The Pacific Conference of Churches is urging people to follow social-distancing and avoid congregations. Faith alone will not be enough to combat Covid-19, the Conference says. The Conference has told preachers not to claim the pandemic is a punishment from God. Nor may they vilify those who are infected. Reports from around the Pacific region Read more
An Australian archbishop says the COVID-19 epidemic is changing the way the Church evangelises. “This is not a theoretical discussion for the future but is happening in real-time”, says Melbourne Archbishop Peter Comensoli. Comensoli says the epidemic is forcing the Church to be more creative in the way it reaches people. It is also reshaping Read more
Spraying disinfectant on migrants working as laborers has caused social media commentators to erupt with anger. Among those to express their anger is the Indian Christian Women’s Movement (ICWM). “Even as the whole country is battling an intense and grueling confrontation with the Corona (COVID-19) crisis, we … want to express our deep shock and Read more
Fewer resources, a lack of priests and merging dioceses are upsetting French Catholic communities in rural areas. Talk of reducing the number of dioceses in country districts is met with hostility from clergy and Catholic faithful alike, who see it as a “view from Paris”. Nonetheless, many wonder if the country’s 100 dioceses aren’t too Read more
Pope Francis offered a prayer for media professionals who are covering the coronavirus pandemic before his daily Mass on Wednesday. “Those who work in the media, who work to communicate today so that people are not so isolated … help us to bear this time of isolation,” Pope Francis said April 1. The pope asked Read more
Cardinal Angelo De Donatis, Pope Francis’ vicar for the diocese of Rome, on Monday became the highest-ranking Catholic official known to test positive for coronavirus. De Donatis’ office said he was tested for the virus after feeling unwell and was admitted to a Rome hospital. His closest aides had gone into voluntary quarantine as a Read more
After years of pressure to return potentially smuggled artifacts, the Museum of the Bible in Washington, DC, is facing yet another blow. Its board chairman, Steve Green, who is also president of the Hobby Lobby stores, is returning 11,500 antiquities from his biblical art collection to the governments of Iraq and Egypt, with the assistance Read more
In Guwahati, the commercial capital of Assam state in northeastern India, Sister Rose Hauniang Paite has adapted her tailoring school in response to the looming threat of coronavirus over surrounding slums. The school is normally run as a community development initiative, offering skills training to local women and children who are vulnerable to exploitation such Read more
On a bleak Friday evening, from the atrium of St. Peter’s Basilica, Pope Francis blessed the city of Rome and of the world. The ‘Urbi et Orbi’ blessing, ‘to the city and the world’, was delivered in an empty St Peter’s Square. In stark contrast, the blessing is normally given at Easter and Christmas when Read more
Rules about the sacraments of confession and anointing the sick during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic have been clarified by the Vatican. Chair of the U.S. bishops’ committee on liturgy Archbishop Leonard Blair, sought the Vatican’s advice through the papal representative in the U.S., apostolic nuncio Archbishop Christophe Pierre. Pierre in turn checked with Archbishop Arthur Read more