CNA Staff, Mar 1, 2021 / 06:00 am (CNA).- A body representing religious men and women has questioned the exclusion of elderly religious from the early stages of coronavirus vaccination programs in Belgium.
In a letter dated Feb. 19, Br. Robert Thunus, president of the Conference of Religious Women and Men in Belgium (COREB), told Frank Vandenbroucke, Belgium’s Minister of Health and Social Affairs, that the treatment of elderly religious was “totally inconsistent.”
Belgium, a country of 11.5 million people bordering France, Germany, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands, is widely reported to have the world’s highest COVID-19 death rate. More than 771,500 people have tested positive for coronavirus and over 22,000 have died in Belgium as of March 1, according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center.
In the letter, seen by CNA, Thunus explained that he was writing regarding around 1,750 religious men and women, most of whom are over 75 years of age. He expressed concern that they were being treated differently from elderly people who lived in certified care homes, despite facing a similar risk of coronavirus outbreaks.
The letter was first reported on Feb. 24 by CathoBel, the website of the Catholic Church in Belgium, which noted that homes for elderly religious varied according to the congregation. Some only house disabled people or the very old, while others include able-bodied residents who look after those who are more frail. But in all cases, community life poses an increased risk of contracting COVID-19.
The website said that COREB’s treasurer Fr. Robert Huet had raised the issue with the Agency for a Life of Quality (AViQ), which oversees health matters in Wallonia, one of the three regions of Belgium.
The agency told Huet that elderly religious would be vaccinated as part of the 1B vaccination phase, which is scheduled to begin in March and include people over 65 years of age.
In his letter, Thunus described AViQ as being “deaf to our appeals.”
CathoBel said that Mathilde Vandorpe, a member of the Humanist Democratic Center (cdH) party, would question Christie Morreale, the Walloon Minister of Health, about the issue during a committee meeting on March 2.
In his letter, Thunus noted that doctors administered the annual flu vaccine to elderly residents of religious communities. He said he hoped that, in a similar way, physicians would be able to obtain and administer the COVID-19 vaccine to religious sisters and brothers, as well as those who care for them.
“They are people at risk, as are the staff members who care for them on a daily basis,” he wrote.
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Rome, Italy, Nov 8, 2018 / 01:01 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Francis spoke of the importance of increasing access to clean drinking water around the world Thursday, calling current statistics “a huge shame for the humanity.”
“Water is essential for life. In many parts of the world, our brothers and sisters cannot have a dignified life because of the lack of access to clean water,” Pope Francis told participants in an international conference in Rome Nov. 8.
Worldwide, 2.1 billion people do not have access to clean drinking water according to the World Health Organization’s 2015 statistics. This means that at least 2 billion people use a drinking water source contaminated with faeces, the WHO explains.
“The dramatic statistics of thirst, especially the situation of those people who get sick and often die because of unhealthy water, is a huge shame for the humanity of the 21st century,” Pope Francis said at the Pontifical Urban University.
Contaminated drinking water can lead to diseases such as diarrhoea, cholera, dysentery, typhoid, and polio. An estimated 842,000 people die from diarrhoea alone each year as a result of unsafe drinking-water, sanitation, and hand hygiene.
The Vatican conference, “Managing a Common Good: Access to Drinking Water for All” addressed solutions to this global issue through the creation of infrastructures, training, advocacy, and assistance to endangered populations whose water supply is compromised.
“The Holy See and the Church are committed to access to drinking water for all,” Pope Francis said.
The Dicastery for Integral Human Development organized the conference in partnership with the U.S., French, Italian, and Monegasque embassies to the Holy See.
Pope Francis said, “In every thirsty man we perceive the same image of God, as we read in Matthew’s Gospel: ‘I was thirsty and you gave me no drink.’”
Bishop David Zubik of Pittsburgh speaks with anchor Tracy Sabol on “EWTN News Nightly” on July 15, 2024, about the attempted assassination of former president Donald Trump. / Credit: “EWTN News Nightly”/screenshot
Pope Francis embraces a man in a wheelchair at the Wednesday general audience in St. Peter’s Square on June 10, 2015. / L’Osservatore Romano.
Vatican City, Nov 25, 2021 / 10:00 am (CNA).
In his message for the International Day of Persons with Disabilities, Pope Francis said that the Catholic Church needs the participation of everyone, and the disabled must not be excluded from the sacraments.
“As we celebrate your International Day, I would like to speak directly to all of you who live with any condition of disability, to tell you that the Church loves you and needs each of you for the fulfillment of her mission at the service of the Gospel,” the pope said on Nov. 25.
Quoting his 2013 exhortationEvangelii gaudium, he said: “The worst form of discrimination … is the lack of spiritual care.”
“Sometimes, as certain of you have unfortunately experienced, this has taken the form of denying access to the sacraments,” he said in his message.
“The Church’s magisterium is very clear in this area, and recently the Directory for Catechesis stated explicitly that ‘no one can deny the sacraments to persons with disabilities.’”
The theme of Pope Francis’ message for the day is friendship with Jesus, which he said is “an undeserved gift” that all have received and that can help those experiencing discrimination.
Friendship with Christ “redeems us and enables us to perceive differences as a treasure. For Jesus does not call us servants, women and men of lesser dignity, but friends: confidants worthy of knowing all that he has received from the Father,” he said.
Antonietta Pantone, 31, a Rome resident who uses a wheelchair, told journalists it was clear to her from the pope’s message that he considers it important that people with disabilities be part of the Church and not leave the Church.
She shared her personal journey of faith, which included finding a community in the Christian disability group Fede e Luce.
Pope Francis meets with Foi et Lumière members on Oct. 2, 2021. Vatican Media/CNA
Fede e Luce is the Italian branch of the French association Foi et Lumière (known as Faith and Light in the English-speaking world), which began 50 years ago with a pilgrimage for people with disabilities to the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes in France. The movement has now expanded to five continents.
“I always say: In the eyes of God, we are all equal,” Pantone said, noting that in her journey of faith, friendship has been fundamental.
Friendship with others “demonstrates the closeness of God,” she said.
Pantone also explained how losing physical contact with friends because of the COVID-19 pandemic has been very hard for her and other disabled people, especially her friends who live in residences and not with family.
In his message, Pope Francis addressed the difficulty of the coronavirus outbreak for the disabled.
“I think, for example, of your being forced to stay at home for long periods of time; the difficulty experienced by many students with disabilities in accessing aids to distance learning; the lengthy interruption of social care services in a good number of countries; and many other hardships that you have had to face,” he wrote.
He mentioned in particular those who live in residential facilities, separated from loved ones. “In those places, the virus hit hard and, despite the dedication of caretakers, it has taken all too many lives,” he said.
He also emphasized the importance of confronting these challenges by finding consolation in prayer and friendship with Jesus.
“I would like to speak personally to each of you, and I ask that, if necessary, your family members or those closest to you read my words to you, or convey my appeal,” he said. “I ask you to pray. The Lord listens attentively to the prayers of those who trust in him.”
“Prayer is a mission, a mission accessible to everyone, and I would like to entrust that mission in a particular way to you. There is no one so frail that he or she cannot pray, worship the Lord, give glory to his holy Name, and intercede for the salvation of the world. In the sight of the Almighty, we come to realize that we are all equal,” he stressed.
Pope Francis also noted the continued presence of discrimination, ignorance, and prejudice at all levels of society, assuring people with disabilities that through baptism they are “a full-fledged member of the Church community, so that all of us, without exclusion or discrimination, can say: “I am Church!’”
“The Church is truly your home!” he said.
At a Nov. 25 press conference, Fr. Alexandre Awi Mello said that the Vatican’s Dicastery for Laity, Family, and Life is trying to do more to improve pastoral care for those with disabilities.
“This message, in recognizing that people with disabilities have their place in the holy faithful People of God, is a great invitation, for us in the dicastery, but above all for parish, diocesan and associative realities to take new paths with pastoral creativity,” Awi Mello said.
Fr. Alexandre Awi Mello, secretary of the Dicastery for Laity, Family, and Life, speaks at a Vatican press conference, May 18, 2021. Gianluca Teseo/CNA.
“It is a door that opens to think of pastoral care no longer for, but with…”
On Dec. 6, the dicastery will launch a video campaign with the hashtag #IamChurch. In five videos, Catholics with disabilities from different parts of the world will share about their experiences in the Church.
Pantone, who participated in one of the Vatican’s videos, told CNA that she would like to see the Catholic Church do more to develop courses that allow people with all kinds of disabilities to participate in parish life, such as formation courses to become a catechism teacher.
“I still had some ways to study [to become a catechist],” she said, “but it depends on the type of disability, so if another disabled person wants to be a catechist, the Church should give him all the appropriate tools.”
Pantone said that the Church can do a lot for the disabled, but the recently begun Synodal Journey “is already a step forward which the world of disability sees positively.”
Pope Francis said in his message that “having Jesus as a friend is an immense consolation. It can turn each of us into a grateful and joyful disciple, one capable of showing that our frailties are no obstacle to living and proclaiming the Gospel.”
“In fact, a trusting and personal friendship with Jesus can serve as the spiritual key to accepting the limitations that all of us have, and thus to be at peace with them,” he said.
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