Visiting Hospitals and Prisons
 If seafarers are committed to hospital in foreign ports,
their ships must usually leave without them. The
representative of the ship’s agent in port is responsible
for paying for medical care. Not all of them will take the
trouble to visit a sick seafarer and attend to his or her
emotional and spiritual needs.
Occasionally visiting seafarers are accused of crimes,
arrested and imprisoned. In some parts of the world there
are frequent instances of fishers being arrested for having
entered the territorial waters of another country.
In all such cases, those involved may feel isolated and
distressed. If they do not speak the local language, they
may have problems communicating with doctors, police or
judges. the Apostleship of the Sea pastoral workers visit seafarers in hospitals
and prisons offering friendship and practical care.
Hospital visitation Brazil
When seafarers are admitted to hospital in port, often
their ships must sail without them. For Fr Samuel Fonseca,
the Apostleship of the Sea chaplain in the port of Santos, visiting sick or injured
seafarer in hospital is an important part of his ministry.
Photograph:, Fr Samuel is visiting seafarers in the
Santa Clara Hospital de Beneficencia Portuguesa accompanied
by Jennifer Palomino, a fulltime employee at the Stella
Maris Centre in Santos, Brazil. |