The Swiss Bishops have decided to set up a service specialised in palliative care aimed in particular at ensuring spiritual guidance to terminally ill patients. The first person in charge of the service is a woman, theologian Jeanine Kosch-Vernier. The new service – a statement released today by the Swiss Bishops’ Conference reads – aims to become an “important centre at national level so as to enable the Catholic Church to participate in the religious and spiritual accompaniment of patients in palliative care”. Indeed, the main goal of the new service is to “guarantee, through a work of coordination, networking and lobbying, that severely ill people receive professional pastoral accompaniment, besides medical and nursing treatment”. The service will be supported by the recently established “Catholic Expert Committee on Palliative and Spiritual Care”. The members of the Expert Committee, from different fields, will be appointed during the next meeting of the Bishops’ Conference.