Tabernacle dedicated at Bloomington Hospital

Motivated by their compassion for hospital patients, Jamie Hickman Thompson and Dominican Father Richard Litzau worked together to have a tabernacle added to the chapel at Bloomington Hospital. (Submitted photo)

By John Shaughnessy

The memory of a friend kept filling the thoughts of Jamie Hickman Thompson as she prepared to offer a reflection at the recent dedication of a tabernacle at Bloomington Hospital.

Thompson remembered how she met the man when she accompanied Dominican Father Richard Litzau during the visits that the priest makes to hospital patients. She also recalled how she started to bring the Eucharist to the man on a regular basis until he died last year, nine months after their first meeting.

“It was powerful to see what the Eucharist meant to him every day,” Thompson recalls. “He had been away from the Church for many years. When he came back, having the Eucharist brought to him meant there was a community that loved him. He felt God’s love.”

Thompson, Father Litzau and other Catholics across southern Indiana believe the new tabernacle in the Bloomington Hospital chapel will increase that powerful impact on patients, family members and hospital employees who share the Catholic faith. The tabernacle was dedicated during a Mass in the hospital chapel on Oct. 19.

“For us to have a Catholic presence in Bloomington Hospital is phenomenal,” says Thompson, a member of St. Paul Catholic Center. “The hospital serves more than Bloomington. People from across southern Indiana are taken care of there. Having a tabernacle at the hospital will be much more convenient for all the eucharistic ministers and priests who come to the hospital from their parishes in southern Indiana. This is also huge for the staff, employees and visitors at the hospital.”

Before the dedication of the tabernacle, volunteer extraordinary ministers of holy Communion at the hospital had to travel to their parish church for the Eucharist, take the Communion hosts to the hospital and then return to their parish church with any hosts that weren’t distributed. Now, their travels will be quicker and, more importantly, the Eucharist will always be present in the chapel, Thompson says.

Thompson credits the new tabernacle to Father Richard and the other Dominicans who have made a difference since they arrived at St. Paul Catholic Center in 2005.

“The Dominican priests that came to St. Paul are really a blessing to our community,” Thompson says. “Father Rich and I talked about the tabernacle and how important it is. He spearheaded it. He did all the hard work. He was remarkable in his diligence to make it happen.”

Father Richard says the tabernacle was made possible because of a monetary gift that was made to the parish.

“The tabernacle is an awesome thing,” Father Richard says. “It’s a way for us to witness as Catholics the importance of the sacrament in our lives. It also makes the hospital more welcoming for Catholic patients and Catholics who are visiting the hospital.”

The priest saluted the efforts of the Rev. John Vander Zee, the director of pastoral services at Bloomington Hospital, for welcoming the addition of a tabernacle into the chapel.

“I think it’s great,” says Vander Zee, a Presbyterian minister. “It’s very important for patients to realize their spiritual needs will be met in the hospital, no matter [what] their religious affiliation.”

Thompson can’t rave enough about what the tabernacle means to the Bloomington parishes of St. Paul, St. Charles Borromeo and St. John the Apostle, and to the Communion ministers from each of the parishes who serve the patients at the hospital.

“I see them as ministers bringing the presence of the Lord to people,” Thompson says. “It lets those who are sick feel they are not forgotten and they are loved by God and their Church.” †