Denver Catholic

Priests of the Archdiocese of Denver have been quietly visiting patients diagnosed with COVID-19 in hospitals that allow them and performing anointings of the sick. to be a general consensus among them. As hospitals within the Archdiocese of Denver began to admit more COVID -19 patients, the Vicar for Clergy asked the younger priests of the archdiocese to volunteer to administer the Sacraments of the Sick to those who needed it. Father Fadini, associate pastor at Nativity of Our Lord Parish in Broomfield, is just one priest of many within the archdiocese who freely volunteered. "I have visited about 15 sick people with COVID so far," Father Fadini told the Denver Catholic. "I am provided with all the gear. When I visit the hospital, I follow the procedures. I know that I am exposed to a risk. And definitely my precautions are not to put anyone else at risk that I am in touch with later." Father Fadini has been visiting COVID -19 patients in Centura Health facilities near his parish, where he has heard confessions and administered anointings of the sick to those who request it. The opportunity to do so, he said, has "been a grace for my priesthood." THE POWER OF ANOINTING As a priest, besides the specific precautionary measures, Father Fadini's modus operandi for visiting a person with COVID -19 remains the same as when he visits a person suffering from any other illness. "When you see a sick person, you approach that person as Christ, as the living body of Christ," he said. In addition to the traditional anointing with oil that is commonly associ- ated with the anointing of the sick, this sacrament also includes the viaticum, or "food for the journey," in the form of the Eucharist. However, if a person is not conscious, the priest can only perform the anointing with the oil. In one recent visit to a hospital, Father Fadini anointed a COVID -19 patient who was unconscious. "I put on the full gear, the particular mask and the gown. When I entered, I saw the person was unconscious. Totally unconscious. So I gave the anoint- ing. I could only give the anointing, of course, at that point," he recalled. This particular visit, however, spurred in him a memory of a woman he anointed two years ago who recovered from her illness. "[I remembered] a previous experience of another sick person I visited two years ago who told me that when she received the anointing, she clearly also felt in her body a startling recovery," he recounted. "Of course, this is a sort of a grace that is given to everybody. We know that it can work without visible effects, and especially spiritually." Keeping in mind the experience of this parishioner from several years ago, Father Fadini also prayed for the healing of the COVID -19 patient he anointed, and eventually she recovered. "I was moved by the tears of the husband, who was assisting with the rite over the phone, which was held close to me by the doctor. His tears brought me to dare to implore for her healing." In her gratitude, she wrote a short letter to Father Fadini. "She wrote that the anointing, my visit and the faith of all the ones who prayed around her for her literally kept her here on Earth," he said. 10 DENVER CATHOLIC | MAY 9-22, 2020

• Cover