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Maribor has a population of 110,000 and is the second largest city in Slovenia. The Jesuits have been present here continuously for 88 years. Since five years there is even Jesuit bishop, Fr Alojz Cvikl.

Fr. Ivan Hočevar, parish priest of the parish of St. Magdalene in Maribor, has been providing spiritual care to sick patients at the University Clinical Centre (UKC) in Maribor since 2018. This year Slovenia was hit hard by Covid 19 and the autumn wave was even stronger than the previous one in April. Regular pastoral care for patients is generally not possible at this time. Also masses in the hospital chapel are temporarily cancelled. However, the chapel is open for prayer at all times.

At the Clinic in Maribor, there have been a high number of COVID-19 patients.The gynaecological clinic (on the photo) UKC Maribor has been transformed into Covid-19 hospital.

Fr. Hočevar describes his mission in the Covid-19 ward:

"Relatives of patients call me. These patients are in the intensive care unit, in critical condition, and this is the reason why I am allowed to enter this unit. The suffering is different, some patients are in a coma...

Before I enter, I put on my personal protective equipment and go through a disinfection process. Health professionals help me to do this. In April this year, when I first visited the ward, I was terrified, but today it is part of my routine.”

Before Fr. Hočevar became responsible for S. Magdalena's parish in 2015, he accompanied diocesan seminarians and later university chapel students spiritually in the same city. Running a small parish and also sacramental care for the sick filled him with satisfaction, regardless of his efforts to adapt to different generations and family traditions in the region.

"When I see patients, especially the more serious ones, I cannot help but see in them the suffering Christ. Once I saw a patient covered with wounds. When I finished praying, she died before my eyes. Even the nurses were praying and crying next to me. Such and similar stories are deeply rooted in me. After everything a person goes through, he can no longer be the same. I pray every day for the sick and the suffering and for the hospital staff.”

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