WHEELING — Meeting the physical needs of the sick has always been a priority for the workers at Wheeling Hospital. But what about their spiritual needs during the current COVID-19 pandemic?

Sister Mary Ann Rosenbaum has been the director of pastoral care at the hospital since 1990. She maintains that the current pandemic has upped the challenges of her duties, but there has always been the need to take precautions in a health care setting.

“On the regular floors we are still able to go and visit patients. In the units in quarantine, we would have to dress appropriately,” Rosenbaum said.

However, the public is not permitted visiting the hospital at this time, nor are the volunteers working. She said she and clergy members have utilized telephone interaction with patients seeking comfort from the religious community. The hospital discontinued offering daily Mass in the chapel a week before the Most Rev. Mark Brennan, bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston, issued the order to close all Roman Catholic churches in West Virginia. That order also includes no distribution of Communion. However, clergy are continuing to be with dying patients.

The Rt. Rev. W. Michie Klusmeyer, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of West Virginia, also has instructed his congregations to cease services, including drive-by distribution of the Eucharist, which had been occurring in places.

“It is difficult. You can’t do the things like you used to,” Rosenbaum said. “You can’t reach out to the families. The (Catholic) priests are allowed to give last rites.”

There are two priests on staff at the hospital. She noted that everyone is adhering to safety protocol to keep themselves and patients safe.

“You have to make sure you use universal precautions not only now, but all the time here at the hospital,” she added.

At the hospital’s new Continuous Care Center located adjacent to the hospital, Sister Karen Kirby, director of pastoral care at the center, conducts prayer services in such a way that maintains appropriate distance between patients and staff. However, restrictions are more stringent today at the care facility. Kirby said neither clergy nor doctors are entering the facility during the pandemic unless authorized by the administrator. Also, visitors are not permitted direct contact with residents.

To that end, however, Kirby said visitors are allowed on the patio outside the facility and residents of the center are wheeled to the windows to see and hear their friends and family members.

“We are doing our usual hand hygiene, only stepped it up more than normal,” Kirby said. “We really shut down quickly and the families have told us how they really appreciate that.”

Kirby, in her fourth year at Continuous Care, conducts devotions at different times on the first and second floors where patients can attend but are kept ample distance apart. Mass and the distribution of Communion have been discontinued. The last Mass was offered on March 15 which included an anointing of the sick.

Staff members are urged to write their petitions for prayers on pieces of paper which are then placed in a bowl during devotions. Prayers are said for the petitions.

“I’ve had people come to me and say they have felt their prayers being answered,” Kirby said. “That allows everyone to feel connected by prayer.”

Residents at Continuous Care Center have started writing cards and sending them out to family and friends. The administration is working to provide iPads for residents to do face-to-face visits with family members.

“We urge the staff not to show their own fears. It’s hard sometimes. We are a family here,” Kirby said. “When somebody’s hurting we all hurt. When somebody has a great day, we all share in the joy.”

Rose Mathes, coordinator of community life for the Sisters of St. Joseph at Mount St. Joseph in Wheeling, said every precaution is being taken at the motherhouse against the pandemic. The Wheeling congregation housed there has a median age of 88, including two nuns ages 101 and 102.

“We are following the same federal guidelines for nursing facilities. We have an older, fragile population so the staff and anyone coming into the facilities are wearing masks and must wear them all the time they are here. We are just trying our best to minimize the exposure,” Mathes said.

That means staff members who come and go must limit their time among the public so as to minimize the risk of bringing the virus into their workplace at Mount St. Joseph.

At the facility, the dining room has been set up to allow the nuns to eat together at a safe distance from one another. Also, they continue to pray in chapel together while appropriately separated from one another. They will gather in the dining room to watch live-streamed Holy Week services next week. While not receiving the physical Communion, the sisters embrace a spiritual Communion experience.

“This is the first time in our lives that we’ve experienced something like this. It can’t be denied that being grounded in faith is a real asset to help deal with this,” Mathes noted. “It kind of makes you step back and ask ‘what’s my faith without the liturgical experience?’ It’s a good time of reflection.”

Mathes said similar guidelines are in place at the Good Shepherd Nursing Home in Wheeling where her daughter works as a nurse.