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Bogotá, Colombia, Apr 3, 2020 / 04:04 am (CNA).- Diana María Toro Vélez was kidnapped on a September day, as she drove home from Mass in the Colombian city where she lived. She spent 453 days in captivity. And she says that God’s grace kept her hope alive during the ordeal.

“I left Mass one Thursday and was driving home in my car and when I got home they assaulted me. They asked me a few questions and took me away. They sold me to the guerrillas,” Toro told ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish language news partner.

Toro, the mother of three, told ACI Prensa that during her captivity, she was sometimes forced to march a lot, one time for up to 15 days in a row.

“I clung to God. I cried and prayed a lot. I really held fast to God. I taught the kidnappers how to read and write. We prayed. There was a certain coexistence, and good things came out of the bad,” she said.

Toro, 41, was kidnapped Sept. 27, 2018, in Amagá, about an hour’s drive from Medellin. Her captors were criminals, members of a gang called “The Sorcerers,” who handed her over to Marxist guerrillas from the the National Liberation Army (ELN) for 48M pesos, about $12,000. The ELN reportedly asked 3 billion pesos, about $745,000 for her return.

Toro was released from captivity on Christmas Eve, 2019.

The Catholic Church in Colombia had appealed for her release, and the release appeared to be a goodwill gesture toward achieving some kind of peace agreement between the ELN and the country’s government. Public officials credited the Church with arranging the release.

Speaking to ACI Prensa, the young mom said that she was “very devoted to Our Lady of Guadalupe. When I was kidnapped I made a rosary and prayed it every day, praying a lot to the Virgin that she would allow me to be returned to my children. And God heard me, because I was released on Dec. 24, 2019.”

It was difficult, Toro said, to be “separated from my three children, one of them 3, another 4 and one 14 years old. Separated from my husband, my parents, my siblings, my family members, relatives and friends.”

“These were 453 days of anxiety, grief, sadness and despair. 453 days of living in the middle of the jungle, sleeping under a canopy, on branches, with snakes, scorpions, mosquitos and many other animals around,” she said.

Toro told ACI Prensa she subsisted on parrot, pasta, cooked banana, and rice. She had only two sets of clothes and infrequently bathed. 

“These were really hard days without knowing anything about my family, just with the certainty that God was with me, filling me daily with his strength and fortitude and firmly believing that if I woke up okay, my family was okay too,” she said.

“And God brought me out of that really hard situation. I saw that his glory and his mercy are immense.”

Toro said the ordeal has filled her with gratitude.

“I want to tell those people who in these times feel alone or in despair because of the situation we’re going through in Colombia and the entire world, that God is with us, he never has left us alone, especially now.”

“Let’s pray the rosary, let’s pray as a family. The power of prayer is immense,” she added.

 

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA's Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

 

Denver Newsroom, Apr 21, 2020 / 03:15 pm (CNA).- An Argentine archbishop has proposed 13 measures that would aim to allow churches to reopen churches during the coronavirus pandemic while reducing the risk of contagion.

The proposal is an effort to balance safety and the need for Catholics to receive the Eucharist, Archbishop Víctor Fernández of La Plata said this week.

In response to the pandemic, Argentina has been under lockdown since March 20. According to John Hopkins University, there are 3,031 confirmed cases of COVID-19 with 145 deaths in the country.

Fernández said that although the Church is providing material sustenance to those hardest hit by the pandemic “when we think about sustaining the interior life of the faithful and encouraging its growth, we find ourselves in the serious difficulty of seeing them deprived of the Eucharist for a long time, and we can also foresee that this situation could last for several months.”

In a letter dated April 19 and addressed to the conference’s executive committee, the bishop said the Second Vatican Council teaches that “no Christian community is built up if it is not rooted and centered on the celebration of the Holy Eucharist,” and that Saint John Paul II emphasized that the Mass “rather than an obligation, should be felt as a requisite deeply inscribed in Christian existence.”

Fernández said the letter he sent puts together the suggestions of several bishops and that it is understandable “that many of the faithful are calling on us to find some way to make the Eucharist accessible again.”

“We tell them that they can experience other forms of prayer, and they do, but as Saint John Chrysostom has said “’You can also pray in your home, however, you cannot pray the same way you do in church where the brethren are gathered together.’”

Fernández noted that Pope Francis “teaches that God ‘in the culmination of the mystery of the Incarnation, chose to reach our intimate depths through a fragment of matter.’ It’s good that our faithful have learned that and so it’s not the same thing for them,” he said, adding that Catholics are eager “the food of the love that is the source of supernatural life.”

“It won’t be easy to prove that this situation is lasting too long, nor can we simply wait till the pandemic is completely over,” the prelate noted.

“We know that exposing yourself to infection is irresponsible especially because it involves exposing others to infection and indirectly could lead to a public health crisis that we don’t want to see in our country,” he said.

Aiming to send “a clear message to our People of God to show that we’re truly concerned and that we intend to take some steps that would allow us to resolve this situation as soon as possible,” without neglecting “the health concerns of the authorities” Fernández proposed a series of obligatory measures to celebrate the Eucharist publicly:
1) Keep a distance of two meters between people to the side, front and back. This will require removing or closing off half the pews in the church.
2) No more than two people per pew.
3) Once the pews are occupied in that manner, no more people are to be allowed to enter the church.
4) In the churches where there is usually a lot of people in attendance, the number of Masses should be increased so the faithful can spread themselves out over Saturday and Sunday at different times. Given the prevalence and closeness of churches this will not involve using transportation.
5) Mass should not be celebrated publicly at the most frequently visited shrines due to the difficulty of establishing appropriate controls.
6) There should be no line for communion, instead the Eucharistic ministers should go to the people positioned at the ends of the pews and place the Eucharist in the hand.
7) Every Eucharistic minister should wash his hands with soap before and after and apply alcohol gel.
8) The sign of peace and any physical contact should be omitted.
9) Mass should last no more than 40 minutes.
10) People should leave the church progressively, not all at once, and avoid greeting each other.
11) No intentions should be taken at Mass time, only those previously received by phone, mail or messages.
12) Those people who because of their age are prevented from attending may receive Communion at home.
13) The dispensation from the Sunday obligation should be temporarily maintained so that people who prefer to exercise extreme caution don’t feel obliged to attend.

The archbishop also pointed out in his letter that “if the economic impact has to be foreseen, it’s also appropriate to place a value on those things that provide consolation and strength to people during hard times.”

 

A version of this story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA's Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

Lima, Peru, Apr 23, 2020 / 10:02 am (CNA).- As the ongoing coronavirus lockdown in Peru leaves the working poor in a vulnerable situation, one priest has been working to ensure that thousands in need have access to food.

Fr. Omar Sánchez Portillo is the secretary general of Caritas Lurín, on metro Lima’s south side.

Sánchez has distributed more than 15,000 food baskets, with the help of donors and volunteers at the Beatitudes Association, which he founded, since the nationwide quarantine was declared March 15. Peru’s Ministry of Health has confirmed 19,000 cases of coronavirus with 530 deaths.

Recently, Sánchez also received a donation of 5,000 live chickens from a poultry farm. He found himself needing to quickly process the chickens for distribution.

Sánchez turned to his fellow priests in the diocese of Lurín with an appeal on Whatsapp. To his surprise, almost 30 priests showed up to volunteer, including Bishop-elect Cristobal Mejía, who was recently named bishop of Chulucanas.

The priests and other volunteers worked all day, plucking, cleaning and preparing the birds for distribution.

“Today has been a long day,” Sánchez commented on his Facebook page. “Thank you dear priests! Thank you for your example, your work, and your joy. I feel proud to belong to a such an active, alive diocese so full of God, and to be part of a presbyterate full of holiness and enthusiasm for our priestly mission.”

In a statement to ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish language news partner, Sánchez noted that in the Diocese of Lurín, which is comprised of 55 parishes, there are many poor people who do not have access to electricity or running water.

The priest estimates about 60% of the people in the diocese live in extreme poverty. Southern Lima, where his diocese is located, contains the third and fourth most COVID-infected areas in the country.

Sánchez also pointed out that most Peruvians lack the ability to save money, which leaves vulnerable populations even more at risk during the quarantine.

“A lot of people are out of work and out on the street, a lot of them are temporary workers, many of them earn a living day-to-day,” he said.

So far, volunteers have distributed 75,000 food baskets throughout the South Lima area. However, the needs remain great.

“Every day in the parishes there are people out looking, knocking on doors, that haven’t gotten any food, or what they have gotten isn’t enough and has already run out,” he explained.

 

Denver Newsroom, Apr 28, 2020 / 05:17 pm (CNA).- Archbishop Michael Miller of Vancouver has announced that he is donating to the University of British Columbia’s research toward a COVID-19 vaccine.

“May the search for COVID-19 solutions also be a moment of solidarity, of collaboration, and of growing together as a visible sign to the world of the healing and reconciliation so needed right now,” Archbishop Miller said April 27 as reported by the B.C. Catholic.

Ryan Thomas, a special advisor to the archdiocese, told CNA that Archbishop Miller wanted to express, through his donation, the Catholic Church’s support for science and medicine that contribute to the common good.

“The Church— as Pope Francis has said from the beginning of his pontificate— is called to go out, we're called to engage, not called to retreat,” Thomas told CNA.

“From a scientific standpoint, that means identifying the research that is worthy of our investment, that meets the high standards that we have to protect life,” he said.

Thomas declined to specify the amount of the donation, but said that it was in the thousands of dollars.

The global effort to develop a COVID-19 vaccine includes at least 50 other research teams, the university says, many of which in the U.S. and Canada have received government funding and are being conducted by large pharmaceutical companies.

Pro-life leaders have warned in recent months that among the many COVID-19 vaccines currently in development worldwide, in some cases researchers are using old cell lines derived from the cells of aborted babies.

It was important to Archbishop Miller, Thomas said, that the Church be seen to be promoting research into a vaccine that Catholics can support in good conscience.

A group of Evangelical Christians and Catholics in Vancouver began to rally around the idea of supporting a vaccine that corresponded to Christian ethical standards, and eventually presented the idea of supporting UBC’s research to Archbishop Miller.

Thomas said Miller made sure to inquire about whether UBC’s vaccine research makes use of aborted fetal cells, which it does not.

Dr. Wilf Jefferies, the project’s lead researcher, told CNA via email that his research team is currently in the process of validating the potency of vaccine candidates in preclinical trials, in order to assess their potential toxicity before trying them in human subjects.

The UBC lab is using immune-boosting components called adjuvants in its vaccine candidate, with the hopes of reducing the dosage of vaccine required for complete protection against the disease. In addition, Jefferies hopes that UBC’s vaccine will continue to provide protection against COVID-19 even if the virus mutates over time.

“I am heartened by the unity and kindness that is being demonstrated during this pandemic,” Jefferies told CNA.

“I think the response by the archdiocese is an affirmative and practical way to address the critical need in our society to develop a vaccine...I am sincerely humbled by the support we have received from the archdiocese and from other groups and individuals.”

So far, Jefferies’ lab has received grants from the government-funded Michael Smith Health Research Foundation and the Sullivan Urology Foundation affiliated with the University of British Columbia, as well as a number of private donations.

There are at least 1,000 clinical trials currently taking place around the world to test potential COVID-19 vaccines.

A group of pro-life leaders in a letter to the Trump administration earlier this month reiterated that development of a COVID-19 vaccine should avoid unethical links to abortion.

“No American should be forced to choose between being vaccinated against this potentially deadly virus and violating his or her conscience,” reads the April 17 letter to Dr. Stephen M. Hahn, commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

“Fortunately, there is no need to use ethically problematic cell lines to produce a COVID vaccine, or any vaccine, as other cell lines or processes that do not involve cells from abortions are available and are regularly being used to produce other vaccines,” it continued.

The letter’s signers include Archbishop Joseph Naumann of Kansas City in Kansas, chair of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Pro-Life Activities; the heads of three other bishops’ conference committees; and leaders of many other Catholic and non-Catholic groups.

The Pontifical Academy for Life has noted that Catholics have an obligation to use ethically-sourced vaccines when available, and have an obligation to speak up and request the development of new cell lines that are not derived from aborted fetuses.

The 2008 Vatican document Dignitatis personae strongly criticized aborted fetal tissue research. However, as regards common vaccines, such as those for chicken pox and measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR), that may be derived from cell lines of aborted babies, the Vatican said they could be used by parents for “grave reasons” such as danger to their children’s health.

In a 2017 document on vaccines, the academy noted a “moral obligation to guarantee the vaccination coverage necessary for the safety of others… especially the safety of more vulnerable subjects such as pregnant women and those affected by immunodeficiency who cannot be vaccinated against these diseases.”

 

CNA Staff, Apr 29, 2020 / 04:30 pm (CNA).- Venezuela’s prolonged social, political and economic crisis has only been compounded by the coronavirus pandemic, the archbishop emeritus of Caracas, Cardinal Jorge Urosa Savino, charged Tuesday.

Even before the coronavirus pandemic, Venezuela has been marred by violence and social upheaval under the socialist administration of Nicolas Maduro, with severe shortages of food and medicine, high unemployment, power outages, and hyperinflation. Some 4.5 million Venezuelans have emigrated since 2015.

In response to the threat of the virus, the government imposed a nationwide stay at home order March 17. According to government statistics, to date there have been 329 cases of COVID-19 with ten deaths. The country is ill prepared to handle the crisis, with chronic shortages of medical supplies, and many doctors have left the country.

“The national reality is terrible,” and the government has no answers, Urosa said in an April 28 statement to ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner.

While the cardinal acknowledged the lockdown has prevented the spread of the virus, he pointed out that “the quarantine has hurt a great many people because the economic, social and logistical conditions in the country weren’t taken into account,” including “the extremely serious problem of the gasoline shortage for transport, especially for food.”

In some cases, crops are rotting in farmers’ fields due to lack of fuel to transport them to market.

Especially hard hit, the cardinal said, are “informal” workers who are paid off the books,  and who are now  “barely surviving,” and only with “the help of family members, social organizations and the Church.”

On April 25, Venezuelan vice president Delcy Rodríguez announced state intervention and oversight of several food supply companies in order to control the prices of 27 products for 180 days.

Urosa criticized the intervention, calling it “an extremely serious mistake, since it will probably result in greater shortages. Price controls are acceptable, but intervening in efficient businesses is not. The government can’t even manage to supply gasoline.” “The state-run petroleum industry has collapsed, and now Venezuelans’ food is in danger!” 

 “The current government doesn’t have any answers for such elementary things such as the extremely serious problem of the gasoline shortage” and runaway inflation. “In the last 40 days, the dollar has doubled in value, which is undoubtedly the fundamental cause of the spike in prices,” the cardinal said.

Urosa decried political persecution, which “has gotten worse since March because amid the quarantine, the government has ramped up the repression. During these weeks the government has jailed, even without due process, many political activists, especially from the inner circle of Juan Guaidó, president of the National Assembly and leader of the Venezuelan opposition.”

Guaidó declared himself the nation's interim leader Jan. 23 last year following Maduro’s inauguration for a second term. Maduro won a May 2018 presidential election, which was boycotted by the opposition and has been rejected by much of the international community. The United States was swift to recognize Guaidó as interim president, eventually followed by over 60 countries. Both the National Assembly and the Venezuelan bishops' conference declared Maduro's reelection to be invalid.

With the military firmly in support of Maduro, however, opposition protests calling for his resignation have failed to oust the leader.

On March 30, Guaidó charged that the Maduro regime had unleashed a new wave of harassment against his close collaborators. Andrea Bianchi, the wife of close associate Rafael Rico, was kidnapped, beaten and then left naked on a highway. Two others, Rómulo García and Víctor Silio were also picked up and later charged with possession of marijuana and a handgun.

The NGO Venezuelan Program for Education-Action in Human Rights reported that during the state of emergency, 34 people have been arbitrarily arrested and attacks against politicians, journalists and healthcare workers have increased.

“The bishops have always strongly criticized the political repression by the government and once again I call for the release of all political prisoners. They are even in greater physical danger because of the pandemic situation we’re going through,” Urosa stressed.

On March 26, “the Trump administration unsealed sweeping indictments against Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and members of his inner circle on narcoterrorism charges, a dramatic escalation in the U.S. campaign to force the authoritarian socialist from power,” even offering “a $15 million reward for information leading to his capture or conviction,” the Washington Post reported.

In response, the Maduro regime activated a plan against the Venezuelan opposition called “Operation Bolivarian Fury.”

The archbishop emeritus denounced these recent “threats of violence by the government against Venezuelans. Maduro himself has spoken of a supposed ‘Bolivarian fury’ as a threat against members of the Venezuelan opposition in case of international problems. That’s illegal, unconstitutional and unacceptable from every point of view. That threat of violence is intolerable.” 

The cardinal said the government has used the quarantine simply as an opportunity to strengthen its social and political control.

On April 25, the Maduro regime placed shipping containers on the Caracas-La Guaira highway to prevent demonstrators from other cities who have been protesting the shortages of food, water and electricity in other cities from getting to the capital.

“Why restrict the right to free transit?” the cardinal asked.

The Maduro regime also blocked the highway in February 2019 to prevent humanitarian aid from entering the country from Colombia.

Guaidó charged April 24 on Twitter that “a dictatorship of corrupt and incapable people has brought us to a crisis where farmers are losing their crops while families are starving to death in the barrios. They turned the richest country in the region into a hell. They’ll leave here, the sacrifice has been enough already.”

As signs of hope, Urosa pointed to ongoing work of Caritas Venezuela and the creative ways the clergy has reached out to the faithful through social media. “Our message is one of encouragement, trust in God, solidarity and hope in this dark hour,” he said.

 Catholics “have an unshakeable faith in God who is love,” who had died and risen and “has shown us the merciful face of God.” “We’ll come out of this,” the archbishop said, “the suffering we are experiencing has united us closer to God and opens to us the gates of heaven.”

The archbishop encouraged Venezuelans to always stand in solidarity with each other and “to be the face of God to those in need. God is love and is with us. Let us join ourselves to him and the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of Mercy in this painful hour.”

 

A version of this story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA's Spanish-language news partner. It has been adapted by CNA.

CNA Staff, Apr 30, 2020 / 05:47 pm (CNA).- When Bolivia closed its borders March 25 to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus, hundreds of Bolivian seasonal farm workers in central Chile found themselves stranded.

With their seasonal work ended and their savings depleted, many of the farm workers had no choice but to sleep on the streets of Santiago, unable to obtain food or shelter.

In the weeks that followed, Catholic groups stepped up to arrange shelter, food, and additional aid for the migrant workers.
Red CLAMOR, a network coordinating efforts among numerous organizations to serve migrants, refugees, and human trafficking victims, led the effort to provide temporary shelter for the Bolivians starting the night of April 28.

The network coordinated with the Chilean Catholic Institute for Migration, the Archdiocese of Santiago, the Vicariate for Social Ministry, the Human Mobility Ministry, Jesuit Migration Services, and Caritas Chile, as well as municipalities and the central government to arrange for shelter and meals for the Bolivians.

Initially, the network found accommodations for 600 people. By the first evening, however, the total had risen to 950, lodged at parishes and a local retreat house.

The migrant workers were provided with masks and hand sanitizer, meals, and sleeping mats. They are also being aided with legal advice on their employment situation and access to unemployment insurance.

Auxiliary Bishop Cristián Roncagliolo of Santiago said the effort was coordinated with the municipalities and other government authorities.

“For the moment it’s a solution so that they can stay somewhere more decent than the street,” the prelate said.

“It’s our Gospel duty to welcome the stranger. But we know that’s not enough. Because there are many more people that still need be in lockdown in order to later return to their country,” he continued. “We encourage other social actors to be welcoming to the Bolivian brothers.”

Lorenzo Figueroa, the director of Caritas Chile, called the situation “a new wakeup call about what the migrant communities are going through, especially during times of pandemic.”

Caritas Chile reported that the Foreign Ministries of Chile and Bolivia have reached an agreement that if Bolivian citizens stay quarantined for 14 days in the city of Iquique in northern Chile, which is close to Bolivia, they can then return to their own country.

 

Lima, Peru, May 7, 2020 / 06:00 am (CNA).- Two priests in a rural area of Peru aimed to fight the coronavirus pandemic by finding a way to supply oxygen tanks, much needed for medical treatment, to their region.

The recent death of two doctors from coronavirus in Iquitos, Peru, underscored the hard-hit region’s shortage of medical equipment and medications. Both doctors died because of the lack of oxygen to treat them.

The Medical Corps of Hospital III of Iquitos and the Medical College of Peru said in a joint statement last month that there is a shortage of medications in the Loreto region, and its capital Iquitos is "one of the cities hardest hit by the infection."

“We don’t have medications” to treat coronavirus patients and “not enough oxygen tanks, pressure gauges and refilled tanks,” they reported.

One doctor was in intensive care at Loreto Regional Hospital and the other at a hospital under the country’s universal health insurance program, both in Iquitos, the Medical College of Peru said on social media.

Fr. Raymond Portelli, a parish pastor in Iquitos, along with the diocesan administrator of the Apostolic Vicariate of Iquitos, Fr. Miguel Fuertes, decided to start a fundraising campaign to acquire an oxygen plant for the city.

Portelli himself is a doctor caring for COVID-19 patients.

To purchase the machinery, they needed to raise about $118,000.

The city does have an oxygen plant, but it only produces between 100 and 160 tanks a day. The dean of the Medical College of Peru, Miguel Palacios, told local media that quantity is not enough and that current production would need to be tripled.

The priests’ campaign was launched the morning of May 3 on social media, and in less than a day, they had raised about $300,000.

Both priests thanked contributors, and said that thanks to the amount collected, a “high capacity” plant could be purchased for Iquitos.

Portelli added that Fuentes is currently in Lima coordinating with a specialist for the acquisition of the plant.

“Pray a lot that this work can be accomplished quickly. May God bless all who have contributed. We hope to continue to cover all the expenses,” he added.

  This story was first published by CNA's Spanish-language news partner, ACI Prensa. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.



 

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