The accreditation of South St. Francis Hospital in Tulsa, Oklahoma, has been threatened by US authorities with accreditation revocation due to an always-burning candle in the hospital’s chapel, which is considered a religious symbol, the OCPA website reported on May 4th.
Lori Windham, vice resident and senior counsel at the Becket Foundation for Religious Liberty, said the US Department of Health and Human Services’ threat to discredit a hospital violates both federal law and the US First Amendment. .
“You threatened to withhold accreditation because St. Francis Hospital keeps a candle, an eternal flame, in its hospital sanctuary.Wyndham wrote. — For 15 years, this flame has been burning smoothly at St. Francis South Hospital in Tulsa; and for 63 years the eternal flame has burned on the Yale campus of St. Francis Hospital, the largest hospital in the state of Oklahoma, without any trouble or fear. Since St. Francis opened its doors in 1960, this flame has been kept alive without interruption. By asking St. Francis to put out its flame, you are trying to extinguish not just a candle, but First Amendment rights to the St. Francis health care system, as well as life-saving medical services for the elderly, the poor and disabled in Oklahoma”..
Two months ago, for the first time since St. Francis Church was founded in 1960, a federal inspector declared that a candle in the sanctuary posed a fire hazard and demanded that it be extinguished, Windham said. She said that during the exam “the surveyor directly asked to go to the chapel to see if there was a live fire”.
The Becket Foundation for Religious Freedom has a history of lawsuits against government agencies for violating citizens’ religious freedoms and named the case “one of the most egregious violations we have ever seen”.
Windham’s letter to Xavier Becerra, head of the US Department of Health and Human Services, explicitly warns the department that it will lose in court if it continues.
The San Francisco candle, which has been burning continuously since the hospital opened in 1960, was recently declared a fire hazard by a federal inspector during an inspection, Wyndham said.
He added that the surveyor specifically asked to see the chapel to determine if there was a live flame, and eventually issued an injunction requiring the candle to be extinguished.
Wyndham noted that the candle is encased in two bronze-decorated glass globes on top of the second, and that the entire structure rests on a bronze bracket attached to the chapel wall. The sail is also surrounded by water sprinklers, so it complies with applicable fire safety regulations, which Windham says the hospital complies with.
SB 404, recently signed into law by Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt, strengthens state law to protect religious organizations from harassment by state or local governments.
“SB 404 makes it clear that when the government provides benefits to private organizations, it cannot prevent religious organizations from accessing the benefits in the first place solely or primarily based on their religious nature,” said state Sen. Julie Daniels, Republican of Bartlesville, author of the bill.
While this law will not affect federal agencies, it does limit Oklahoma state and local governments. The bill passed the Oklahoma Senate by a vote of 38-7 and the Oklahoma House of Representatives by a vote of 64-27. Democratic lawmakers have criticized the passage of the bill, arguing that it restricts freedom religion of Oklahomans. .
Source: Rossa Primavera
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