Vatican official in Russia: War in Ukraine must end, but not through military means

Vatican City, Mar 24, 2020 / 12:25 pm (CNA).- The director of the Holy See’s press office, Matteo Bruni, said Tuesday there are now a total of four people connected to Vatican City who have tested positive for the coronavirus.

Included in this number, Bruni said, is the first confirmed case of COVID-19 connected to Vatican City, which was announced March 6. Of the subsequent cases, two are employees of the Vatican Museums and a third is an employee of the merchandise office.

Bruni stated March 24 that these four patients “had been placed in solitary confinement as a precaution before they tested positive and their isolation has already lasted for over 14 days; currently they are being treated in Italian hospitals or at home.”

The Vatican’s first case of the coronavirus was found after a patient tested positive in the city state’s outpatient health facilities March 5. The facilities were then closed for one day to allow for their sanitation.

The confirmation of COVID-19 cases came after information that the Vatican’s dicasteries and other offices will continue to be operational during the Italian lockdown.

The press office informed journalists March 24 that increased measures have been put in place to avoid the spread of the coronavirus, such as increasing the numbers of those who work remotely, thus minimizing the number of staff present in offices.

This is to both “limit the movement of employees and at the same time guarantee the exercise of the Petrine ministry,” the release stated.

“The heads of the dicasteries are entrusted with the task of continuing to ensure essential services to the Universal Church.”

During the Italian coronavirus lockdown, Pope Francis has continued certain aspects of his daily schedule, including his morning Mass, general audiences, and Angelus, however they are being shared over video livestream and without the presence of the public.

His schedule has also included one-on-one meetings with Roman curia officials.

The number of active COVID-19 cases in Rome’s region of Lazio has grown to over 1,500. There have been 80 deaths from the virus in the region. Overall, more than 6,800 people have died in Italy from the coronavirus.

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CNA Staff, May 25, 2020 / 06:00 am (CNA).- Archbishop Georg Ganswein has spent most of the last two decades standing next to the person with the microphone, in his service as an aide to both Pope emeritus Benedict XVI and Pope Francis. But a new book c… […]

Vatican City, Mar 28, 2018 / 06:36 am (CNA/EWTN News).- On Wednesday the Vatican announced that Pope Francis has named Fr. Robert F. Christian, O.P., a Dominican friar and a native of San Francisco, as the next auxiliary bishop for his home diocese in California.

In a statement coinciding with the March 28 announcement from the Vatican, San Francisco’s Archbishop, Salvatore Cordileone, said he was “overjoyed to welcome Fr. Christian back to his native San Francisco.”

“We first met while studying in Rome some forty years ago and we are now all blessed that Bishop-Elect Christian joins us to serve our priests, religious, deacons and all the people of the Archdiocese.”

On his part, the bishop-elect said he is “delighted to minister in the area where I was born and raised, and where I have numerous relatives and friends. I know I can count on the prayers of many people, and I am eager to serve the people of the City and Archdiocese that I call home.”

Born in San Francisco in 1948, Christian attended Catholic school for the entirety of his school years, and graduated from Ignatius High School in 1965. Five years later, in 1970, he graduated from Santa Clara University with a degree in literature.

Christian entered the Dominican novitiate in Oakland the same year, and continued his ecclesiastical, philosophical and theological studies at Saint Albert College and the Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology.

He made his solemn vows in 1974 and began attending courses at the Pontifical University of St. Thomas (the Angelicum) in Rome. He was ordained in 1976, and immediately began his teaching career at Dominican College in San Rafael.

After later receiving his doctorate in theology from the Angelicum, Christian began what would be a long teaching career at the university, lasting from 1985-1997.

The bishop-elect then made his way back to California, where he served in a variety of roles, including vicar and administrator of the Western Dominican Province, university professor at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley and as a member of the Clergy Education Board for the Archdiocese of San Francisco.

Christian then held the role of deputy dean of the Angelicum from 1999-2014. After taking a year-long sabbatical, in 2015 he became master of students for the Western Dominican Province.

He was a “peritus,” or expert, at the Synod of Bishops on Priestly Formation in 1990, and is currently a consultor to the Pontifical Council for Christian Unity and a member of the Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission.

In addition to English, he also speaks Italian, Spanish and French, and he knows Latin.

Bishop-elect Christian’s episcopal ordination will likely take place at St. Mary’s Cathedral in San Francisco near the beginning of the summer.

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