Other
One Hospital — Multiple Inspiration
Mirko Polgar
Abstract
"The Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh" is a huge hospital with many buildings and even more wards, owned by one owner, the United Kingdom, but serving for the multiple aid and inspiration of all those who approach it either for their own needs or for the needs of others. It does not only serve physical needs but it also respects and aids the full liberty of any human being either to live and die according to one's own religious convictions or to reject any supernatural purpose in human life. Although the three main Christian denominations in the United Kingdom — the Anglicans, Presbyterians and Catholics - have their respective Chaplains and a common Chapel in the hospital, although an advertisement about religious services is found in each dayroom, religious practice is not imposed on anyone. A wonderful humanity of respect and love permeates the whole hospital. The crude and heartless materialism of some Roman pagans of old, expressed in the saying "Ede, bibe, epula: eras morieris." — "Eat, drink, be merry: tomorrow you'll die." — would sound like an insult in the "Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh", where religious help for patients who wish it is provided with the same urgency as medical help; where Medical Sisters help to make a dying child's baptism full of dignity and consolation for his family; where a security officer uses his personal car to take the hospital Chaplain to bring help to a dying mother; where a divorced wife is allowed to renew her marriage vows with her dying husbend in the presence of the priest and Medical Sisters; where the priest, in order to have a more profound knowledge of the endeavours of the medical personnel and of the sufferings of the patients, is allowed to attend an old man's serious operation; where generous volunteers from different parts of the world, united in the same Christian understanding and love, bring patients from different wards to attend Sunday Mass in the hospital Chapel. No wonder that this highly human and Christian attitude at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh inspired a patient, a young Catholic girl and daily communicant, to confide to the visiting priest: "My life's ideal is to become a good Medical Sister."
Keywords
Hrčak ID:
53827
URI
Publication date:
20.2.1987.
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