"I'm here because of my faith," Jim McGuire, an electrician who lives in Brighton and visits the chapel regularly, explained after the service. "The serenity of this place brings me back."
But all of the Catholic iconography, the hospital's religious identity, and even St. Elizabeth's very name will likely soon be removed. And the same is expected at Good Samaritan Medical Center in Brockton and Holy Family Hospital's two campuses in Haverhill and Methuen.
The former Steward Health Care hospitals have transitioned to new owners who are not affiliated with the Catholic Church and won't abide by Catholic doctrine on abortion, in vitro fertilization, contraception, and other matters. As a result, the Boston Archdiocese is demanding the hospitals change their names and return religious items, including crosses and statues.
The loss of Catholic identity will be yet another jolt to the Massachusetts health care system, which is already dealing with the Steward bankruptcy, a legal investigation into its former chief executive Ralph de La Torre, the shutdown of two former Steward hospitals, and financial struggles at other facilities around the state that primarily care for lower-income patients. Combined with the closing of Carney Hospital in Dorchester, the changes would leave the Archdiocese of Boston without any religiously affiliated local hospitals for its nearly 2 million members.
"This is an appalling loss for the Catholic community on many levels," said C.J. Doyle, longtime executive director of the Catholic Action League of Massachusetts. "We have talked a lot about the malfeasance of Steward and Ralph De La Torre, and rightfully so, but we have not talked about the loss of Catholic religious identity."
"We've lost 160 years of Catholic medical care," Doyle said, referring to the 19th century origins of several of the former Steward hospitals, including the now closed Carney. "Everybody who grew up Catholic in Boston had a family member who was treated at the Carney," Doyle said.
The religious identity has slipped in the 14 years since Steward acquired the hospitals from the archdiocese, some staff members said. A Catholic priest once lived on the grounds of St. Elizabeth's and the late Cardinal Bernard Law was a frequent visitor before the acquisition, nurse Ellen MacInnis, who has worked at the hospital for decades, recalled.
"We identify more as a community Brighton hospital than as a Catholic hospital now," she said. "I live in the community. A lot of the people who work at the hospital live nearby. A lot of people who work at the hospital were born here or their parents worked here."
Still, the hospitals have abided by Catholic teaching against providing elective abortions, certain types of birth control, and sterilization. And they provided a daily Catholic Mass -- most in chapels adorned with Catholic iconography.
Other hospitals around Boston maintain interfaith chapels instead of spaces dedicated to one particular religion, and few offer Catholic Mass.
At St. Elizabeth's, the Catholic Seton Chapel is located just to the right of the main entrance, with seating for over 100 people and adorned with crosses, sculptures, and paintings depicting religious scenes.
A smaller interfaith chapel with a few prayer rugs suitable for Islamic prayer is located on the seventh floor. And a small room on the sixth floor stocked with kosher food is set aside for Jewish visitors.
Doyle and other local activists tried to prevent the original 2010 sale of the Caritas Christi system to Steward run at the time by De la Torre and his financial partner, New York hedge fund Cerberus Capital Management, fearing it would erode the hospitals' Catholic identity. But Steward agreed to abide by Catholic doctrine, and Pope Benedict XVI approved the deal, banking on an infusion of cash to keep the struggling hospital chain afloat while maintaining the religious identity.
Boston Medical Center, the new owner of St. Elizabeth's and Good Samaritan in Brockton, expects to change the names of the facilities after a transition period. BMC is "committed to offering a full array of services" at the former Steward hospitals, chief executive Alastair Bell told The Boston Globe in an interview.
Lawrence General Hospital, which purchased Holy Family Hospital, said it is also in talks over plans to return religious items and rename its two campuses in Haverhill and Methuen.
Before the talks with all of the new owners, the archdiocese tried to convince US Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Lopez, overseeing Steward's reorganization, to enforce a 2010 contract requiring the hospitals to abide by Catholic doctrine or give up their names and religious items. In September, Lopez approved the sales of the hospitals to new owners while excluding the 2010 agreement, which also required a "contribution" to the archdiocese of $4.2 million per hospital dropping its Catholic affiliation.
Instead, Lopez approved language -- included in a 1,393-page transfer agreement -- that the new owners and the archdiocese would negotiate to change the names and return religious items "as promptly as practicable without being sued."
"It's really kind of black and white for us," Terry Donilon, a spokesman for the archdiocese, said. "If they want to keep the names, they've got to maintain the Catholic principles. And if they don't, they have to relinquish the names."
The archdiocese approved the original sale of the Caritas hospitals to Steward in an effort to preserve their Catholic identities and care for the poor, Donilon said.
"Obviously this is not where we wanted this to go," he said. "We don't own the hospitals, so it has been taken out of our hands."
BMC and Lawrence General have been in talks with the Boston Archdiocese while Lifespan Health System has been speaking with the Fall River Archdiocese about the former Steward hospital it acquired, the companies said.
The three new owners said the religious affiliation issue has been a lower priority than the pressing needs to transfer management of the hospitals, restore financial stability, and provide proper medical care with adequate supplies and equipment. None of the new owners said they had arrived at a timeline for changing their names or notifying staff.
BMC said it has spoken with the Boston Archdiocese about the names and medical practices. "We are deeply respectful of the role of faith in healing," spokesman David Kibbe said in an emailed statement. "There will be time for us to consider the long-term names and Catholic affiliations of the two hospitals, but right now, we are focused on making our integration as seamless as possible for patients and staff."
Lawrence General is negotiating a plan to return religious items while "rebranding" Holy Family, spokeswoman Allison Corneau said in an email.
"The hospitals are also reviewing all health care services to ensure alignment with the expectations during the transition period," she wrote. While the hospital in Methuen opened in 1950 as a Catholic-affiliated facility, the Haverhill branch was run as a nondenominational municipal hospital before Steward bought it in 2011.
In Fall River, with a large local Catholic population, Lifespan is willing to maintain the Catholic identity and name of Saint Anne's Hospital in Fall River. That means keeping religious items in the hospital and abiding by Catholic edicts governing medical treatment. Lifespan will not have to make changes at Morton Hospital in Taunton, which Steward acquired after its formation in 2010.
"We're in the process of working out an arrangement with the Archdiocese of Fall River," chief executive John Fernandez said.