Question 15971 — health establishments

Summary

Mr. Maxime Michelet draws the attention of the Minister of Health, Families, Autonomy and People with Disabilities to the decision of the Regional University Hospital Center (CHRU) of Tours to gradually stop financing salaried positions in its Catholic chaplaincy. Four contracts, representing 2.5 full-time equivalents, will gradually not be renewed, the establishment citing its budgetary constraints as well as as a concern for fairness between religions, with Protestant, Jewish and Muslim representatives intervening today on a voluntary basis. Hospital chaplaincy finds its legal basis in article 2 of the law of December 9, 1905, which, while stating that the Republic does not pay for any religion, expressly authorizes the inclusion in the budget of expenses relating to chaplaincy services intended to ensure the free exercise of religion in hospitals. public establishments, excluding, of course, any form of proselytism. This free exercise constitutes the corollary, for people whose freedom to come and go is restricted by hospitalization, of the freedom of conscience guaranteed by the Constitution. The hospitalized person's charter and the national chaplaincy charter updated in 2024 reaffirm this right. If no text actually imposes on a establishment of salaried chaplains, the argument of equity between religions deserves to be qualified. The Catholic permanence at the CHRU of Tours is based on a continuous organization, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, provided by professionals holding a university degree and integrated into hospital life. It represents around 8,000 visits per year, of which nearly 80% relate to human support in the broad sense and not just exercise of the sacraments of worship. The alignment of all religions on the voluntary model, presented as a measure of equality, thus risks resulting in equality from below, that is to say in the disappearance of a continuity service that volunteering alone cannot materially ensure, to the detriment of patients of all faiths. This decision is part of a broader trend of erosion in the number of salaried chaplains in health establishments, even though the need for support, particularly in palliative care, neonatology and intensive care services, remains high and the offer of psychological support is often saturated. Consequently, he asks what measures the Government intends to take to guarantee that no reduction in current chaplaincy arrangements is decided before an alternative solution preserving the continuity of spiritual support for patients has not been effectively built with the religious authorities concerned.

Machine translation from French. The official text remains authoritative.

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