Generic Versus Catholic Hospital Chaplaincy: The Diversity of Spirits as a Problem of Inter-Faith Cooperation

Hospital chaplaincy, in its exposure to clients, colleagues,and care-takers from different faith backgrounds, can be understoodin either generic or catholic terms. The first understanding,often merely implicit in denominationalist approaches, assumesthat some "Absolute" can be prayerfully invoked through themedium of diverse rituals, confessions, and symbols. This positioncombines the advantage of unprejudiced acceptance of other creedsand traditions with the disadvantage of lacking resources fordiscriminating among the spiritualities that may be operativewithin those other creeds and traditions. Catholicism, in linkingtrue spirituality with the one true church as the mystical bodyof the Tri-une God, secures such a criterion but fails to satisfythe tolerance-of-acknowledgement in the secular sense, whichis canonical in contemporary ecumenism. The Orthodox understandingof Catholicism is portrayed as imposing a non-judgemental humilityand repentance which provides a solution to that spiritual-humandilemma of inter-faith cooperation in the hospital.