Should pastors visit when diseases are infectious of life-threatening? Even though we expect a minister to use prudent discretion in such instances, there is an unwritten rule in curacy that wherever pastoral services are genuinely needed, the pastor will make a good faith effort to be there. Particularly when urgently needed, the minister has no more “right” than a fireman or a combat soldier to avoid the arena of immediate risk-laden need, even if it involves bodily peril, provided reasonable protections and safety measures are exercised.

   Risks should be reduced by prudent precautions. Use masks. Wash hands. Avoid infectious contact when severely fatigued. (Otherwise the virtue of courage may turn into the vice of foolhardiness.) Fairbairn stated the classical ethic of pastoral risk concisely: “Unless in very extreme cases, the shrinking of the minister from the region of danger is viewed as a dereliction of duty, since there appears in it an unwillingness to venture for the sake of men’s souls where others readily go for the sake of their bodies”. Paul wrote to the church at Corinth: “As for me, I will gladly spend what I have for you—yes, and spend myself to the limit” (2 Corinthians 12:15). 

Pastoral Theology - Thomas C. Oden