Ecumenical Aspects of Health Care Chaplaincy in the Czech Republic
Ecumenical Aspects of Health Care Chaplaincy in the Czech Republic

Summary/Abstract: This article analyses the ecumenical dimension of pastoral care in health care in the Czech Republic and the particular character of health chaplains, understood differently from CIC 1983 (not strictly confessional meaning). Health care chaplains in the Czech Republic are also members of churches and religious communities other than the Catholic Church, very often they are women. In the Czech Republic (as a largely secularized country), such a wider, ecumenical form of pastoralism seems to be necessary. The said ecumenical foundation is based on the Standards for Health Care Chaplaincy in Europe. This model of pastoral care in the Czech Republic has been gradually developed since 1990 and was contractually enshrined in 2006 (the Agreement between the Czech Bishops’ Conference and the Ecumenical Council of Churches in the Czech Republic). However, the legislative definition in the Czech legal system is given only by a general and subordinate norm (Methodical Guideline of the Ministry of Health of 2017), the conceptual form given by the special legal norm is still missing and is at the stage of negotiations and preparations.

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