St. Francis Health System, which operates five hospitals in East Oklahoma, was threatened with loss of Medicaid and Medicare funds if hospital staff did not extinguish the flame in the name of safety.
Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, which is representing the hospital chain, says a division within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services ignored previous approvals, a fire marshal, and the presence of a sprinkler system.
“They never did explain why they did not have a problem with pilot lights in the kitchen or gas dryers in the laundry room,” Lori Windham, a Becket attorney, says. “But they did have a problem with a sanctuary candle.”
Candles are a familiar sight in the Catholic faith, including the sanctuary candle, which symbolizes Christ’s love for us. In a Catholic hospital setting, visitors would not be surprised to see such a candle, encased in red, in the hospital chapel.
In its May 2 letter to the DHS, Becket explained to the federal bureaucrats the Code of Canon Law requires the candle wherever the “Blessed Sacrament” is kept.
After refusing to swap the living candle with an electrical one, the hospital administration agreed to erect a sign informing the public of the live flame in a compromise with DHS.
"When people are willing to take a stand,” Windham says, “when they're willing to say, No, I won't back down from my faith, that changes things and victories are won."
