{"id":1925149,"date":"2023-05-05T19:11:07","date_gmt":"2023-05-05T23:11:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/biden-admin-backs-down-in-standoff-with-catholic-hospital-over-chapel-candle\/"},"modified":"2023-05-05T19:14:49","modified_gmt":"2023-05-05T23:14:49","slug":"biden-admin-backs-down-in-standoff-with-catholic-hospital-over-chapel-candle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/biden-admin-backs-down-in-standoff-with-catholic-hospital-over-chapel-candle\/","title":{"rendered":"Biden backs down in standoff with Catholic hospital over chapel candle."},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">22<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fbiden-admin-backs-down-in-standoff-with-catholic-hospital-over-chapel-candle%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1925149&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><h2>Biden Administration Reverses Decision on Catholic Hospital&#8217;s Sacred Practice<\/h2>\n<h3>CMS Ruling on Candle Safety Hazard Overturned<\/h3>\n<p>The Biden administration has reversed a previous decision that demanded a Catholic hospital in Oklahoma remove a lit candle from its chapel, a practice and observance sacred to Catholics, or lose its ability to accept Medicare, Medicaid, or Children\u2019s Health (CHIP) patients. <\/p>\n<p>The Centers for Medicare &#038; Medicaid Services (CMS), a division of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), had ruled in April that the candle, which has burned continuously for 15 years at Saint Francis Hospital South in Tulsa, was a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/report-former-msnbc-wunderkind-luke-russert-wages-war-on-childhood-wonder\/\" title=\"Report: Former MSNBC Wunderkind Luke Russert Wages War on Childhood Wonder\">safety hazard<\/a>. However, following widespread protest and media attention, CMS has now said it is open to working with Saint Francis to find an arrangement that permits the burning candle to stay.<\/p>\n<p>Saint Francis Health System, the Catholic owner and operator of Saint Francis Hospital South, eight other hospitals, and 110 clinics in Oklahoma, appealed the CMS decree and sought a reasonable accommodation. CMS denied Saint Francis\u2019 request in a letter dated April 20.<\/p>\n<p>Yet, after a pre-litigation letter from leading religious liberty legal group Becket Law, along with Yetter Coleman LLP, was sent to CMS on behalf of Saint Francis, alleging that prohibiting the candle was a violation of the First Amendment free exercise of religion clause, the agency adjusted its position.<\/p>\n<p>Lori Windham, vice president and senior counsel for Becket Law, said that CMS\u2019 decision is a win for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/ca-churches-finally-got-help-from-scotus-and-it-was-a-huge-blow-to-gavin-newsom\/\" title=\"CA Churches Finally Got Help from SCOTUS and It Was a Huge Blow to Gavin Newsom\">religious freedom<\/a>. \u201cThe decision of CMS shows that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/biden-admin-backs-down-in-standoff-with-catholic-hospital-over-chapel-candle\/\" title=\"Biden backs down in standoff with Catholic hospital over chapel candle.\">religious liberty protections extend<\/a> to practicing your faith, and that includes providing health care and worship in a chapel,\u201d Windham told The Epoch Times. \u201cThese <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/mtg-urges-lawmakers-to-oppose-unconstitutional-equality-act\/\" title=\"MTG urges lawmakers to oppose \u2018unconstitutional\u2019 Equality Act\">protections apply<\/a> to everyone. Today it\u2019s a candle. Tomorrow it could be something else. And so, a good decision today for Saint Francis is a good decision for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/christian-photographer-files-lawsuit-against-ny-nondiscrimination-law\/\" title=\"Christian Photographer Files Lawsuit Against NY Nondiscrimination Law\">religious believers<\/a> across the country.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In a statement shared with The Epoch Times, CMS said: \u201cCMS is aware of a safety finding involving a fire risk, made by an independent accrediting organization, issued to a hospital in Oklahoma. CMS met with the hospital and accreditation organization, and issued a waiver to allow the hospital to mitigate the potential fire risk and correct the safety finding. The hospital will work with the accrediting organization on next steps.\u201d <\/p>\n<p><strong>Key Takeaways:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The Biden administration has reversed a decision that demanded a Catholic hospital in Oklahoma remove a lit candle from its chapel or lose its ability to accept Medicare, Medicaid, or Children\u2019s Health (CHIP) patients.<\/li>\n<li>Saint Francis Health System, the Catholic owner and operator of Saint Francis Hospital South, appealed the CMS decree and sought a reasonable accommodation.<\/li>\n<li>After a pre-litigation letter from leading religious liberty legal group Becket Law, CMS adjusted its position and is now open to working with Saint Francis to find an arrangement that permits the burning candle to stay.<\/li>\n<li>Lori Windham, vice president and senior counsel for Becket Law, said that CMS\u2019 decision is a win for religious freedom.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Biden administration announced on May 5 that it is stepping back from a previous decision demanding that a Catholic hospital in Oklahoma remove a lit candle from its chapel\u2014a practice and observance sacred to Catholics\u2014or lose its ability to accept Medicare, Medicaid, or Children\u2019s Health (CHIP) patients. Centers for Medicare &amp; Medicaid Services (CMS)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1640,"featured_media":1925150,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[543],"tags":[3620,25892,6011,24428,3870,4703],"class_list":["post-1925149","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-epoch-times","tag-biden","tag-candle","tag-catholic","tag-chapel","tag-hospital","tag-standoff"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1925149","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1640"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1925149"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1925149\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1925150"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1925149"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1925149"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1925149"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}