The Freedom Climb team completes the first few days of the journey to Mt. Everest Base Came and Kala Patthar Peak. Please pray for them.

The Freedom Climbers remain encouraged through increasing altitudes and dropping temperatures as they continue upward to Mt. Everest Base Camp and Kala Patthar Peak.

The Freedom Climb team has made it safely back to Kathmandu, and each climber is heading home.

The Freedom Climb becomes The Freedom Challenge to include more women in a movement to raise awareness, prayer and funds to combat slavery.

CNA Staff, Apr 30, 2020 / 05:00 am (CNA).- The bishops of England and Wales have urged parishes to help domestic abuse victims after a surge in requests for aid during the coronavirus crisis. 

Since the lockdown began in the U.K. March 23 there has been a 49% increase in calls and online pleas for assistance related to domestic abuse, the bishops said in a statement April 29. 

Bishop John Sherrington, chairman of the bishops’ domestic abuse group, said: “Catholic parishes can play an important role in fighting the scourge of domestic abuse, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic where we are seeing some shocking statistics from leading domestic abuse organisations.”

Guidance provided by the bishops’ domestic abuse group encourages pastors to raise the issue of domestic violence during livestreamed Masses and in homilies published on parish websites. 

The group also asks parishes to establish local domestic abuse support groups. Teams of volunteers should keep in regular contact with vulnerable parishioners, and collect and deliver donations to those living in refuges and other safe locations, the group advises.

It adds that team leaders ought to be “in a non-vulnerable COVID-19 category, and not living with any vulnerable people.” They should also have been checked by the Disclosure and Barring Service, which informs employers about applicants’ criminal records.

“Every local situation will differ and so our new guidance is designed to be used as an introduction to start a local project,” Bishop Sherrington said. “I hope that Catholics and parishes will be inspired to take this up in their local area.”

“Violence of this kind should never be tolerated or justified. It is an offence against the dignity of the human person.”
 

Rome Newsroom, Apr 30, 2020 / 11:45 am (CNA).- After eight weeks without funerals, Italian families will be able finally to gather together to mourn and pray at funeral Masses for the victims of the coronavirus starting May 4.

In Milan, the largest city in Italy’s coronavirus epicenter, priests are preparing for an influx of funeral requests in the coming weeks in the Lombardy region, where 13,679 have died.

Fr. Mario Antonelli, who oversees liturgies on behalf of the Archdiocese of Milan, told CNA that archdiocesan leadership met April 30 to coordinate guidelines for Catholic funerals as more than 36,000 people remain positive for COVID-19 in their region.

“I am moved, thinking of so many dear people who have wanted [a funeral] and still desire one,” Fr. Antonelli said April 30.

He said that the church in Milan is ready like the Good Samaritan to “pour oil and wine on the wounds of many who have suffered the death of a loved one with the terrible agony of not being able to say goodbye and embrace.”

A Catholic funeral is “not just a solemn farewell from loved ones,” the priest explained, adding that it expresses a pain like childbirth. “It is the cry of pain and loneliness that becomes a song of hope and communion with the desire for an everlasting love.”

Funerals in Milan will occur on an individual basis with no more than 15 people in attendance, as required by “phase two” of the Italian government’s coronavirus measures. 

Priests are asked to notify local authorities when a funeral is scheduled to take place and ensure that social distancing measures defined by the diocese are followed throughout the liturgy. 

Milan is home to the Ambrosian rite, the Catholic liturgical rite named for St. Ambrose, who led the diocese in the 4th century.

“According to the Ambrosian rite, the funeral liturgy includes three ‘stations’: the visit / blessing of the body with the family; community celebration (with or without Mass); and burial rites at the cemetery,” Antonelli explained. 

“Trying to reconcile the sense of the liturgy … and the sense of civic responsibility, we ask the priests to refrain from visiting the family of the deceased to bless the body,” he said.

While Milan archdiocese is limiting priests from the traditional blessing of the body in the home of the family, the funeral Mass and burial rites will be able to take place at a church or “preferably” at a cemetery, Antonelli added. 

During the nearly two months without Masses and funerals, dioceses in northern Italy have been maintaining telephone lines for grieving families with spiritual counsel and psychological services. In Milan, the service is called “Hello, is this an angel?” and is operated by priests and religious who spend time on the phone with the sick, the mourning, and the lonely. 

Aside from funerals, public Masses will still not be allowed throughout Italy under the government’s May 4 coronavirus restrictions. As Italy eases its lockdown, it remains unclear when public Masses will be allowed by the Italian government.

Italian bishops have been critical of Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte’s latest coronavirus measures, announced on April 26, saying that they “arbitrarily exclude the possibility of celebrating Mass with the people."

According to the prime minister’s April 26 announcement, the easing of lockdown measures will allow retail stores, museums, and libraries to reopen beginning May 18 and restaurants, bars, and hair salons June 1.

Movement between Italian regions, within regions, and within cities and towns is still prohibited except under strict cases of necessity.

In a letter April 23, Cardinal Gualtiero Bassetti of Perugia, the president of the Italian bishops' conference, wrote that “the time has come to resume the celebration of the Sunday Eucharist, and church funerals, baptisms and all the other sacraments, naturally following those measures necessary to guarantee security in the presence of more people in public places.”

Rome Newsroom, Apr 30, 2020 / 02:01 pm (CNA).- In the central Italian countryside, at the edge of the Umbrian woods just outside Norcia, a group of Benedictine monks prays and works from well before the sun rises until it sets.

This much has not changed in the monks’ lives during Italy’s coronavirus lockdown; but what has is the visitors they receive at the monastery.

“Usually we have some guests coming from all over the world... visitors coming from Italy or the U.S., friends or retreatants,” Fr. Benedict Nivakoff, O.S.B., told CNA by phone.

“And so, the total absence of those people, of that presence, has just focused our prayer all the more and we try to do what we are called to do more seriously,” he said.

“The main thing is a greater intensity of prayer for all those who are suffering.”

Nivakoff is the prior of the monks living at the site of St. Benedict’s birth. After religious life was suppressed in the area in the 1800s, a group led by Fr. Cassian Folsom was given permission to re-establish the monastery and moved there in 2000.

The prior said when the coronavirus was at its height in Italy, the monks did a traditional procession around the property with relics of the true cross.

“And that’s a way of praying for people, invoking the saints and calling down God’s help and his mercy on the country and on the world,” he said.

St. Benedict himself “experienced plagues, famines, sickness, death, not to mention relentless attacks of the devil on him and on his monks. He saw all of those as occasions for the monks themselves and for him to renew his trust and his faith in God,” Nivakoff said.

There is a “sad and persistent temptation,” he explained, to think “the world can solve these problems, but in fact, this world is passing away and God is the only answer to the suffering that we see.”

“So St. Benedict’s message, if you will, would be that all these things that happen can work for the good, and that is for the good of … each man and woman, each monk, in drawing closer to God.”

The monks in Norcia experienced tragedy first-hand four and a half years ago when several earthquakes, including one of 6.6-magnitude, struck central Italy and Norcia in August and October 2016.

The earthquakes destroyed hundreds of homes and the monk’s own buildings, including the Basilica of St. Benedict.

They have been rebuilding, but construction has been on hold during Italy’s lockdown, Nivakoff said, noting that it may, God willing, be able to start back up in a few weeks.

“The earthquake taught us many things and maybe one of the more relevant lessons for today is to resist the temptation that everything should go back exactly as it was,” he said.

“We thought after the earthquake, ‘well the answer is [to rebuild] everything as good if not better than before.’”

“But at the root of that is a fallacy, that this is a world, and we are men touched by original sin, who will only really have happiness and completion and real restoration in heaven,” the prior said.

He noted, “we can and do and need to work to improve things and to bring order where there is chaos and disorder but not at the risk of making this world into the destination and the goal,” because “it isn’t; it’s our temporary place so that we might get to heaven.”

“The earthquake really helped us to see that in a visible form, because the ground was literally shaking beneath our feet,” he said, “and the buildings we had called home to us and to our neighbors, our families, our friends, all the people here in Italy that we know, in central Italy, as all that fell apart.”

He said this “has called for trust and faith that is hard to muster in these days when the faith is so minimal.”

According to Nivakoff, “there are so many” lessons from monastic life that could help people quarantined in their homes right now, but he emphasized “two principle challenges to solitude.”

The first is for those who are in quarantine with others. As for monks who live with other monks, charity is very important when living in the midst of many people, he said.

“This really calls for lots and lots of patience, [and] to remember that patience with others always begins with patience with ourselves,” he explained. “Accepting our sins, accepting our faults, accepting that God is patient with us, and being patient with ourselves, helps us to be more patient with others.”

He added that silence can be a really useful tool in these circumstances: “Not speaking, not responding to the irritating or difficult or perhaps provocative things … people we live with say.”

“Especially under quarantine, the people we live with are probably going to still be with us in a few hours and maybe our passions will have calmed down by then” to respond in a better way, he said.

The second principle he drew on is for those who are living alone, such as the elderly or the young.

“For them, the quarantine really means an eremitical lifestyle. And for them the hardest temptations are sadness, acedia,” Nivakoff said.

“Sadness, which can be good because it can help us to lament our sins, lament not being with God, but at the same time can be a very inward looking and very self-pitying emotion, that stems from expectations not fulfilled.”

He recommended lots of humility and accepting that you are not in charge, not placing hope in things one does not have any control over.

“We have a lot more control over whether we say our prayers at noon than whether the government stops the lockdown in one week,” he pointed out. “The ways to combat sadness are this: to make goals that depend on me, and to put our trust and hope in God.”

Nivakoff also noted that there is a lot of talk right now about the importance of regaining the liberties men and women have had and avoiding “overreach of the government.”

“And that might be true, but from a Christian perspective, it is that we men and women need to accept the limitations that this disease brings on us,” he said.

“So even this terrible virus we need to see as permitted by [God] for some good purpose and the most traditional understanding of that is for some kind of purification.”

“So, we ask for God’s mercy because we need it.”

So during the coronavirus pandemic, the monks continue their prayer and their work taking care of the animals, gardening, cooking, cleaning, and managing the nearby forest.

To support themselves the monks also brew beer, and because it is sold through the internet, the coronavirus has not negatively impacted sales.

“And thank God, that model has really been blessed at this time because with so many people not being able to leave their home, many have taken it as an occasion to sample some monastic beer,” Nivakoff said.

“We continue to export from Italy to the United States and beer is available and it seems to delight many hearts there and we are very happy.”

London, England, May 1, 2020 / 05:00 am (CNA).- The metropolitan archbishops of England and Wales acknowledged the pain of Catholics who cannot receive the sacraments because of the coronavirus lockdown in a message issued Friday. 

In the message, entitled “A People who Hope in Christ”, published May 1, the archbishops said that while livestreamed Masses nourished faith, they were no substitute for public liturgies.

“None of us would want to be in the situation in which we find ourselves,” they wrote. “While the livestreaming of the Mass and other devotions is playing an important part in maintaining the life of faith, there is no substitute for Catholics being able to physically attend and participate in the celebration of the Mass and the other sacraments.”

Writing on behalf of the Catholic bishops of England and Wales, the five archbishops continued: “Our faith is expressed powerfully and beautifully though ‘seeing, touching, and tasting.’ We know that every bishop and every priest recognizes the pain of Catholics who, at present, cannot pray in church or receive the sacraments. This weighs heavily on our hearts.” 

“We are deeply moved by the Eucharistic yearning expressed by so many members of the faithful. We thank you sincerely for your love for the Lord Jesus, present in the sacraments and supremely so in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.” 

“The bishops and priests of every diocese are remembering you and your loved ones at Mass each day in our churches as we pray ‘in hope of health and well-being.’ We thank our priests for this faithfulness to their calling.”

Nevertheless, the archbishops said, the Catholic community had to play its part in preserving life and seeking the common good amid the pandemic. Restrictions on public liturgies would therefore have to remain in place until they are lifted by the government.

The U.K. is among the countries worst affected by the pandemic. With a population of 67 million, the U.K has had more than 172,000 documented coronavirus cases and 26,700 deaths as of May 1, according to Johns Hopkins University Coronavirus Resource Center.

The archbishops emphasized that Church officials were in talks with public health agencies and the government about the reopening of churches, which were closed March 24. 

“As the government’s restrictions are relaxed step by step, we look forward to opening our churches and resuming our liturgical, spiritual, catechetical and pastoral life step by step,” they said. 

“This will also be of service to those beyond the Catholic Church who depend on our charitable activity and outreach through which much goodness is shared by so many volunteers from our communities...”

“Together with Catholics across England and Wales, we desire the opening of our churches and access to the sacraments. Until then, we are continuing to pray and prepare.”

The message was signed by Cardinal Vincent Nichols of Westminster, Archbishop Malcolm McMahon of Liverpool, Archbishop Bernard Longley of Birmingham, Archbishop George Stack of Cardiff and Archbishop John Wilson of Southwark.

The archbishops concluded: “May the peace of the risen Lord reign in our hearts and homes as we look forward to the day we can enter church again and gather around the altar to offer together the Sacrifice of Praise.”

CNA Staff, May 4, 2020 / 05:01 pm (CNA).- The Republic of Ireland’s Workplace Relations Commission has decided that an atheist child was discriminated against by his Catholic school when students were rewarded for attending a religious ceremony.

The commission, an independent, quasi-judicial forum, ruled that the Yellow Furze National School in County Meath had discriminated against an atheist student.

Early in the 2019 school year, the students had been promised a homework pass if they took part in the choir during a First Communion ceremony

The boy’s mother complained, but the school defended its policy.

"Any student, regardless of his/her religion in our school who opted not to participate in this extracurricular event was not 'rewarded,'" the school said, according to the Irish Post last year.

The school added that children of any religion were able to participate in the choir, and that the claim of discrimination was thus “wholly unfounded.”

The commission said the school “does not appreciate this action had an adverse effect on students who are not of a Catholic faith,” the Irish Times reported.

His mother said that "on that day my son was the only child in the class who was not participating. He was also the only non-Catholic child in the class." She added that “he came out of school crying.”

“We are atheist and this is not a choice that is open to him,” she said.

The Irish Post reported in 2019 that the boy was one of two pupils in his class of 33 to receive homework instead of attending the choir ceremony.

According to the commission the boy’s parents were “deeply hurt and upset” by the school.

“We felt that the school had disregarded the fact that we have a different set of beliefs,” the mother told RTE News. “We felt that our child had been singled out and punished for not being a Catholic,” and she added that she hoped the ruling would “change things for children here who are not Catholic".

The mother has since enrolled her son in a different school.

The commission ordered the school to pay €5,000 and demanded the school review its policies so it complies with the Equal Status Acts. The school will also have to post a memo of its compliance in a noticeable location within the school.

The mother told RTE News she will return the €5,000 to the school, “because it will be our friends and our neighbours who will be funding it, through school fundraising. We have been vindicated, but we feel that it would be wrong to accept this money.”

Catholic schools in Ireland make up 90% of all primary schools in the country, the Irish Times reported. The ruling is likely to affect how other schools promote and organize religious events.

London, England, May 5, 2020 / 09:00 am (CNA).- A parish in London’s West End is offering the homeless adoration, access to sacraments, and the rosary -- along with food provided by a five-star restaurant. 

St. Patrick’s Church in Soho, an area known for its nightlife and red-light district, is offering a remarkable ministry to the homeless as the capital struggles to cope with the coronavirus pandemic. 

Pastor Fr. Alexander Sherbrooke said he had “a strong sense that the Holy Spirit is literally building a church on the streets” in response to the crisis. 

When the city began to shut down in mid-March, Westminster City Council turned to Sherbrooke, who has overseen daily outreach to the homeless since he arrived in the parish in 2001.

He told CNA that the council had asked St. Patrick’s to increase its provision of food to the homeless significantly while it tried to house those living on the streets. 

The parish, founded in 1792, had previously fed the homeless in its parish center. But after Catholic churches across the country were ordered to close because of the virus, St. Patrick’s was forced to improvise. It began serving the homeless food on its doorstep twice a day, Monday through Sunday.

“On most days we are providing up to 320 meals,” Sherbrooke explained. “On average, we probably see 220 people a day, some of whom come for both breakfast and dinner.”

Hot food is supplied by the Connaught Hotel, a five-star restaurant in London’s affluent Mayfair district, as well as by Wiltons Restaurant in Jermyn Street. The Pret a Manger chain provides sandwiches. 

“It’s a very sophisticated operation and we fully intend to be diligent in preserving social distancing, personal hygiene, food hygiene, etc,” the priest said. “We have a good number of volunteers. We also continue to provide a shower and lavatory facility.” 

Sherbrooke explained that the homeless in the West End live off the footfall generated by local businesses, restaurants and theaters. 

“There is none of that now,” he said. “It’s amazingly empty and can be quite intimidating, particularly at nighttime.”

”The West End has many who are alcohol and drug dependent and without their normal source of income, this can create a volatile situation. Police are very present, but the West End is very inhospitable, at times threatening and not very pleasant.”

“I’ve been in the parish for some 17 years, throughout which  much of my time has been spent in pastoral care for those who are needy. But nothing has really prepared me for where we are at the moment.”

Volunteers at St. Patrick’s are determined to relieve spiritual as well as physical deprivation. As food is distributed, they pray before the Blessed Sacrament in a nearby adoration tent, while observing social distancing. Sherbrooke is available for visitors seeking a sacramental encounter, sitting at a safe distance and behind a white sheet. There is also a tent offering lectio divina. 

“This enhanced feeding facility has come very much as a response to the request of the local authority,” Sherbrooke said. “We have a long tradition of feeding people happily and well. But in a very strange sort of way, the Church, from being a physical reality behind four walls, is now a reality in the street.”

Sherbrooke, who cites St Damien of Molokai and Mother Teresa as inspirations, continued: “It’s imparting a spiritual, pastoral care, where I have a strong sense that the Holy Spirit is literally building a church on the streets. There’s lectio divina. There’s adoration -- in other words, a prolongation of the Holy Mass -- confession, rosary, etc.”

“We are ministering to the people. We are going to them, speaking to them, giving rosaries and sharing the Gospel. So there is a real work of evangelization going on.”

Volunteers also distribute a sheet each week with reflections, Scripture readings, and advice on how to pray.

“So there’s a kind of catechesis of the poor which is going on,” Sherbrooke said.

“There is a very real sense that in this terrible virus situation that God is creating a very different kind of Church, much more evangelical, and perhaps simpler. All this has happened not through management but I believe through God's providence.”

He noted that despite the present dangers volunteers felt a strong sense of supernatural protection. 

“Personally, I would say that the way that I haven’t caught [the virus] -- given the reality of the situation here -- is that every day I pray that the Precious Blood of Jesus will come into my heart, my veins, my lungs, and protect me from the virus so that I can do this work,” he said. 

In 2011, St. Patrick’s reopened after a £4 million restoration project, which included the excavation of the basement and the creation of the parish center, located beneath the church. Food for the homeless is now prepared there every day.

“It’s almost as though God has crafted this parish for this work at this time,” Sherbrooke said.  

CNA Staff, May 5, 2020 / 10:00 am (CNA).- Poland’s bishops have intervened in a debate about whether presidential elections scheduled for May 10 should go ahead despite a nationwide lockdown.

A statement from the permanent council of the Polish bishops’ conference April 27 urged politicians to work together to ensure that the election would be regarded as legitimate by all sides. 

It said: “We appeal to the consciences of those responsible for the common good of our homeland, both those in power and the opposition, to work out a common position on the presidential elections in this extraordinary situation.” 

Poland’s ruling coalition, led by the Law and Justice (PiS) party, has rejected calls to postpone the election, due to take place this Sunday. 

The state began introducing lockdown measures March 10, which it is now starting to lift. Poland, which has a population of almost 38 million, had 14,242 documented coronavirus cases and 700 deaths as of May 5, according to Johns Hopkins University Coronavirus Resource Center.

The Polish Senate began debating legislation May 5 that would allow the election to be held by postal vote, rather than at polling stations, due to the pandemic. 

The Sejm, the lower chamber of the Polish parliament, will have the final say on the legislation. 

The bishops called on lawmakers to resolve the issue while upholding the principles of Poland’s constitution. They emphasized that they were not seeking to engage in “purely political disputes over the form or timing of election, let alone to advocate this or that solution.”

The bishops’ permanent council said: “We encourage dialogue between the parties to seek solutions that would not raise legal doubts and suspicion, not only of a violation of the current constitutional order but also of the principles of free and fair elections adopted in a democratic society.”

“We ask that, guided by the best will, they would seek in their actions the common good, which today is expressed both by the life, health and social existence of Poles, as well as broad social trust in the electoral procedures of a democratic state jointly developed over the years.”

The bishops continued: “In this difficult situation that we are experiencing, we should take care to cultivate a mature democracy, protect the nation of laws, building -- despite differences -- a culture of solidarity, also in the political sphere.”

If parliament approves the postal vote, the government could delay the vote to either May 17 or May 23 to allow more preparation time, according to Reuters. 

Opinion polls suggest the incumbent President Andrzej Duda, a PiS ally, would be re-elected by a significant margin if the vote were held soon. 

Bishops’ conference president Archbishop Stanisław Gądecki entrusted Poland to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus and to Our Lady, Queen of Poland, at Jasna Góra Monastery in Częstochowa May 3.

Rome, Italy, May 7, 2020 / 09:30 am (CNA).- A Eucharistic blessing of the city of Rome has been offered each day from the doorstep of Rome’s largest Marian basilica as coronavirus measures restricted the public from attending Masses.

The daily Eucharistic procession and benediction takes place in the Papal Basilica of St. Mary Major immediately following a livestreamed Mass at 11 a.m. local time from the chapel containing the Marian icon Salus Populi Romani, Mary Protection of the Roman People.

“The cardinal archpriest, all the canons, priests and religious of this basilica wish to give testimony to the Real Presence of Our Lord Jesus Christ, Doctor and Medicine for humanity tried by this pandemic,” states a caption for the video of a benediction from the loggia on March 21. 

As Rome entered phase two of coronavirus restrictions this week, more people have been able to witness the Eucharistic procession and blessing in person. In the second phase of Italy’s lockdown, which began May 4, residents are allowed to exercise and go for walks in the city with facemasks.

 

A Eucharistic procession and blessing of the city of Rome is offered daily from the doorstep of the Basilica of St. Mary Major during the coronavirus pandemic. pic.twitter.com/LSmHBloK8N

— Courtney Mares (@catholicourtney) May 7, 2020  

On the first day of the eased restrictions, a tour guide in Rome stumbled upon the Eucharistic procession in the basilica.

“I saw that confession was available and adoration was taking place. Following adoration, the priests processed the Blessed Sacrament through the church and into the piazza for a benediction over the city. They then walked to the back door and out into that piazza for another benediction,” Mountain Butorac told CNA. 

“This being one of my first experiences in church in nearly two months brought tears to my eyes and hope to my heart,” he said.

Public Masses will be able to resume in the Diocese of Rome and throughout Italy beginning on May 18, 70 days after the restrictions on Mass went into effect.

During Rome’s lockdown, Pope Francis made a brief walking pilgrimage to the Basilica of St. Mary Major to pray for the Virgin Mary’s protection from the coronavirus pandemic affecting Italy and the world.

The pope later had the basilica’s Byzantine icon of Salus Populi Romani brought to St. Peter’s Square for the extraordinary Urbi et Orbi benediction on March 27. The Marian icon remained inside the basilica throughout the Easter Triduum liturgies.

The Salus Populi Romani icon was also processed through Rome by Pope Gregory I for an end to a plague in 593.

 

The benediction takes place following a livestreamed Mass before the Salus Populi Romani, the same Marian icon processed through Rome by Pope Gregory I for an end to a plague in the 6th century. pic.twitter.com/efIbaJF6Hf

— Courtney Mares (@catholicourtney) May 7, 2020  

Among the four major papal basilicas in Rome, St. Mary Major is the only one that maintained its original structure. Mosaics dating back to the 5th century can be seen in the central nave of the basilica, which also houses the relic of the Holy Crib from the birth of Christ.

According to tradition, the Virgin Mary appeared to both a nobleman named John and to Pope Liberius (352-366) in a dream foretelling the August snow and asking for a church to be built in her honor on the site of the snowfall on Aug. 5 in the year 358. The church was rebuilt by Pope Sixtus III (432-440), after the Council of Ephesus in 431 declared Mary to be the Mother of God.

Vespers and prayers of the holy rosary are offered via livestream each day from the Marian basilica just before 5 p.m. in Rome.

Rome, Italy, May 7, 2020 / 11:00 am (CNA).- Dioceses in Italy can resume the celebration of public Masses beginning Monday, May 18, under conditions issued Thursday by the head of Italy’s bishops and by government officials.

The protocol for Mass and other liturgical celebrations states that churches must limit the number of people present – ensuring a one-meter (three feet) distance – and congregants must wear face masks. The church must also be cleaned and disinfected between celebrations.

For the distribution of the Eucharist, priests and other ministers of Holy Communion are asked to wear gloves and masks covering both the nose and mouth and to avoid contact with communicants’ hands.

The Diocese of Rome suspended public Masses March 8 due to the coronavirus outbreak. Several dioceses in hard-hit northern Italy, including Milan and Venice, had suspended public liturgies as early as the last week of February.

All public religious celebrations, including baptisms, funerals, and weddings, were prohibited during the Italian government’s lockdown, which went into effect March 9.

Funerals were allowed again beginning May 4. Public baptisms and weddings may now also resume in Italy starting May 18.

The protocol issued May 7 lays out the general directions for complying with health measures, such as the indication of a maximum capacity in a church based on maintaining at least one-meter distance between people.

Access to the church must be regulated to control the number present, it says, and the number of Masses can be increased to ensure social distancing.

The church should be cleaned and disinfected after every celebration and the use of worship aids such as hymnals is discouraged.

Church doors should be propped open before and after Mass to aid traffic flow and hand sanitizer must be available at entrances.

Among other suggestions, the Sign of Peace should be omitted, and holy water fonts kept empty, the protocol states.

The protocol was signed by Italian bishops’ conference president Cardinal Gualtiero Bassetti, Prime Minister and President of the Council Giuseppe Conte, and the Minister of the Interior Luciana Lamorgese.

A note says the protocol was prepared by the Italian bishops’ conference and examined and approved by the government’s Technical-Scientific Committee for COVID-19.

April 26 Italy’s bishops had criticized Conte for failing to lift the ban on public Masses.

In a statement, the bishops’ conference denounced Conte’s decree on “phase 2” of Italy’s coronavirus restrictions, which it said, “arbitrarily excludes the possibility of celebrating Mass with the people.”

The prime minister’s office responded later the same night indicating that a protocol would be studied to allow “the faithful to participate in liturgical celebrations as soon as possible in conditions of maximum security.”

The Italian bishops issued a statement May 7 stating that the protocol for restarting public Masses “concludes a path that has seen collaboration between the Italian Episcopal Conference, the Prime Minister, the Minister of the Interior.”

CNA Staff, May 8, 2020 / 07:00 am (CNA).- A new “dial-a-Mass” service enabling Catholics with no internet connection to listen to Sunday Masses is proving a success, an English bishop has said. 

Bishop Terence Drainey of Middlesbrough said that 100 people used the Mass-by-Phone service when it launched May 3.  

Public Masses were suspended in England from March 20 and churches ordered to close days later. The government has not indicated when churches will be allowed to reopen. 

The Diocese of Middlesbrough, in northern England, decided to introduce the phone line -- believed to be the first of its kind in England -- when it became clear that some Catholics were unable to follow livestream Masses because they didn’t have smartphones or Wi-Fi.

Bishop Drainey told CNA: “We’re trying to reach out to as many people as possible. But it became obvious to us that there are some people who aren’t on the internet and they are being completely missed and also wanting to somehow take part in the Mass.”

“As a result of that, talking to our communications people, we came up with this idea of having a ‘dial-a-Mass’ system.”

When Catholics call the service, they hear a brief message welcoming them to St Mary’s Cathedral in Middlesbrough. A recording of the Sunday Mass then begins. 

The Knights of St Columba Council 29 is funding the service, which the diocese believes is the first in England that doesn’t require special access codes.

Bishop Drainey said the line was part of the Church’s creative response to restrictions imposed by the government to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

“One of the things that this crisis situation has brought out is people’s imagination: how to initiate new ways of praying, new ways of getting in touch with the larger Church, participating virtually in liturgical celebrations,” he said.

He added that the service was likely to continue after the crisis passed. He recalled that an 86-year-old woman had phoned him just before the lockdown to talk about livestreamed Masses:

“I said we’re about to do it. ‘That’s fine, great,’ she said. ‘But when all this is finished, you need to continue livestreaming. People like me who can no longer get out, we long to be able to somehow be in contact with the Mass. So promise me there you'll really encourage livestreaming after this has all passed.' And I said: 'Yes, absolutely. I agree.'”

In addition to livestreaming Masses and Mass-by-Phone, the diocese is planning to hold a virtual pilgrimage to Lourdes after it was forced to postpone its regular trip to the French shrine at the end of May. The online pilgrimage will include services on Facebook as well as special prayers and reflections. 
 

Rome, Italy, May 8, 2020 / 10:00 am (CNA).- The U.S. Ambassador to the Holy See has called attention to the role of faith-based organizations in delivering U.S government relief funds to assist people who are suffering due to the coronavirus in Italy.

“The United States is funding NGOs and faith-based organizations that can effectively deliver critical assistance,” U.S. Ambassador Callista Gingrich told EWTN News May 6. 

“It’s important that American money be put to good use. Faith-based organizations are effective and trustworthy partners. They’re inspired by a sense of purpose and dedication to help those most in need,” the ambassador said.

The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has committed $50 million to aid Italy as it responds to the outbreak, which includes $30 million in funding split between faith-based organizations, nongovernmental organizations, and public international organizations, an official from the embassy told CNA. 

This is part of the $900 million the U.S. government is contributing globally in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. On May 6, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced that $100 million will be used to support virus detection and control, and $28 million to support refugees and migrants.

While the U.S. government is still in the process of vetting which NGOs and faith-based organizations will be receiving funds in Italy, Ambassador Gingrich said that the assistance package includes funding for “some of our Vatican-affiliated partners here, in Italy.”

A USAID document published in April describes the work of Catholic Relief Services and Caritas in Bangladesh, Nepal, Lebanon, Liberia, Kenya, Guatemala, and Mexico in supporting health care among vulnerable populations. It also showcases the contributions of Islamic Relief USA, the Jewish Distribution Committee, World Vision, and Malteser International, the aid agency of the Order of Malta.

In Italy, Malteser International set up a hospital and donated 260 ventilators, and distributed food and medicine to elderly in isolation.

A symposium at the Vatican on government partnerships with faith-based organizations co-hosted by the U.S. Embassy to the Holy See in October also highlighted the work of Caritas Internationalis, the Community of Sant’Egidio, and Aid to the Church in Need in providing humanitarian assistance.

The U.S. government has previously partnered with faith-based groups to provide emergency relief, defend religious freedom, and combat human trafficking, stating that faith-based organizations provide “unparalleled access to local populations and a fierce dedication to human dignity.”

In April, the embassy publicized the work of the evangelical Christian organization Samaritan’s Purse in creating and staffing an emergency field hospital in Cremona, Italy, in an online video. 

“As the world continues to battle the COVID-19 pandemic, faith-based organizations are playing a vital role,” Gingrich said in the video. 

Nearly 30,000 people have died in Italy’s coronavirus outbreak, according to the Italian Ministry of Health’s statistics on May 7. At least 89,000 people remain infected with COVID-19 in Italy after a total of more than 215,000 cases were documented, mostly in the north of the country.

Due to Italy’s nationwide lockdown, the U.S. Embassy to the Holy See has had to cancel several events it had scheduled for the spring, including a symposium, “Confronting the global rise of anti-Semitism,” scheduled to coincide with the opening of the Vatican’s archives on Pope Pius XII. 

However, the ambassador said that she has continued to speak with members of the diplomatic community via weekly video conferences.

“This pandemic will greatly affect our priorities and activities going forward. However, through meetings, symposiums, and cultural diplomacy, the U.S. Embassy to the Holy See will continue our important work with the Vatican to advance peace, freedom, and human dignity around the world,” Gingrich said.

Rome Newsroom, May 8, 2020 / 02:00 pm (CNA).- After the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith ruled that the hospitals of the Brothers of Charity in Belgium can no longer be considered as Catholic, the religious order is seeking to prevent the hospital network from using its name, their general superior told CNA. 

Br. René Stockman, general superior of the Congregation of the Brothers of Charity, said he fought to keep the Catholic identity and mission of the hospitals intact. But when the Brothers of Charity Organization, the non-profit group which manages the hospitals, approved pro-euthanasia guidelines 2017, he immediately referred the matter to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which issued its decision at the end of March.

The CDF decision was communicated in a letter dated March 30, stating that "with deep sadness" the "psychiatric hospitals managed by the Provincialate of the Brothers of Charity association in Belgium will no longer be able to consider themselves Catholic institutions."

Stockman said he was now working to stop the 15-hospital network run by the Brothers of Charity Organization, the non-profit which brought in the pro-euthanasia policy, from continuing to use the order’s name.

“As a congregation,” Br. Stockman said, “we will clearly ask them not to use the name Brothers of Charity anymore for the psychiatric hospitals,” adding that ”we will do everything to come to clear arrangements without going to legal fight.” 

“We hope that we can make it [work] in that way,” he said, but the non-profit’s board have signalled resistance. 

Raf De Rycke, president of the Brothers of Charity Organization, said on May 5 that he intends to continue using the order’s name, and claimed the hospitals fulfil the same mission, and the same vision as ever, despite bringing in euthanasia.

The Stockman said the order was always adamant that they would never accept the possibility of euthanasia in their hospitals, but only a few brothers remain working in the hospitals, mostly in management roles. The order has asked them to leave their positions, now that they can no longer be considered Catholic. 

But, he said, “there are many doctors who don’t agree with the situation and they made their objection of conscience, but it becomes more difficult for them in an environment where the management is developing clear guidelines on how to perform the process and moving towards euthanasia when a psychiatric patient is asking for it.”

Belgium has ushered in ever-expanding access to euthanasia in recent years, including for mental health patients, even minors, suffering from conditions like depression. Belgian law prohibits contractual clauses or other provisions prohibiting doctors working in institutions to euthanize patients. A doctor or nurse still has the individual freedom of conscience to refuse to euthanize or participate to euthanasia, but the same freedom is no longer afforded to insitutions. 

Stockman said there was no question of not complying with Rome’s decision, and he hoped it would inspire others to reconsider the gravity of the spread of euthanasia.

“We hope that also others will reflect on it, especially in the field of mental health care. It is the first time that the Holy See through the CDF has given a clear answer on the growing practice of euthanasia in the field of mental health care,” he told CNA.  

Belgium has ushered in ever-expanding access to euthanasia in recent years, including for mental health patients, even minors, suffering from conditions like depression.

In an official statement published on their website, the Brothers of Charity Organization has accused Stockman of using the issue of euthanasia "within a broader and longer-lasting conflict” between the order and the non-profit on the use of assets. 

The non-profit suggested that Stockman has long wanted to devote more resources to the Brothers’ missions in Africa and Asian, as vocations have dried up in Belgium, where most of the order’s members are over eighty. Meanwhile, in the developing world, the congregation is growing; last year Br. Stockman welcomed 27 new novices in Nairobi.

The Brothers of Charity Organization frames the dispute as one of control over assets, and its statement said they "do not see the need to adapt our operations after this [CDF] letter because we are convinced that we are acting correctly."

The situation is being monitored closely by other Catholic organizations in the country who see it as a possible test case. So far, the bishops have remained circumspect.

In a May 6 statement, the Belgian Episcopal Conference said that "the bishops experience this as an excruciating and complex affair, in which different types of topics and different lines of responsibility meet." 

The conference called for "a prolonged dialogue between all those involved,” while stressing their "utmost appreciation for the commitment of the Brothers of Charity in Belgium and all their employees to the benefit of mentally disabled, sick or injured people."

Calls for dialogue, however, may prove wishful thinking. As part of its review of the situation, the CDF sent Bishop Jan Hendriks, auxiliary of Amsterdam, as an apostolic visitor to try to resolve the situation, but, the Congregation said, he was unable to find "a viable solution that avoids any form of responsibility of the institution for euthanasia."

The conference also said that "based on their pastoral responsibility, the bishops will continue to work for unity and solidarity in the ecclesial community. They maintain their trust and will continue to cooperate with all the health institutions of Christian civil society."

Stockman did not comment on the bishops’ conference statement.

“Of course,” he said, “we feel, as a congregation, alone [in this fight], but [we are proceeding] in line with the doctrine of the Church, with the clear statement made by our general chapter in 2018 and with our charism of charity.” 

A local Chinese mother teaches Cantonese to three Pakistani mothers before they all watch the film 'Magdalena: Released from Shame' together.

OM Hong Kong hosts a Christmas party on 23 December 2011 for Pakistani women and children.

Lincoln and Manna from Hong Kong are two of the four candidates to participate in OM EAP’s first Timothy Trek training programme this year.

OM Hong Kong celebrates the annual Mid-Autumn Festival with South Asian friend and meets other families to learn about their needs.

Behind the glow of city lights, a group of people easily go unnoticed—lost sheep in desperate need of the hope of the gospel.

OM attempts to bring Christ’s love to the darkest corners of Sham Shui Po, and to walk with those neglected by society.

An OM Hong Kong worker seeks to help a sex worker recognise blind spots in her life while walking alongside her in Christ’s love.

Over 300 women work in Yat Lau Yat Fung – one woman, one-room walk-ups. OM works to bring each woman “Yat Mong” – one hope in Christ.

A local volunteer provides regular tutorial classes to Pakistani children as part of OM Hong Kong’s regular ministry to immigrants from Pakistan.

An OM team in Hong Kong listens to the story of a woman in prostitution and offer her comfort and prayers.

Logos Hope's Visitor Experience deck creatively engages people with the gospel as local volunteers make the language and cultural barriers obsolete.

Over 350 participants from 95 cities, and from more than 20 denominations, celebrate 50 years of OM ministry in Poland.

At the end of April, the second ZOOM national mission conference, with 300 participants from over 80 cities and towns, was held in Warsaw, Poland.

God not only rescued Kamil and Klaudia's marriage but also transformed their relationships with Him.

Young Somali believers take bold risks in sharing their faith with their families and community.

By Andrea Picciotti-Bayer

Our parish’s fall festival was coming to an end. As I rounded up my little ones, I spotted an acquaintance. Antoinette is almost 95 years old and now wheelchair bound, but her incandescent smile inevitably draws people towards her. “Have you had a nice evening?” I asked.
 
 “Oh yes,” she replied, “I spoke for a long time with Father.” 
 
“You know,” I said in a hushed tone, “I think he is a mystic.”
 
 “Yes,” Antoinette said, taking a deep breath, “he saw right to my soul.”
 
A mystic is not some sort of Catholic tarot card reader. A mystic is, in the eyes of traditional Christianity, someone God has given certain gifts and graces to accomplish a specific purpose for the salvation of souls. Some of the Church’s notable mystics include great saints like St. Padre Pio, St. John of the Cross, St. Teresa of Avila and St. Catherine of Siena. Their extraordinary ability to sense God transformed their hearts. Theirs were hearts moved to quiet and solitude when necessary, but also to action and service to souls and the Church. They were obedient to God and Church, and – not unrelatedly – they were profoundly humble. 
 
Now, we shouldn’t think that the exceptional relationship that mystics had with God is just for an elite, holy few. No, not at all. Mystics walk among us in our everyday lives – Antoinette’s and my parish priest, for example – and a mystical relationship with God is open to us all. In fact, God longs to connect with each one of our hearts and transform them for His glory. To that end, National Review’s Kathryn Jean Lopez has just compiled a beautiful daily devotional, A Year with the Mystics: Visionary Wisdom for Daily Living, that can help open our hearts to such prayerful, mystical encounters with God. Lopez’ message is simple: “You too can be a mystic.”
 
“I don’t pretend to either be a mystic or an expert on mysticism,” she writes. “But I do pray enough to know that so very few us of us have plumbed the depths of what God wants to reveal to us and do in us through prayer.”
 
A Year with the Mystics features brief, daily meditations grounded in the writings and prayers of the Catholic Church’s well-known mystics – Padre Pio, Teresa of Avila, and John of the Cross, for example.  Lopez also includes the words of “active saints in the world,” figures not conventionally thought of as mystics such as Mother Teresa and Mother Angelica.
 
The book is not a formulaic, chapter-by-chapter guide to the interior life. Rather, each day’s reflection invites the reader into a particular contemplation. “Entering into the light,” “Divine friendship,” “Looking in the mirror, seeing light and virtue,” “Pray without ceasing? A how-to” are some of my most favorite daily invitations. Lopez follows up with a brief introduction to an inspired writing, the excerpt itself, a consideration and then a final prayer. The reading and daily meditation takes a brief 15 minutes, but it can inspire an entire holy hour or direct your entire day. It’s worth pointing out that the book is beautifully bound and sturdy enough to survive transport in a purse, briefcase, or the door pocket of the car so that not one day of contemplation is missed.    
 
I have turned to this little volume often in my prayers since receiving my review copy. And I have found great consolation – the kind of consolation I saw on Antoinette’s smiling face after she spoke with Father John at the parish festival.  
 
For most of us, the mystical union with God will be found as contemplatives in an often loud and busy world. Inviting the mystics to accompany us along our journey of contemplation presents an opportunity for incredible growth in our prayerful encounter with God. In A Year with the Mystics, Kathryn Jean Lopez has mapped a lovely and useful path to facilitate this encounter. “Be not afraid as you’ve heard and will read,” she writes “Let him bring you to a peace that surpasses all understanding, even as he brings you into a deeper understanding in the heart of the Trinity.”

By Dr. Grazie Pozo Christie

When Archbishop Jose Gomez was elected to head the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) earlier this month, he tweeted that it was an honor - and not only for him, but for “every Latino Catholic in the country.” He’s right about that. We Latino Catholics feel it a great honor and a point of pride that a fellow Hispanic should take the lead. Not just because he is Latino, but because he’s a man with a sterling character and gentle manner, a man well known both for his sympathetic attitude toward the plight of immigrants and his traditional approach to social issues. This is a powerful and attractive combination to our growing Hispanic Catholic Church.

Gomez, a native of Monterrey, Mexico and a naturalized U.S. citizen, presides over the Los Angeles diocese, the largest and one of the most diverse dioceses in the country. Its parishes encompass more than thirty ethnicities, celebrating masses in languages from Igbo to Hungarian to Tagalog. The catholicity, that is, the universality--of the Catholic Church is a palpable thing in L.A., not simply a doctrinal concept. It’s the result of a constant and varied immigration. 

As leader of the USCCB, Archbishop Gomez will head an American Catholic Church that is about 58% non-Hispanic white and 34% Latino - a church in which most members under 30 are Hispanic. A significant number of the 2.7 million Hispanics that attend mass in Spanish are undocumented, and an even greater number probably know or love someone whose presence here is precarious. Gomez brings a history of heartfelt public support for the undocumented workers that America relies on to farm our crops, tidy our lawns, man our factories, and look after our children. He has been an especially vocal advocate of “dreamers.” “In a special way, I pray for #Dreamers, the day before #Scotus hears oral arguments on the legality of DACA,” he tweeted just after his election.

Archbishop Gomez is the author of the excellent “Immigration and the Next America.” The 2013 book neatly lays out his assessment of our current situation and his vision for a better future. He chronicles the historical background of a nation founded by Puritans searching for freedom but also (and even earlier) colonized by Spanish missionary migrants in a successful quest to evangelize the native population. He assesses a present-day America that lacks moral consensus and is crazed with consumerism, a nation confused about everything from the meaning of sexuality to the value (if any) of human life. He sees a country in which the ties of traditional American values and civic virtues that once bound us to one another are frayed, a country whose uneasy citizenry worries about what the “Next America” will look like. 

Gomez does not downplay the importance of legal norms and the very real toll that the chaos and lawlessness of illegal immigration takes, especially along our southern border. He argues, however, that fear and uncertainty may tempt us to “abandon our commitment to liberty and justice for all, in favor of an insular, racial definition of who can be a true American.” American Catholics, members of an immigrant Church in a country with a long history of anti-Catholic bias have a special responsibility in today’s debates over immigration reform. We bring to the table not only the memory of our ancestor’s experience of discrimination and the Church’s energetic response to the material and spiritual needs of successive waves of migrants, but also its rich tradition of teaching on human dignity and social justice. Catholics are especially suited to envision the face of the “Next America” in a way faithful to the Christian obligation of benevolence to strangers. 

U.S. Hispanics have a lot to be happy about in Archbishop Gomez’s election. He is a man with a tender heart for the vulnerable people in our midst who can also articulate a way forward on immigration that is attractive and optimistic - one based on the highest ideals that are our shared inheritance in this diverse country. He is also a man who bridges the liberal/conservative divide by quietly affirming the traditional mores and values that Hispanics are bent on preserving. But then, I venture to say that his election gives all American Catholics reason to be happy too. 

By Maureen Ferguson

One can be forgiven for thinking all of Washington, D.C., has been consumed by impeachment frenzy these past weeks. Look closer, though, and you’ll see that while Trump administration lawyers have been tied down by the Senate trial, other administration officials have been engaged in a flurry of policy making. These new policies have gone largely unnoticed, but they are of crucial – and positive – importance to all people of faith.   

 

The last weeks alone have witnessed sweeping developments on prayer in public schools, discrimination against religious organizations, mandatory abortion coverage in health insurance plans, and government funding of programs encouraging childbirth over abortion. Additionally, the president himself attended the March for Life, and Vice President Pence held a significant meeting with Pope Francis.

 

On school prayer, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos issued guidance clarifying that students do not compromise their right to pray because they attend a public school or university. The DeVos directive also ensures that religious student groups remain on equal footing with secular student groups. This is a critical response to the recent trend of universities’ disallowing any and all religious expression or association at public institutions of higher education. As DeVos stated, "Too many misinterpret a separation of church and state as an invitation for government to separate people from their faith."

 

Public colleges and universities won’t be able to get away with this any longer, thanks to the Trump Administration. The DeVos directive reaffirms the First Amendment right of students to express religious beliefs in their schoolwork as well as to gather to pray at appropriate times. This sends a strong message to school bureaucrats inclined to ban students from praying before high school football games or to defund Christian student groups at public universities.

 

The administration also issued far-reaching rules stating that religious and non-religious charities must be treated equally in the federal grant process. Team Trump has leveled the playing field. Religious charities will now be free to compete for federal grants to serve their fellow Americans. Not only is this a huge win for religious freedom, but it’s also a huge win for the poor and vulnerable. Because, as we know, Catholic and other religious charities are highly regarded as among best in the field of adoption and foster care, caring for victims of human trafficking, providing for the elderly and the poor, and working with refugees and other vulnerable immigrant populations. Nine federal agencies participated in this rule making. The new rule applies across the entire federal government, removing discriminatory regulatory burdens that push religious entities out of the public square – and out of public service. In short, our nation’s social safety net just got stronger.

 

Another significant announcement is that the administration will vigorously enforce the Weldon Amendment, a longstanding law protecting conscience rights. California has been flagrantly violating this law by forcing all health insurance plans in the state, including Catholic health plans, to cover and pay for elective abortions. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops called the policy “abhorrent, unjust and illegal… [a] supreme injustice.” The bishops welcomed the Trump administration’s action as “extraordinarily good news for the right to life, conscientious objection, religious freedom, and the rule of law.”

 

Moreover, the Department of Health and Human Services just came down squarely in support of state healthcare programs that recognize the sanctity of life. Texas had decided years ago that its Medicaid program would support pregnant women and their unborn children, but not abortion-promoting groups like Planned Parenthood. The Obama administration went after Texas but the Trump Administration just granted the necessary waiver supporting Texas’ pro-life policy.

 

That’s all policy, but it’s worth noting again what President Trump and Vice President Pence have been doing themselves. Trump addressed the March for Life rally in person, something no other president has done. Ever. The vice president also spoke to the pro-life March via video from St. Peter’s square at the Vatican, where Pence also had an hour-long private meeting with Pope Francis. The pope and vice president reportedly had a very warm meeting in which they agreed that the cause of life is the “most pressing moral issue of our time.” They also shared their commitment to persecuted Christians and other religious minorities in the Middle East. Pence talked of how proud he is that the United States has partnered with the Knight of Columbus to help rebuild Christian communities once decimated by ISIS in the Nineveh plain.

 

So while the media obsesses over Bolton bombshells and the McConnell vs. Schumer showdown, hardworking policy makers across the administration, empowered by the president to act, have made a significant difference in the lives of people of faith – and the children of God they serve.

By Father Dave Pivonka, TOR

“This is the time of fulfillment.”

Those are the first words Jesus speaks to us in the Gospel of Mark. For 14 verses, he says nothing. He meets John the Baptist, the Holy Spirit descends upon him, and he faces temptation in the wilderness. But through it all, he doesn’t say a word. Then, finally, Jesus speaks: “This is the time of fulfillment. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel” (Mark 1:15).

The temptation, for most of us, is to hear those words in the past tense. We hear them as something Jesus said long ago to Jewish people in Roman-occupied Galilee.

But that’s not how the Scriptures work. They’re not simply a record of things that were said 2,000 years ago. They’re not a collection of history books like we find at our local library. They are “living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword . . . and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart” (Heb. 4:12).

This means Scripture speaks to us today. Jesus speaks to us today. Right here. Right now. This is the time of fulfillment. This is the time Jesus invites us to know him and follow him and encounter the Kingdom of Heaven. But he doesn’t just invite us. In Mark 1:15, he also tells us how we answer that invitation: “Repent, and believe.”

The Greek word used there for “repent and believe” is metanoia. It implies a turning or a change of mind. So, what Jesus says is, “Turn away from sin, and turn toward me. Change your focus—from sin, from the world, from a culture of distraction—and focus on me instead.” Ultimately, he issues a call to conversion, a call to a new way of thinking and a new way of living. And he issues that call, not just to Peter, James, John, and the rest of the 12, but to you and me.

Which means the question for us is: how do we answer that call? How, here and now, do we repent and believe? How do we experience metanoia?

Last year, the team from 4PM Media and I attempted to answer that question, when we spent 17 days in the Holy Land, filming Metanoia, a new 10-part video series on conversion and discipleship.

But the trip turned out to be much more than that.

Shot on location in some of our faith’s most sacred places, including the Sea of Galilee, the River Jordan, and the desert of temptations, Metanoia invites viewers to an encounter with Christ in both Scripture and history. It also invites each of us to look deep into our hearts, so we can hear how Christ is calling us to conversion.

For many Catholics, it’s tempting to think of conversion as a once and done event. It’s equally tempting to think of it as something other people need: that Jesus is calling other people to repent and believe—“those bishops and priests” or “those people who are in serious sin”—but not us. No, we think, it’s those people who need conversion. Never us. But in reality, it is always us.

Every one of us struggles in some way to live the Gospel. Every one of us has some area of our life that we have not handed over to Jesus. Every one of us, to some extent, bears some responsibility for the problems in the Church and world today.

That’s why conversion is a process each and every one of us must continually enter into. It’s a lifelong journey of being transformed by Christ and conformed to Christ. It’s never done. At least, not until we see Jesus face to face and hear the words, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”

And so, over the course of 10 weeks, Metanoia will invite Catholics to become the witness the world needs us to be and the disciples Jesus calls us to be. It does that by asking us to look at different areas of our life and faith—from our understanding of who Christ is and what it means to pray, to how we approach the Church’s more challenging teachings. It then invites us to think and pray about how Jesus calls us to conversion in those areas.

The whole series is really one big invitation to let God into every aspect of our life and transform it all.

Metanoia launches on Monday, February 3. Episodes will be available to watch at wildgoose.tv. I hope you join us. Because this is the time of fulfillment. Jesus is here. He has something for us right now. But we will never experience it if we don’t repent and believe. We will never experience it without metanoia.

By Dr. Grazie Pozo Christie

Coronavirus is only the latest iteration of an age-old human affliction. Even now, with the benefit of advanced medical science, our reaction – our confusion, our fear – is not so different from how our ancestors experienced recurrent and terrifying onslaughts of plague, cholera, and yellow fever across the ages. We can learn from the courage and ingenuity of those who travelled this road before us.
 
Consider the work of Dr. Carlos Finlay in Cuba. In 1880 he hypothesized, and then worked to prove his hypothesis, that yellow fever, a disease that regularly decimated coastal populations up and down the Americas, was spread by infected mosquitos. Those mosquitos came to our shores in the 17th century on African slave ships and attacked portal communities in the tropics as well as cities like New Orleans and Philadelphia. The resulting epidemics occurred with oppressive regularity in the summer months, to the people’s great dread, with mortality rates as high as 50 percent. The impact was tremendous – not only in the milllions of lives lost and the wretchedness this caused, but in economic gains and opportunities wiped out or delayed (the Panama Canal).
 
Connecting the transmission of the deadly virus to its source or vector was a decisive step forward in the long struggle against yellow fever. It preceded the development of a vaccine by more than 60 years. Here's how it happened: A young doctor, Carlos Finlay, returned to his home in Havana one night, exhausted, after caring for a Carmelite priest dying of yellow fever. Realizing he had forgotten to say his daily rosary, he sat in his armchair, sweating in the oppressive heat, fingering his beads and swatting at a bothersome mosquito. Suddenly, inspiration pierced his depression and weariness: Could the mosquito, like the one annoying him that moment, be transmitting the infection from person to person? If so, this was marvelous. One could not fight the brutal steamy summer air – the miasma – but one could fight mosquitos.
 
Inspiration, however, was not enough to proceed. Courage and even heroism would be needed to prove Finlay’s hypothesis. These were at hand, thanks to 57 young Jesuit priests and brothers who volunteered as experimental subjects. As each arrived from Spain to staff the Colegio de Belen, newly founded by Queen Isabel II of Spain, he was met by Finlay, carrying a test tube filled with mosquitos that had just fed on a patient sick with yellow fever. Taking their lives in their hands, these Jesuits allowed themselves to be bitten for the sake of their fellow human beings. Three died of the bite, but all 57 were willing to do the same.
 
Subsequent experiments supported Finlay’s hypothesis. Although a vaccine to definitively eradicate the disease would not come for decades, Finlay’s insight helped man to co-exist safely with yellow fever until that time. The incidence of yellow fever in Cuba dropped precipitously through mosquito control. Standing water, a breeding ground for the noxious pests, was eliminated where possible or treated aggressively with insecticides where not. Panama, where tens of thousands of workers had already died of the disease while building the canal followed Cuba’s lead. The last Panama Canal worker to die of yellow fever came in 1906.
 
There are important lessons for us here -- first and foremost, lessons in resourcefulness and valor. 
 
Already, thousands of human minds are, today, tenaciously working to find a solution to Covid-19. They’re persisting without respite, persisting through depression and fatigue, to find a way forward. Just as Dr. Finlay did.
 
And, you can depend on it, inspiration is sure to strike again.
 
You can also see today the same kind of valor that animated the Jesuit volunteers who let the infected mosquitos bite them. You see it in the countless men and women who keep showing up for work at nursing homes or crowded food production lines. Their examples help us all to keep up and increase our courage so we can join them as we ease back into our normal daily lives.
 
As we face the moment when we too realize that we have no choice but to go back out into the world of work and personal interactions, we can take hope from contemplating our predecessors’ success in confronting yellow fever. Like us, they dreamed of a vaccine. But they didn’t lock themselves away until it was developed. They found a way to steel themselves and then to steal the deadly efficiency away from the virus that plagued them. A century later, we can do the same.

Denver Newsroom, May 7, 2020 / 06:01 pm (CNA).- A young Catholic artist has drawn an image of the Blessed Virgin Mary on her parents' driveway bringing religious art to her local community during the quarantine.

The Diocese of Fargo posted on Facebook May 4 an image of Our Lady of Lourdes drawn by Maria Loh, a 17-year old who grew up in Fargo. She said it was an enjoyable experience to share her faith and art with her neighborhood.

“Being able to interact with people when they walked by was very moving in a way because a lot of people have never really seen sidewalk art done like that locally. So being able to share in that kind of experience, it was very, very good,” she told CNA.

Loh has recently been inspired by chalk art and pastels, which, she said, have vibrant and beautiful colors. She has drawn on the sidewalks a few times, including two images of Mary - Madonna of the Lillies and the Pieta by William Adolphe-Bouguereau.

Her most recent chalk drawing was Our Lady of Lourdes by Hector Garrido - an image she had seen as a magnet on her grandparents' refrigerator growing up. The picture has always been an inspiration, she said, noting that she decided to replicate it after Our Lady of Lourdes Shrine in France had temporarily closed due to the coronavirus pandemic.

“I heard that the shrine had been temporarily closed off to the public, and I remember … thinking that's really sad because especially in this time, we’re really looking for healing in more ways than one, like physically and mentally and spiritually,” she said.

“It really felt like people wouldn't be able to go to experience that. So I felt like drawing this image of Our Lady of Lourdes would be a good way to remind people that Our Lady is still with us even if we can’t go to her shrine.”

Loh, the oldest of five, has been involved with art projects and drawing for her entire life. She said, growing up in a Catholic family, she has been inspired by her faith and the religious art in churches.

“I see our faith as so precious... Especially in the form of the Eucharist - the actual body and blood of Christ, I've seen that we are very blessed to have that in our faith. It's something that has impacted a lot of my life growing up,” she said.

While she was working on the piece, Loh said, a majority of passersby did not know who the lady in the image was. She expressed hope that the picture would help remind people of Mary and the beauty of the Church, which, she said, is a powerful attraction to the faith.

“One thing that I hope this kind of art and image will evoke is a desire to come to know who Mary is and how rich our faith is. … All the beautiful art that can be seen in Catholic churches, especially like in Rome, there's almost a transcendental beauty to them that draws people into the faith to come to know things that they've never dreamed of before,” she said.

As Loh finishes her junior year of high school, she expressed the possibility of art school after graduation, but, while she is still uncertain of the future, said art will not be dropped anytime soon.

“I can definitely see [art school] being a possibility. I’ll have to spend some time, especially with God trying to figure out what he wants me to do. But, I don't think art is going out of my life anytime soon,” she said.

Denver Newsroom, May 8, 2020 / 02:59 am (CNA).- On Sunday, March 15, Nebraskans in the Diocese of Lincoln still had a choice of whether or not they wanted to attend Mass and risk possible exposure to coronavirus.

By the next day, they didn’t. Public Masses in the diocese were canceled, as they soon were throughout the country due to the pandemic.

Now that curves of infection are “flattening” and hospitals have had a chance to ramp up their capacity and supplies, many dioceses, including Lincoln, are slowly reopening Masses to the public. What exactly that will look like varies a lot depending on each parish's unique spaces and limitations. 

Archbishop George Lucas, currently serving as acting bishop of Lincoln, has followed guidelines from Governor Pete Ricketts in issuing some general guidance for re-starting public Masses. Ultimately, however, he left the decision to reopen up to each individual parish.

One place that has been offering public Masses as of Monday, May 4, is St. Wenceslaus parish in Wahoo, Nebraska, a town of 4,500 people located in the Diocese of Lincoln.

Fr. Joseph Faulkner, the pastor of St. Wenceslaus in Wahoo, said he decided to reopen public Masses at his parish after meeting virtually with the other priests in his area. The Masses, of course, will look quite different than normal - with limited capacity, social distancing, and precautions like no holy water, no hymnals, and no sign of peace.

And in many ways, Faulkner said he is encouraging his parishioners to act like it’s the weekend of March 14-15 again.

“From the get-go, we're telling people - you need to make a decision. I even put in my message (to parishioners), think back to - it's March 14th and you're trying to make a decision. Whatever decision you made then is probably still the right decision. If you need to be extra careful for yourself, for your family, for your parents, for your coworkers, for your patients you see in the nursing home, stay away,” he said.

Parishes in the cities of Lincoln and Omaha decided to wait to reopen, Faulkner said. Lincoln has a re-opening date of May 11 for non-essential businesses, and the size of Omaha parishes made re-opening at this point very difficult. Although Wahoo sees a lot of traffic from Lincoln and Omaha and other surrounding towns, Faulkner said he thought he could use appropriate precautions to make reopening safe at his parish.

“St. Wenceslaus specifically is lucky. We've got a nice big basement, so that gets you another 30%-40% seating room. We've got three priests, which is really lucky. So from five weekend Masses, we're going up to eight, so we can do more to spread our people out.”

Faulkner said he has even offered to other parishes with just one priest that he can send someone to help them out if they are offering extra Masses for social distancing and are feeling burned out.

For attendance and seating, Faulkner said he is blocking off every other pew and is going to stagger families in order to maintain six feet of distance. Instead of having people call or sign up online, Faulkner said he is hoping that the extra Mass times, the use of the basement space, as well as the people who choose to stay home, will be enough to maintain an appropriately staggered congregation.

Faulkner said he has been grateful to have public weekday Masses before the weekend to work out some of the kinks of the new restrictions. For example, he’s still working on his communion line protocol, he said. He tried a method using the side aisles and then the center aisle at his first Mass on May 4th, and “it was horrible. So I'm going to fix that tomorrow.”

Masks during communion have also been tricky.

“It's really hard to say Mass with a mask on, and then I have to make my Communion, I have to receive,” Faulkner said. The priests were donated some N95 masks, which Faulkner tried to use on Monday, but the straps made it hard to quickly receive communion and readjust the mask without touching his face or his glasses, he said, so he’s hoping to find a different kind of mask by the weekend.

From his parishioners, Faulkner said he has seen a variety of attitudes toward the closing, and now re-opening, of public Masses.

“There's really three camps,” he said. “There's the, yes, amen, be safe, meditate-on-the-saints-who-didn't-have-the-Eucharist-for-years group.”

“Then there's definitely the middle group, which is like, I don't want to take any risks, but I want the first available ‘okay’ to go to Mass,” he said.

“And then there's the, ‘I'm 85. If I die because I went to Mass, thank God’ crowd. Literally the people who are most cavalier are the older ones,” Faulkner said.

A bishop’s perspective: Oklahoma

Archbishop Paul Coakley, the bishop of Oklahoma City, told CNA that Catholic parishes throughout the state will start celebrating public Masses again on May 18th, with their first public weekend Masses on May 23-24, the Feast of the Ascension.

In a May 7 letter to Oklahoma Catholics posted on the archdiocese’s website, Coakley recognized that while the past two months without Mass have been a painful time for many, God never abandoned his people.

“The gift of the Holy Spirit assures us of God's continued presence in our lives. No matter the circumstance, he is with us. Perhaps the greatest sacrifice for the lay faithful these past few months has been fasting from Christ’s body, blood, soul and divinity given to us in his real presence in the Eucharist. We pray that in this time of Eucharistic fasting, God has graced you with a profound hunger for this communion with Jesus and the members of his Body, the Church,” he stated.
 
The timing of reopening public Masses was chosen just before the feasts of the Ascension and Pentecost “to remind us of God’s faithfulness and to prepare to celebrate the birth of our beloved Church on Pentecost,” he added.

The decision was reached through consultations with Bishop David Konderla of Tulsa, priest councils in the state, and medical experts, “including a prominent infectious disease specialist,” Coakley said.

“It won't be business as usual,” he said.  “We will be celebrating public Mass and people will be able to come and they will be able to receive Holy communion, but the churches won't be full. In fact, we're limiting it to 33% of the occupancy capacity,” he noted.

“We've been very cautious watching the numbers and putting in place pretty strict guidelines to ensure that we were able to maintain social distances and practice the appropriate kind of hygiene,” he added.

A five page document released by the state’s Catholic dioceses details the exact guidelines, such as including 6-foot social distancing between pews, the recommendation that all attendees wear masks, and the recommendation that priests have plenty of hand sanitizer readily available throughout the church.

Coakley said the document offers guidelines for pastors while still giving them the flexibility to implement the recommendations and requirements in the way that works best for their unique parishes.

“If the church fills beyond capacity, we’re asking them to consider using other space in the parish, perhaps the parish hall, to be able to put overflow crowds and continuing to social distance properly, parking lots, things of that sort,” he said. “We're going to have to rely upon the creativity of our pastors and they have been demonstrating a great deal of creativity up to now, so I'm sure they'll continue to do so.”

Coakley said he is asking priests to also continue offering livestream Masses for people who will choose not to come to the public Masses at this time. He noted in his May 7 message that the dispensation from the Sunday obligation still stands for all Oklahoma Catholics at this time.

“We are dealing with an invisible threat to people’s lives, a virus that our brightest doctors and scientists are still figuring out. The ever-present temptation in our American culture is to want solutions immediately and to act quickly, because we want what we want, and we want it now. As a Church, we must proceed more deliberatively,” he said.

Coakley told CNA that while he understands Catholics’ fear, anger and frustration during these past two months of suspended Masses, he also encouraged them to think of their time away as a way of serving others.

“We’re really living through a health crisis, a time of severe challenges, and it's impacting us in so many ways economically, and in terms of social isolation, loneliness, the liturgy also. But I think we need to think beyond individual rights and consider also our responsibilities toward one another, especially the responsibility to love and serve one another, to be mindful of one another's needs.”

Wichita, Kansas

On May 3, Bishop Carl Kemme of the Diocese of Wichita announced plans to reopen public Masses starting on Wednesday, May 6, following recommendations of the county’s local public health authorities.

Phase one of the guidelines will last until May 20, and they stipulate that parishes may hold Masses at no more than 33% capacity. Churches will use only one entrance, so that the number of people coming may be properly counted and seated, and six foot spacing should be clearly marked so that people can maintain social distance.

Mass attendees are encouraged to wear masks, and priests are required to wear them while distributing communion. Parishes are also encouraged to keep hand sanitizer available at entrances, and parishioners are “strongly encouraged” to receive communion in the hand.

Fr. Clay Kimbro is the parochial vicar at St. Anne’s parish in Wichita. Kimbro said he and the other priests of the diocese have been having weekly virtual talks with the bishop about when to re-open Masses and what that might look like, and so priests were able to give feedback as to what guidelines they thought would work well.

At St. Anne’s, which has 1,200 families, Kimbro and his leadership team have been meeting and working on logistical things, like roping off every other pew so that Mass attendees can maintain proper distancing.

He said he has also had extra meetings with his ushers, who on the weekends will “seat everyone so that they can make sure that the distance is maintained. That's a lot more responsibility than our ushers are normally given.”

Kimbro said the parish is not having parishioners sign up for Masses online. Instead, if more people show up than the allowed 33%, the overflow congregation will be directed to the school’s auditorium, where a second priest - either Kimbro or his pastor - will celebrate a concurrent Mass, also with social distancing protocols in place.

“We were a little leery of (adding Mass times), because when you add Mass times, it's hard to take them back,” Kimbro said. “Also, it's hard to turn people away. They come to the door at 10 a.m. for Mass, and we say, ‘Come back at 1:00 p.m.’ Well, it's a lot easier to say, ‘Go over to the auditorium.’”

Kimbro said the parish is working on decorating the auditorium to make it an appropriate place to have Mass, and they are also putting down tape lines to direct traffic and to mark distances.

“There's a lot of work in planning, and it can be a little overwhelming, but we're overall just really excited to see people again,” he said.

St. Anne’s parishioners have been “all over the map” in terms of their eagerness to return to Mass at this time, Kimbro said. Some have been signing up to read at Mass, or to usher or distribute communion, because they miss Mass so much and they want to be involved.

Others are a bit more anxious, Kimbro said, and he has encouraged those people to attend weekday Masses, where there are likely to be fewer people.

He also added that the Sunday obligation continues to be dispensed for everyone, as Bishop Kemme made clear in his May 3 announcement.

“I do want to emphasize that the current pandemic is far from over. Medical experts tell us that this health crisis remains a very serious threat to the lives of many people,” Kemme stated.

“Because of this, I want to urge all those in the high risk population and others who so choose to continue to use the general dispensation I am giving from the obligation to attend the Sunday celebration of the Mass, which continues indefinitely during this crisis. Please do not put yourself or others at risk by attending the Masses once they resume. This is my urgent appeal to all in our Catholic Community: use extraordinary caution and good judgment in determining if you should attend Mass. No mortal sin is committed if you decide that you and your family should not attend.”

Kimbro said that he is looking forward to having parishioners come back to Mass, even though it might not be the triumphant return that some may have envisioned just yet, with everyone packing in the pews like normal.

“I think everybody was hoping it would kind of be like this post-9/11 experience, where churches are packed and everybody recognizes that need (for God), but we're tempering that, and it's kind of like everything in this virus, right? Our expectations versus our reality - having to live in the reality of the moment and what we're given and just go with that,” he said. 

“But then I looked at the Gospel for this Sunday that we're back, and the first line is: ‘Do not let your hearts be troubled.’ So that's perfect.”

CNA Staff, May 8, 2020 / 07:00 am (CNA).- A new “dial-a-Mass” service enabling Catholics with no internet connection to listen to Sunday Masses is proving a success, an English bishop has said. 

Bishop Terence Drainey of Middlesbrough said that 100 people used the Mass-by-Phone service when it launched May 3.  

Public Masses were suspended in England from March 20 and churches ordered to close days later. The government has not indicated when churches will be allowed to reopen. 

The Diocese of Middlesbrough, in northern England, decided to introduce the phone line -- believed to be the first of its kind in England -- when it became clear that some Catholics were unable to follow livestream Masses because they didn’t have smartphones or Wi-Fi.

Bishop Drainey told CNA: “We’re trying to reach out to as many people as possible. But it became obvious to us that there are some people who aren’t on the internet and they are being completely missed and also wanting to somehow take part in the Mass.”

“As a result of that, talking to our communications people, we came up with this idea of having a ‘dial-a-Mass’ system.”

When Catholics call the service, they hear a brief message welcoming them to St Mary’s Cathedral in Middlesbrough. A recording of the Sunday Mass then begins. 

The Knights of St Columba Council 29 is funding the service, which the diocese believes is the first in England that doesn’t require special access codes.

Bishop Drainey said the line was part of the Church’s creative response to restrictions imposed by the government to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

“One of the things that this crisis situation has brought out is people’s imagination: how to initiate new ways of praying, new ways of getting in touch with the larger Church, participating virtually in liturgical celebrations,” he said.

He added that the service was likely to continue after the crisis passed. He recalled that an 86-year-old woman had phoned him just before the lockdown to talk about livestreamed Masses:

“I said we’re about to do it. ‘That’s fine, great,’ she said. ‘But when all this is finished, you need to continue livestreaming. People like me who can no longer get out, we long to be able to somehow be in contact with the Mass. So promise me there you'll really encourage livestreaming after this has all passed.' And I said: 'Yes, absolutely. I agree.'”

In addition to livestreaming Masses and Mass-by-Phone, the diocese is planning to hold a virtual pilgrimage to Lourdes after it was forced to postpone its regular trip to the French shrine at the end of May. The online pilgrimage will include services on Facebook as well as special prayers and reflections. 
 

Rome, Italy, May 8, 2020 / 10:00 am (CNA).- The U.S. Ambassador to the Holy See has called attention to the role of faith-based organizations in delivering U.S government relief funds to assist people who are suffering due to the coronavirus in Italy.

“The United States is funding NGOs and faith-based organizations that can effectively deliver critical assistance,” U.S. Ambassador Callista Gingrich told EWTN News May 6. 

“It’s important that American money be put to good use. Faith-based organizations are effective and trustworthy partners. They’re inspired by a sense of purpose and dedication to help those most in need,” the ambassador said.

The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has committed $50 million to aid Italy as it responds to the outbreak, which includes $30 million in funding split between faith-based organizations, nongovernmental organizations, and public international organizations, an official from the embassy told CNA. 

This is part of the $900 million the U.S. government is contributing globally in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. On May 6, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced that $100 million will be used to support virus detection and control, and $28 million to support refugees and migrants.

While the U.S. government is still in the process of vetting which NGOs and faith-based organizations will be receiving funds in Italy, Ambassador Gingrich said that the assistance package includes funding for “some of our Vatican-affiliated partners here, in Italy.”

A USAID document published in April describes the work of Catholic Relief Services and Caritas in Bangladesh, Nepal, Lebanon, Liberia, Kenya, Guatemala, and Mexico in supporting health care among vulnerable populations. It also showcases the contributions of Islamic Relief USA, the Jewish Distribution Committee, World Vision, and Malteser International, the aid agency of the Order of Malta.

In Italy, Malteser International set up a hospital and donated 260 ventilators, and distributed food and medicine to elderly in isolation.

A symposium at the Vatican on government partnerships with faith-based organizations co-hosted by the U.S. Embassy to the Holy See in October also highlighted the work of Caritas Internationalis, the Community of Sant’Egidio, and Aid to the Church in Need in providing humanitarian assistance.

The U.S. government has previously partnered with faith-based groups to provide emergency relief, defend religious freedom, and combat human trafficking, stating that faith-based organizations provide “unparalleled access to local populations and a fierce dedication to human dignity.”

In April, the embassy publicized the work of the evangelical Christian organization Samaritan’s Purse in creating and staffing an emergency field hospital in Cremona, Italy, in an online video. 

“As the world continues to battle the COVID-19 pandemic, faith-based organizations are playing a vital role,” Gingrich said in the video. 

Nearly 30,000 people have died in Italy’s coronavirus outbreak, according to the Italian Ministry of Health’s statistics on May 7. At least 89,000 people remain infected with COVID-19 in Italy after a total of more than 215,000 cases were documented, mostly in the north of the country.

Due to Italy’s nationwide lockdown, the U.S. Embassy to the Holy See has had to cancel several events it had scheduled for the spring, including a symposium, “Confronting the global rise of anti-Semitism,” scheduled to coincide with the opening of the Vatican’s archives on Pope Pius XII. 

However, the ambassador said that she has continued to speak with members of the diplomatic community via weekly video conferences.

“This pandemic will greatly affect our priorities and activities going forward. However, through meetings, symposiums, and cultural diplomacy, the U.S. Embassy to the Holy See will continue our important work with the Vatican to advance peace, freedom, and human dignity around the world,” Gingrich said.

CNA Staff, May 8, 2020 / 10:25 am (CNA).- Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò has accused a Vatican cardinal of causing him “serious harm” in a bitter war of words over a controversial open letter regarding the coronavirus crisis.

In a statement published May 8, the archbishop criticized Cardinal Robert Sarah’s decision to distance himself from the letter, titled “Appeal for the Church and the World,” which argues that the coronavirus pandemic has been exploited in order to create a one-world government.

The statement details Vigano’s account of his interactions with Sarah beginning May 4. Viganò claims that on the evening of May 7, the prefect of the Vatican's Congregation for Divine Worship and Sacraments asked him to remove him from the list of signatories to the letter, which had by that time already been published.

“With surprise and deep regret,” he wrote, “I then learned that His Eminence had used his Twitter account, without giving me any notice, to make statements that cause serious harm to the truth and to my person.”

Viganò was referring to a series of three May 7 tweets from Sarah, which said: “A Cardinal Prefect, member of the Roman Curia has to observe a certain restriction  on political matters. He shouldn't sign petitions in such aereas [sic].”

“Therefore this morning I explicitely [sic] asked the authors of the petition titled ‘For the Church and for the world’ not to mention my name.”

“From a personal point of view, I may share some questions or preoccupations raised regarding restrictions on fundamental freedom but I didn't sign that petition,” Sarah added.

Viganò’s statement continued: “I am very sorry that this matter, which is due to human weakness, and for which I bear no resentment towards the person who caused it, has distracted our attention from what must seriously concern us at this dramatic moment.”

After Viganò issued his rebuke, Sarah tweeted May 8: “I will not speak to this petition, which today seems to occupy a lot of people. I leave to their conscience those who want to exploit it in one way or another. I decided not to sign this text. I fully accept my choice.”

In his statement, Viganò said he had chosen to publicize his private conversations with Sarah because he had a duty to tell the truth, and “also for the sake of fraternal correction.”

Vigano said Sarah had initially told him: “Yes, I agree to put my name to it, because this is a fight we must engage in together, not only for the Catholic Church but for all mankind.”

He confirmed that Sarah’s signature has now been removed from the open letter.

Vigano, a former papal nuncio made headlines in August 2018, for a letter that alleged Vatican officials had ignored warnings about the sexual abuse of disgraced former cardinal Theodore McCarrick. Since that time, Vigano has released numerous letters expressing his viewpoints on matters in the Church, which include criticisms of Pope Francis and other curial officials.

The appeal argued that as a result of the pandemic centuries of Christian civilization could be “erased under the pretext of a virus” and an “odious technological tyranny” established in its place.

It said: “We have reason to believe, on the basis of official data on the incidence of the epidemic as related to the number of deaths, that there are powers interested in creating panic among the world’s population with the sole aim of permanently imposing unacceptable forms of restriction on freedoms, of controlling people and of tracking their movements. The imposition of these illiberal measures is a disturbing prelude to the realization of a World Government beyond all control.”

Several bishops and cardinals are alleged to have signed the letter. Bishop Joseph Strickland of Tyler, Texas told CNA May 7 that he had signed it.

A press release on the appeal’s website May 8 claimed that Robert Kennedy Jr, son of the slain US. Presidential candidate Sen. Robert Kennedy, had signed the letter.

To date, nearly 4 million people have tested positive for the coronavirus, and at least 272,000 have died.

Rome Newsroom, May 8, 2020 / 02:00 pm (CNA).- After the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith ruled that the hospitals of the Brothers of Charity in Belgium can no longer be considered as Catholic, the religious order is seeking to prevent the hospital network from using its name, their general superior told CNA. 

Br. René Stockman, general superior of the Congregation of the Brothers of Charity, said he fought to keep the Catholic identity and mission of the hospitals intact. But when the Brothers of Charity Organization, the non-profit group which manages the hospitals, approved pro-euthanasia guidelines 2017, he immediately referred the matter to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which issued its decision at the end of March.

The CDF decision was communicated in a letter dated March 30, stating that "with deep sadness" the "psychiatric hospitals managed by the Provincialate of the Brothers of Charity association in Belgium will no longer be able to consider themselves Catholic institutions."

Stockman said he was now working to stop the 15-hospital network run by the Brothers of Charity Organization, the non-profit which brought in the pro-euthanasia policy, from continuing to use the order’s name.

“As a congregation,” Br. Stockman said, “we will clearly ask them not to use the name Brothers of Charity anymore for the psychiatric hospitals,” adding that ”we will do everything to come to clear arrangements without going to legal fight.” 

“We hope that we can make it [work] in that way,” he said, but the non-profit’s board have signalled resistance. 

Raf De Rycke, president of the Brothers of Charity Organization, said on May 5 that he intends to continue using the order’s name, and claimed the hospitals fulfil the same mission, and the same vision as ever, despite bringing in euthanasia.

The Stockman said the order was always adamant that they would never accept the possibility of euthanasia in their hospitals, but only a few brothers remain working in the hospitals, mostly in management roles. The order has asked them to leave their positions, now that they can no longer be considered Catholic. 

But, he said, “there are many doctors who don’t agree with the situation and they made their objection of conscience, but it becomes more difficult for them in an environment where the management is developing clear guidelines on how to perform the process and moving towards euthanasia when a psychiatric patient is asking for it.”

Belgium has ushered in ever-expanding access to euthanasia in recent years, including for mental health patients, even minors, suffering from conditions like depression. Belgian law prohibits contractual clauses or other provisions prohibiting doctors working in institutions to euthanize patients. A doctor or nurse still has the individual freedom of conscience to refuse to euthanize or participate to euthanasia, but the same freedom is no longer afforded to insitutions. 

Stockman said there was no question of not complying with Rome’s decision, and he hoped it would inspire others to reconsider the gravity of the spread of euthanasia.

“We hope that also others will reflect on it, especially in the field of mental health care. It is the first time that the Holy See through the CDF has given a clear answer on the growing practice of euthanasia in the field of mental health care,” he told CNA.  

Belgium has ushered in ever-expanding access to euthanasia in recent years, including for mental health patients, even minors, suffering from conditions like depression.

In an official statement published on their website, the Brothers of Charity Organization has accused Stockman of using the issue of euthanasia "within a broader and longer-lasting conflict” between the order and the non-profit on the use of assets. 

The non-profit suggested that Stockman has long wanted to devote more resources to the Brothers’ missions in Africa and Asian, as vocations have dried up in Belgium, where most of the order’s members are over eighty. Meanwhile, in the developing world, the congregation is growing; last year Br. Stockman welcomed 27 new novices in Nairobi.

The Brothers of Charity Organization frames the dispute as one of control over assets, and its statement said they "do not see the need to adapt our operations after this [CDF] letter because we are convinced that we are acting correctly."

The situation is being monitored closely by other Catholic organizations in the country who see it as a possible test case. So far, the bishops have remained circumspect.

In a May 6 statement, the Belgian Episcopal Conference said that "the bishops experience this as an excruciating and complex affair, in which different types of topics and different lines of responsibility meet." 

The conference called for "a prolonged dialogue between all those involved,” while stressing their "utmost appreciation for the commitment of the Brothers of Charity in Belgium and all their employees to the benefit of mentally disabled, sick or injured people."

Calls for dialogue, however, may prove wishful thinking. As part of its review of the situation, the CDF sent Bishop Jan Hendriks, auxiliary of Amsterdam, as an apostolic visitor to try to resolve the situation, but, the Congregation said, he was unable to find "a viable solution that avoids any form of responsibility of the institution for euthanasia."

The conference also said that "based on their pastoral responsibility, the bishops will continue to work for unity and solidarity in the ecclesial community. They maintain their trust and will continue to cooperate with all the health institutions of Christian civil society."

Stockman did not comment on the bishops’ conference statement.

“Of course,” he said, “we feel, as a congregation, alone [in this fight], but [we are proceeding] in line with the doctrine of the Church, with the clear statement made by our general chapter in 2018 and with our charism of charity.” 

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, May 8, 2020 / 03:10 pm (CNA).- The Diocese of Springfield, Illinois, said that the Church must return to “normal life” after the governor announced plans to ban large gatherings until a COVID-19 vaccine or treatment is available.

Earlier in the week, the state’s Governor JB Pritzker unveiled a five-phase “Restore Illinois” plan that bans gatherings of more than 50 people until a vaccine or treatment is available, or the virus has stopped spreading for a sustained period of time. Health officials have said that a vaccine for the new coronavirus (COVID-19) might not be available for 12 to 18 months. 

Currently, people in the state are allowed to attend religious services of 10 or fewer people, but no gatherings of more than 10 people are permitted until phase 4 of Pritzker’s plan, and the state wouldn’t even be able to “advance” to phase 3 until May 29.

“The Church has certainly done her part in making great sacrifices to slow the spread of this virus,” Andrew Hansen, director of communications for the diocese of Springfield, Illinois, told CNA on Friday.

“That said, the Church must return to her normal life of liturgy and communal worship,” Hansen said, while emphasizing precautions such as social distancing “will likely be the appropriate path longer term for the return to some version of normalcy for the Church.”

Previously, in-person or drive-in religious services were banned in the state. The Thomas More Society filed a lawsuit on behalf of a church in Lena, Ill., on April 30. Later that evening a paragraph was added to the governor’s executive order allowing for people to leave their homes to attend religious services of ten or fewer people, the society’s president Peter Breen told CNA.

The next day, May 1, the archdiocese of Chicago announced it would be resuming public Masses with 10 or fewer people.

According to the “Restore Illinois” plan, there could not be any gathering of between 11 and 50 people in size until phase 4 of the plan—“Revitalization.”

That phase can start only when certain conditions have been met: the positivity rate of COVID tests is at or under 20% and doesn’t rise by more than 10 points over 14 days; hospital admissions don’t increase for 28 days; and hospitals have at least 14% “surge capacity” in ICU beds, medical and surgical beds, and ventilators.

Pitzker clarified in a Wednesday press conference that religious services would be part of this 50-person limit in phase 4, and schools would not be allowed to reopen until then, raising questions of how tuition-dependent Catholic schools might fare in the fall if remote learning is still widely utilized.

The state’s superintendent of education has said that at least some schools might have to begin the new school year with remote learning, or with students attending classes in-person only on certain days.

“So we continue to hope and pray schools will reopen next school year. Certainly, when our schools reopen, new measures and precautions will be in place,” Hansen told CNA.

The president of DePaul University, located in Chicago, announced earlier this week that the university already plans to “minimize our footprint on campus this fall,” and that an announcement of the fall plans could happen by June 15.

CNA Staff, May 8, 2020 / 04:15 pm (CNA).- As parishes and dioceses across the country deal with a drop in collections and the prospects of layoffs amid the pandemic, many parishes have managed to avail themselves of government loans designed to cover eight weeks of payroll expenses.

CBS News reported Friday that an estimated 12,000-13,000 of the 17,000 Catholic parishes in the U.S. had applied for Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) payroll loans from the Small Business Administration (SBA), and 9,000 so far had received them.

Guidance from the SBA on eligibility for the loans states that “no otherwise eligible organization will be disqualified from receiving a loan because of the religious nature, religious identity, or religious speech of the organization.”

Religious organizations are eligible for the loans as long as they meet the requirements of Section 501(c)(3) nonprofit and employ 500 or fewer people, the SBA said.

“The PPP isn't about the federal government assisting houses of worship or churches,” Pat Markey, the executive director of the Diocesan Fiscal Management Conference, told CBS News.

“PPP is about keeping people on payrolls, and a large segment of our society [in] the not for profit world...are churches and houses of worship. And they have people on payrolls too. So, if what this is about is keeping people on payrolls, then we all should have availability to do that.”

The Diocesan Fiscal Management Conference did not reply by press time to CNA’s request for additional comment.

Congress passed the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act March 27 to help relieve the economy during the coronavirus pandemic.

The CARES Act initially authorized some $350 billion in loans to small businesses, intended to allow them to continue to pay their employees. The loans were given on a first come, first serve basis.

The second round of funding, with some $310 billion in additional funds available, began April 27.

The loans were capped at $10 million, were open to businesses with fewer than 500 employees per location, and were intended to cover two months of payroll costs.

The federal government promised to forgive the loans if a business used at least 75% of the funds to maintain its payroll at “pre-pandemic levels” for eight weeks after the loan is disbursed, the New York Times reports.

The remaining money could be used only to pay for certain expenses, such as a mortgage, rent, and utilities, according to the Times.

A survey of Protestant pastors by LifeWay Research found that about 40% had applied for PPP loans with more than half of them reporting being approved.

NPR reports that synagogues have also applied for government funding, though in a smaller proportion— of nearly 4,000 synagogues in the United States, about 250 were approved for PPP loans in the first round of lending, according to surveys by the Jewish Federations of North America and the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America.

The PPP has been subject to some criticism since its launch, including from those who say business owners with criminal records have been excluded from the program thus far.

In addition, several large companies, such as Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse, have received multi-million dollar loans through the program. Some of these large companies, such as Shake Shack, have since returned their loans.

Two New York dioceses— Rochester and Buffalo— are suing the Small Business Administration for access to PPP funds, after they were denied loans because of their bankruptcy status.

An SBA rule stipulated that the funds would not go to bankruptcy debtors. Both the dioceses of Rochester and Buffalo have filed for bankruptcy in the past several months, after being named in hundreds of clergy sex abuse lawsuits filed under New York Child Victims Protection Act.

 

Denver Newsroom, May 8, 2020 / 05:29 pm (CNA).- Mother’s Day is going to look different for most families this year, due to the coronavirus pandemic.

For Catholics, some churches are in the process of slowly re-opening public Masses, but the dispensation from the Sunday obligation continues to stand, as the virus has not gone away and a cure or vaccine has yet to be found.

While most Catholics are eager to return to Mass, a small group of Catholics are relieved that they will not be sitting in a public pew this Mother’s Day.

“We actually heard from one woman who said, ‘I kind of feel badly about saying this, but I'm sort of glad that we won't be in the pews this year for Mother's Day,’” Ann Koshute, founder of Springs in the Desert Catholic ministry, told CNA.


“That's something that we hear and that everybody I think on the team has experienced at one point in this journey,” she said - the desire to avoid Mass on Mother’s Day. That’s because Koshute, along with other members of her ministry, have had painful experiences with infertility, and the customary Mother’s Day blessing given to mothers at many parishes that day can bring their grief and sense of loss poignantly to the fore.


“I think that so often people in our own families, our friends, and even our pastors don't really understand the full extent of the pain and the grief or even the full extent of the issue of infertility, of how many couples are really dealing with it,” she said.


The pain of infertility, and the lack of resources available to Catholics on the subject, was why Koshute and her friend, Kimberly Henkel, founded Springs in the Desert, a Catholic ministry to spiritually and emotionally support women and couples experiencing infertility and infant loss. Originally, Henkel and Koshute, who have both experienced infertility, thought they might write a book. But they decided to start with a ministry website and a blog that could bring people together and allow for other women and couples to share their experiences. The group is relatively new, and held its first retreat in Philadelphia in December. They were set to hold a second one this weekend - Mother’s Day weekend - in the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend, when, well, the pandemic hit.

Now, they’ve moved the retreat online and opened it up to Catholics across the country - and they’ve been overwhelmed by the response.

“We thought that we would be really excited if maybe a couple dozen people found out about it and came. We are over 100 participants now. And it's free and it's going to be available all weekend,” Koshute said. The retreat is trying to address the emotional and spiritual experience of infertility and loss for a broad range of people, Henkel said - from mothers who have miscarried, to women who are past child-bearing years and still grieving the loss of infertility, to women “who feel like their biological clocks are ticking and just haven’t met the right guy.” But now that it's a virtual, pre-recorded, watch-at-your-leisure retreat, it also has the potential to reach a population that is often more reluctant to gather in groups and talk about their experiences of infertility: men. “It's mostly women who are emailing us (about the retreat), although we know that many of their husbands will watch with them. But we've also had a few men email us,” Koshute said.


“One in particular, it just really touched my heart. And he said that he was searching the web for help for his wife on Mother's Day. And I was just so filled with praise and thanksgiving to God for that, for a husband to see that hurt in his wife and to want to find a way to help her,” she added. Men and women typically experience the grief of infertility quite differently, Koshute noted. “For us women, it's so visceral because life is conceived within us and we carry that life. But for a man, it's so different,” she said.

“(Men are) kind of distant from that experience until the child is actually born. And so I think many times men, the grief and the burden that they carry is their wife's. They really carry her sadness and I think feel at a loss because they want to make everything right. They want to fix this, and they want to make her whole. And the mystery of infertility is that it's not that simple. And that's one of the things that makes it so difficult,” she said. Henkel said she experienced her own difficulties in trying to discuss infertility with her husband. Now that they’ve experienced the joy of growing their family through adoption, she said, he is much more open to inviting other men to share their experiences. Henkel said she is hoping that an additional benefit of this retreat being online is that it will facilitate discussions between couples watching the videos together. Both Henkel and Koshute said that while the experience of infertility and loss is painful, and they want to help couples acknowledge and accept that pain, they also want Springs in the Desert to be a positive and supportive experience for couples and women, where they can find hope and redemption even in their suffering. One of the topics they focus on is how all women are called to motherhood in their lives, whether it is spiritual or biological.

“My experience has shown me that my motherhood is really engaged in so many ways that I never considered before,” Koshute said.

“Not just with my godson or with other children in my family, but with women who are older than I who are friends and who might come to me with a difficulty or problem and I can help them,” or by helping family members in need or through charitable works, she added. “That's one of the messages that we try to get across to women and to couples as well, that those kinds of things, what we would maybe refer to as spiritual motherhood, is not illegitimate,” she said.

“It's not second-place. It's a real way of engaging and living out our motherhood. It's also not a replacement for a baby. So it's not as if you go out and volunteer in your community and now you won't have this longing for a child anymore. But we've really found through our own experience and through talking with other women that the more we kind of put ourselves out there and give ourselves to others, the more that we can begin to see that motherhood enacted in us.”

Henkel said she also likes to encourage couples to look at the ways God is calling them to be fruitful in their marriages outside of biological children.

“We really encourage these couples that they are not forgotten, they're not being punished. That God loves them so much and that he has something amazing for them. He's using this to draw them near to him and to allow them to cry out to him and ask for him to guide them, to lead them, to give them his love and show them what fruitfulness he has for them, what place in ministry and mission he has for them.” Henkel and her husband in particular like to share with couples their experience of foster care as one example of where God might be calling them to be fruitful. After a frustrating and expensive experience with some adoption agencies, Henkel and her husband decided to look into giving a home to children through foster care.

“Here is a situation where these children really need families,” she said. “It's hard because there's no guarantee you're going to get to keep this child, so there's a sense of this new greater level of having to learn how to trust God.” “I think that with a couple discerning that fruitfulness, it's also discerning - where is God really calling you? There's so much need in this world. And he wants to use us.”

Couples interested in the Springs in the Desert Mother’s Day weekend retreat can sign up for free online at the Springs in the Desert website. Content will be uploaded and available for anyone who registers, Henkel said, even if they register late. The retreat team will also be hosting a live talk on Sunday, May 10 at 2 p.m. Eastern on the ministry’s Facebook page.

“There's a place for you in Springs of the Desert,” Henkel added. “There's so many women who have reached out to us in Philly. We added several more women to our group, to our team, our official team, women who came to the retreat. One woman had come there and she said she had had a miscarriage, and neither one of us has experienced that. So we said, please join us. We want your voice.”

“We're trying to really bring the voices of many different women to our team so that people will feel there is somebody that is talking they can really relate to. Because there are all of these different situations, but they've got obviously a very similar undercurrent.”

CNA Staff, May 9, 2020 / 06:01 am (CNA).- Pakistan’s government has declined to include the Ahmadi religious group in its National Commission for Minorities, drawing attention to the group whose Muslim self-identification is rejected by many Muslims.

In a note seen by Reuters, Pakistan’s Ministry of Religious Affairs said Ahmadis should not be included in the commission “given the religious and historical sensitivity of the issue.” Pakistan’s constitution does not recognize the Ahmadis as Muslim.

However, Ahmadis consider themselves part of Islam. The movement was founded in 1889 in British-ruled India. They consider their founder Mirza Ghulam Ahmad a “subordinate prophet.” Other Muslims see this as a violation of the tenet that Muhammad was the last prophet.

There are about 500,000 Ahmadis in Pakistan and up to 20 million adherents worldwide. Some observers estimate the Ahmadi population in Pakistan is higher, but persecution encourages Ahmadis to hide their identity.

Pakistan’s religious freedom record has been a matter of international concern.

The 2020 report of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom has said Ahmadis continue to face “severe persecution from authorities as well as societal harassment due to their beliefs.”

Both government authorities and mobs target their places of worship. In October 2019, the report said, police in Punjab partially demolished a 70-year-old Ahmadiyya mosque.

Pakistan’s National Commission for Minorities gives some status, voice, and protections to minorities in a country where over 90% of people identify as Muslim.

A Hindu has been nominated to chair the minorities commission, whose members include representatives of Christian, Kalash, Sikh, and Zoroastrian communities. Government officials and the head of Pakistan’s Council of Islamic Ideology also have commission seats.

State Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Ali Muhammad Khan, a vocal opponent of including the Ahmadis on the commission, has referred to them as agents of chaos.

“If they want to avail constitutional rights they must accept the constitution first,” he told Reuters. “The Pakistani constitution considers them non-Muslims.”

Usman Ahmad, an Ahmadi representative, told Reuters it is a “complete myth” that they did not accept the constitution. He added that many people disagree with parts of the constitution but still have rights under it.   

He said his community is used to exclusion and has never accepted classification as non-Muslim.

“We’ve never joined such commissions that require us to accept our non-Muslim status,” he said.

Minister of Information Shibli Faraz has said the rights of all people were fully respected in the handling of the commission.

“Every country has the sovereign right to make judgments according to its ground realities,” he told Reuters.

Khan, the Minister for Parliamentary Affairs, had posted to Twitter, then deleted, a comment “There is only one punishment for insulting the Prophet - chopping off the head.” He said he believed in “legal procedures and court proceedings” for those accused of blasphemy. Twitter told him to delete the post, Reuters reports.

Pakistan’s blasphemy laws impose strict punishment on those who desecrate the Quran or who defame or insult Muhammad. Although the government has never executed a person under the blasphemy laws, accusations alone have inspired mob and vigilante violence.

The laws, introduced in the 1980s, are reportedly used to settle scores or to persecute religious minorities. While non-Muslims constitute only 3 percent of the Pakistani population, 14 percent of blasphemy cases have been levied against them.

Many of those accused of blasphemy are murdered, and advocates of changing the law are also targeted by violence.

The Governor of Punjab Salman Taseer was one such critic of the law who was assassinated in January 2011.

Just months later, in March 2011, Shahbaz Bhatti, the first Federal Minister For Minorities Affairs and the only Christian in Pakistan’s cabinet, was assassinated by extremists who characterized him as a blasphemer. Bhatti had criticized the law and defended Asia Bibi, a Catholic woman sentenced to death by hanging in 2010 for blasphemy.

Bibi spent nine years on death row, but left Pakistan for Canada in 2019 at the age of 53 after her death sentence was overturned in October 2018.

The verdict and her subsequent release from prison sparked protests from Islamic hardliners who support strong blasphemy laws.

In Punjab last year, a mob attacked a Christian community after a mosque broadcast over loudspeaker a claim that the Christians had insulted Islam. In another incident in Karachi, false blasphemy accusations against four Christian women prompted mob violence that forced nearly 200 Christian families to flee their homes, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom said.

The situation in Pakistan has attention from some prominent Catholics.

In a Jan. 21, 2020 letter written on behalf of Philadelphia’s Pakistani Catholic community, then-Archbishop of Philadelphia Charles J. Chaput encouraged Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan to shape a culture of religious freedom

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom’s latest annual report said religious freedom conditions in Pakistan continued to deteriorate last year, citing “The systematic enforcement of blasphemy and anti-Ahmadiyya laws, and authorities’ failure to address forced conversions of religious minorities—including Hindus, Christians, and Sikhs—to Islam.”

The bipartisan federal commission advises the U.S. government on policy. Its report recommended that the U.S. government name Pakistan a country of particular concern for “systematic, ongoing, and egregious violations of religious freedom.”

In December 2018, for the first time, the U.S. State Department designated Pakistan a “Country of Particular Concern.” The designation, which can trigger sanctions under U.S. law, had been recommended by the U.S. Commission for International Religious Freedom in 2017 and 2018.

The latest commission report recommended that Pakistan be re-designated a “Country of Particular Concern,” given “systematic, ongoing, and egregious violations of religious freedom.”

Last July 16 - 31, OM worked together with six churches and another missionary organisation in an outreach that transformed hundreds of hearts in Irapuato. This city is located at the foot of Mexico’s Arandas Mountains, in the south central region of the state of Guanajuato. Five churches participated in sharing the gospel to individuals in the mornings and open airs in the afternoons, distributing over 10.500 brochures to 800 people who heard the good news.

During an outreach in the community of Chiapas, the OM Mexico team could see fruit from seeds Pastor Alonso had planted.

Young Mexicans are challenged to do their part in missions during a conference in August, in which OM participated.