Holy Cross Hospital in West Valley City is a place for the treatment and healing of physical ailments. 

Now it has a space for spiritual well-being. 

The hospital, owned by Catholic nonprofit healthcare company CommonSpirit Health, recently opened a small chapel as a space for “solace, meditation and prayer for patients and their families of all faiths,” according to the Chicago-based Catholic nonprofit healthcare company, which has four other hospitals in Utah.  

The chapel was commissioned and blessed by Bishop Oscar Solis of the Catholic Diocese of Salt Lake City, which included blessing the room, the altar, tabernacle crucifix and sacred vessels. It was witnessed by several dozen people inside the chapel and in the adjacent recently remodeled hospital lobby which served as an overflow for the occasion. 

“Our dedication and blessing of this chapel is very important not only to the ministry of Holy Cross Hospital but to the people that we serve in the state of Utah,” Solis told the gathering prior to the blessing ceremony. “This is what we celebrate when we bless this chapel. We celebrate the existence and the reality of God’s continued presence in our world.”

“The healing ministry of Holy Cross Hospital is a message to the world that there is a God who loves, a God who exists, a God who cares, and a God who saves and heals,” he added. 

For Holy Cross Hospital President Christine McSweeney, the chapel plays a key role in the facility’s mission of helping patients get better. “I think it’s all about mind, body, and spirit— and healing. This place offers that for our community and families and visitors and patients if they want to come down.” 

“Anyone could walk in our front door and find this place of worship or quiet. It doesn’t have to be someone who’s Catholic. It can be anybody who needs that place of peace,” McSweeney said. “I hope it reduces anxiety.” 

She acknowledges the room is “tiny” but “it should embody the heart and soul of the hospital.” 

“This is more than an opening of a room in a hospital,” West Valley City Mayor Karen Lang told the gathering. “This is the opening of a sacred place, a sacred space that will serve as a refuge for so many.” 

CommonSpirit Health operates 145 hospitals and 2,200 medical care facilities in 24 states.