Brighton chaplain ministers to many affected by outbreak
The Rev. Bill Schwartz expected to start his spring in one of his roles as chaplain, visiting spring training in Bradenton, Fla., in his capacity as the “Pirates Padre.”
Instead, the Roman Catholic priest soon found himself back in Beaver County in March, working night and day in another of his roles as chaplain — this one at Brighton Rehabilitation and Wellness Center in Beaver, ground zero of Western Pennsylvania’s COVID-19 crisis.
Father Schwartz hasn’t gone onsite since the outbreak but has done “ministry via phone, text, and email” at all hours of the day and night, he said, counseling staff members and the relatives of victims as they navigate this crisis and all its troubling reverberations in their lives.
Father Schwartz, 77, while officially retired, has kept busy with his chaplaincies and with helping out at St. Monica Church in Chippewa, where he lives.
He traveled on March 10 to Bradenton, Fla., to see some of the Pirates’ spring training. But right after he arrived, spring training was shut down along with much of the nation’s activities amid the spreading COVID19 pandemic.
Father Schwartz said when spring training was called off, he wanted to return that day. Friends persuaded him to stay.
“Thank God I stayed there, … as I am very close to the residents, staff and families” at Brighton. In those early days of the outbreak, he could well have contracted the virus if he went straight there.
After returning to Pennsylvania, he had planned to go to Brighton on March 19. But Father Schwartz said a doctor
friend who helps to provide care at Brighton urged him not to and said, “‘We need you alive so you can take care of people.’”
And the needs would prove immense.
As of Thursday, Brighton had at least 76 resident deaths from COVID-19, the biggest death toll of any nursing home in the state. It reported 332 positive COVID-19 cases among residents and 104 among staff. The center has incurred $62,580 in federal fines for lack of infection controls and is under investigation by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
Behind those numbers are the impacts on individuals, including the staff members caring for the sick and the relatives of residents.
Whether through calls, texts, FaceTime or emails, Father Schwartz been communicating regularly with those affected. And not just by the pandemic itself. People are also dealing with anxiety, domestic disputes, addictions, mental health issues and other problems.
“Even if I’m unable to solve their problem, with a limited amount of time, I believe that by listening, people know that I care about them, love them and have their best interest at heart,” he said. “Just hearing a voice means so much that we take for granted.”
He added: “Most of all we pray. We talk about God and faith and values.”
He recalled how a nurse named Brooke arranged for him to pray with a patient via FaceTime on Easter Sunday. When he saw Brooke on the screen, wearing her protective gear, “I really saw an image of Christ in her eyes. Then the call went over to the resident. We talked, we prayed. It made Easter a very Spiritfilled day.”
He said he “can’t say enough about” the nurses and other staff who have cared for the COVID patients.
He’s also fielding calls from members of the Pirates organization as well as of St. Monica.
Callers are mostly Catholic, but he said he counsels people of any faith: “We’re all God’s children. They know I’m there for everyone.”
While the peak of the
COVID-19 crisis may have passed at Brighton, he expects this work will continue. Those who witnessed this wave of death and illness have only begun to process their traumas, he said.
“People will begin to feel these effects afterward, like a postwar syndrome,” he said.