The attorney for St. Mary’s Hospital in Tulsa, Oklahoma has gone public in the fight against the Biden administration’s “shocking” threats to strip its accreditation over an eternal flame candle that has burned in the chapel for years.

(Video Credit: FOX23 News Tulsa)

The federal government attempted to strong-arm the St. Francis Catholic Hospital system in Oklahoma into choosing between losing its accreditation for Medicaid and Medicare or removing the eternal flames from its chapels. The hospital flatly refused under the auspices of its First Amendment rights and religious beliefs.

The Saint Francis Hospital Yale Campus has an eternal flame that has been burning for 63 years. The administration wanted to snuff out that symbol of the Christian faith.

“In April, Saint Francis Hospital South, which is one of five hospitals in the Saint Francis Health System network in eastern Oklahoma, received an ultimatum from the Biden administration: Extinguish your chapel’s sanctuary lamp, or we will strip you of your ability to accept Medicare, Medicaid, and the Children’s Health Insurance Program,” the Washington Examiner reported.

A non-profit accrediting organization based in Illinois reportedly flagged as a fire-safety violation the lamp in Saint Francis Hospital South’s chapel in February.

“[T]he surveyor expressly asked to go to the chapel to see if there was a living flame,” said Lori Windham, the Vice President and senior counsel for The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty. “Of course, he found it: the same sanctuary flame that Saint Francis has kept alight since the chapel was blessed by the local Ordinary.”

The candle at St. Francis Hospital is inside two glass holders and has a cap. It also sits underneath a sprinkler head. The hospital had to file four appeals and a letter before the Biden administration backed down and they are still coming after the Catholic facility. They only backed down after the hospital’s attorney played hardball with them, informing the leftists in no uncertain terms that she would take the issue to court and they would lose, according to Fox News Digital.

“The game was simply not worth the candle for HHS,” Windham told the Washington Examiner. “It realized it would be playing with fire in court if it stood by its absurd demand, so it chose wisely. We are glad Saint Francis can continue to serve those most in need while keeping the faith.”

St. Francis not only provides aid and comfort to regular patients but to those who cannot afford medical care. The Catholic hospital tends to the needs of the poor and needy with its services. Losing the hospital system in Tulsa would be a severe blow to the community.

This is absolutely crazy. HHS going after St. Francis Health System, the largest hospital in the state of Oklahoma, for *checks notes*…keeping a candle lit in its chapel. Would almost be funny if it wasn't such a metaphor for hostility towards religious expression. https://t.co/GDEytkvgE4

— Patrick T. Brown (@PTBwrites) May 4, 2023

“St. Francis is relieved they’ve always served God and serve their community. Those two things go hand in hand, and they’re happy to continue doing it,” Windham told Fox News Digital.

“It was shocking,” she commented. “I’ve been doing religious liberty work for a long time, and I was shocked. It’s one thing to say you have a candle here, let’s work on it. It’s another thing to say that the people who need care won’t be able to get it because you have a living flame in your sanctuary.”

“The eternal flame symbolizes the presence of Christ and is an important part of their worship to show that the Blessed Sacrament is there and the presence of Christ is there,” Windham explained.

She asserted that the Biden administration backed down because “they saw there was no way they could win. This was perfectly safe. The fire marshal had said it was okay. It had never been a problem before. And it’s a very important religious exercise. So if they went into court, what would they have?”

Counsel for the hospital sent an aggressive letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra on May 2, alleging the Biden administration was encroaching on the Catholic hospital system’s First Amendment rights.

The government knew it was playing with fire—today it announced its decision to allow the living flame so Saint Francis can continue to serve God and its community, as it always has.

— LoriWindham (@LoriWindham1) May 5, 2023

“If we go to court, you will lose. I write in the hope that you will see reason (or at least the law) and we can skip to the easy part,” the hospital’s counsel warned.

“[Y]ou put not just Saint Francis Health System in peril but the entire State of Oklahoma and any person in need of Saint Francis Health System’s preeminent care, all because Saint Francis maintains a single, enclosed, and reverently kept eternal flame in its chapels,” the letter charged. “In requiring Saint Francis to extinguish its flame, you are trying to extinguish not just a candle, but the First Amendment rights of Saint Francis Health System, as well as vital healthcare for the elderly, poor, and disabled in Oklahoma.”

The health system’s counsel informed the Biden administration that cutting off accreditation for Medicare and Medicaid would have caused irreparable financial loss to their institutions, “This is a blatant violation of Saint Francis’s rights.”

Days after receiving the letter, the Biden administration rethought its stance and backed down, magnanimously claiming it would allow St Francis to keep its flames burning.

The government’s demand is absurd and unlawful—it is targeting Saint Francis’ religious worship without any good reason. The government has a simple choice: stop this attack on Saint Francis’ faith or expect a legal firestorm. pic.twitter.com/wjRzqv2rRQ

— LoriWindham (@LoriWindham1) May 3, 2023

“I think it was a failure to understand the importance of religious freedom. When somebody says to you, this is part of my religious exercise, you have to take that seriously,” Windham remarked.

Saint Francis Health System is the 12th-largest hospital in the US and takes in about 400,000 patients on an annual basis. It has given away more than $650 million worth of free medical care in the past five years and employs more than 11,000 Oklahomans. The system is composed of seven different facilities across the state.

“CMS inexplicably threatened to revoke Saint Francis Hospital’s accreditation because of a religious eternal flame, which is unrelated to healthcare,” GOP Sens. James Lankford and Markwayne Mullin and GOP Reps. Kevin Hern, Tom Cole, Frank Lucas, Stephanie Bice, and Josh Brecheen said in a statement. “St. Francis is a Catholic hospital seeking to serve all who need care in Tulsa, Oklahoma. This was a violation of religious freedom — a bedrock of our nation’s founding.”

Federal Government attempted to force St. Francis Catholic Hospital in Oklahoma to choose between losing accreditation for Medicaid and Medicare or removing eternal flames from its Chapel which is Central to their Faith and the First Amendment https://t.co/i3LHHpv2Wg

— OkSooner (@HelenHa49776402) May 9, 2023

“Our Oklahoma Delegation immediately worked to stop this injustice and was thankfully successful,” they added. “The sight of an eternal flame is to give hope— we will not allow any federal agency to extinguish Oklahomans’ right to exercise their freedom of religion — especially in a time of need. We’ll now get to work to ensure this doesn’t happen anywhere or to anyone else.”

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