Hospital Chaplain, Lithuania
[May 2002]