No Barriers: Priest Delivers Last Rites To Patient With COVID-19 Through Window

Prompted by Governor Phil Murphy to practice social distancing and observe the state's stay at home order, a New Jersey priest delivered last rites to a parishioner who had contracted COVID-19 through a window.

Reverend Michael Way of Christ Episcopal Church in the township of Middletown, New Jersey, visited the nursing home where the patient was isolated after testing positive for the virus. Way wore a mask, prayed with the parishioner and administered the Catholic sacrament formally known as anointing of the sick, said The Sacramento Bee.

“I was shaking as I was doing it. I didn't expect to be. I knew that the sacrament was there whether or not I felt it. I didn't expect to feel it as powerfully as I did,” Way told NJ.com.

Way originally planned to deliver the sacrament via telephone, but poor reception and the fact that staff members of the nursing home were afraid to hold the phone's receiver to a COVID-19-patient made him to rethink of a way to push through with the practice, according to Fox News.

The priest explained to the network that the patient was lying on his bed with his face turned towards him. Way added that he wasn't sure if the parishioner was conscious, but he provided proof of life when the Lord's Prayer was recited.

“I could see his lips move, mouthing the words of the prayer,” said Way.

The Chicago Tribune said that policies regarding the sacrament vary. While some hospitals encourage priests to do it over the phone, others allow them to go inside provided that they wear masks and other protective equipment.

“I was overwhelmed and so grateful for this opportunity to bring this sacrament to him. And of course, whether I performed last rites or not, he was not alone. God was with him.

“That's been his message since no one has been able to physically gather. We can still find and experience community in so many other ways,” Way told Fox News.

24 priests have been trained by the Catholic archdiocese in Chicago to perform last rites as Auxiliary Bishop Joseph Perry describing it to be “very, very, very important” to people who are dying. The current COVID-19 pandemic on the other hand made the Vatican to issue a “special dispensation” for performing the sacrament remotely, including the foregoing of the use of holy oil. Said the Tribune.