Thirty-six operating theaters for a total of fifty-five rooms, some integrating MRI and scanner, a new mother-child center and a future regional cancer center, a helipad… These are some of the main characteristics of the future university hospital center (CHU) of Pontchaillou, in Rennes, whose construction has already been launched for several months. Delivery is scheduled, depending on the entity, between 2024 and 2026. Total cost: more than 760 million euros.
In this big envelope, is a line planned for a new chapel as it currently exists in the 10e floor of the Pontchaillou hospital?
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“Representatives of the various religions had been contacted in 2019-2020. A consensus was reached to have a multi-confessional place of worship within the future CHU. The reflections must resume by also involving the representatives of the users”, respond the management of the CHU Pontchaillou.
The various cults sent their wishes in November 2019 to the quality and user relations department (DQRU) of the CHU. A working meeting then took place before the first confinement, on January 16, 2020. The management of the project for the future hospital, the DQRU and two representatives of the Catholic faith, representatives of five other faiths (Muslim, Protestant, Orthodox, Buddhist, Judaic) were excused. The location and the concept of the place of meditation had to be specified from the summer of 2020. But, in the meantime, the Covid-19 health crisis has set in…
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“It is indeed still under discussion”, confirms Jean-Michel Audureau, diocesan delegate for the pastoral health of the diocese of Rennes, Dol, Saint-Malo.
For all cults, since 2020, visits by chaplains are now only possible at the request of a patient or nursing staff. It is this presence, the listening, the support of the patients, the families but also a real help often appreciated by the medical teams which constitute the main part of the work of the hospital chaplaincies.
A place of multi-confessional meditation, usable by patients or their relatives regardless of their religious sensitivity, is it easy to set up? “It’s not necessarily easy. Where to put the tabernacle, for example. But spaces of meditation open to all already exist in hospitals in France”, concedes Jean-Michel Audureau.
“We didn’t ask for a cult connection. The hospital had offered to use the chapel. But it is not suitable for Muslim worship, there must not be any statues or divine representations, explains Mustapha Arslan. For a common place of worship, we simply requested a clean room, with a nearby washroom for ablutions. »
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