Vatican City, May 14, 2020 / 07:15 am (CNA).- Pope Francis has donated $200,000 to support 400 scholarships in Lebanon in an expression of his concern for the country’s young people, the Vatican announced Thursday.
The Holy See press o… […]
Vatican City, May 14, 2020 / 05:30 am (CNA).- Pope Francis urged people of every religion to fast and pray Thursday for an end to the coronavirus pandemic and “other pandemics” of hunger and war.
“Today all of us, brothers and sister… […]
Denver Newsroom, May 13, 2020 / 05:42 pm (CNA).- The Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis has assembled a team of 30 priests ready to administer last rites— confession, communion, and anointing of the sick— to COVID-19 patients.
All the priest-volunteers on the “Anointing Corps,” which launched early this month, are under 50, and most are parochial vicars. The team has anointed at least a dozen patients so far, the archdiocese said May 12.
Auxiliary Bishop Andrew Cozzens, who is spearheading the initiative, told CNA that priests from the Anointing Corps have been called to several nursing homes already.
“The nursing homes, I think, have just been happy that we’re handling it professionally,” Cozzens said.
On some occasions, he said, the anointing priest has been able to “live-stream” the anointing of the sick person to their family outside the nursing home, since they are not able to be there in person.
The Archdiocese of Chicago in early April assembled a team of 24 priest volunteers— all under age 60, and without pre-existing medical conditions— to administer anointing of the sick to Catholics with COVID-19 during the coronavirus pandemic.
Cozzens said he looked to Chicago for guidance on how to assemble their own team.
The key for the St. Paul and Minneapolis “Anointing Corps”, he said, has been their training and professionalism. In addition to the priests, their archdiocesan team has triage nurses working on it, he said— people who know how to communicate effectively with hospital staff.
“We haven’t been able to get into every nursing home— nor every hospital— because of the protocols, but we’ve been making a lot of progress,” Cozzens said.
The priests on the team have received the same personal protective equipment training as the doctors and nurses, he said.
“The key for us has been convincing the hospitals and nursing homes that we have a really good protocol, and that our priests are trained and know what they’re doing.”
Several of the hospitals and nursing homes where priests have performed anointing, Cozzens said, have been especially welcoming of and grateful for the priests’ ministry.
Most care centers have been helpful in providing the PPE that the priests need in order safely to enter the room and physically touch the patient when anointing them.
“The ones that are really helpful understand the importance of care at the time of death, and have been understanding that for us as Catholics, actual sacramental contact at the time of death is really important. And they’ve been understanding of that reality, and have provided us what we need to be able to do that.”
Cozzens encouraged other local Churches wanting to create their own anointing teams to consult with medical experts and make sure the priests are well trained in what they are being asked to do.
“Having a professional and consistent approach has been the key to hospitals letting us in,” he said.
Father Joseph Gifford, associate pastor of Church of All Saints in Lakeville typically serves as a nursing home chaplain.
His ministry as a chaplain normally would consist of celebrating Mass for the Catholic residents at four or five area nursing homes once or twice a month. In addition, Father Gifford would normally often be called to hear confessions and administer the anointing of the sick to residents.
Father Gifford said he is glad that it is he— as All Saints’ parochial vicar— who is tasked with anointing COVID-positive patients, and not his pastor.
“That way, my pastor can see the non-COVID-19 patients who are still in danger of death for all the other reasons,” he said.
“In my short experience as a priest, I can always look forward to going and saying Mass at the nursing home, and it’s going to be the same people,” adding that he looks forward to “getting to know them better, and share life and share God with them.”
Father Gifford was a trained singer before he entered the seminary, and told CNA he has used his gift of singing to entertain residents at the nursing homes he serves at by singing to them outside their windows.
In addition, since no one currently can visit the area nursing homes in person, All Saints parish has set up a “calling tree” of staff members and volunteers in order to regularly check on parishioners over 65.
He says he most misses the in-person interaction with the residents, and looks forward to the opportunity once more to talk with the residents in person.
The archdiocese has also set up a site where Catholics can commit to daily prayer for health care workers.
The Archdiocese of Boston also has assembled anointing teams of priests. In that local Church, the priests are housed together in strategic locations close to hospitals.
Throughout the country, chaplains at hospitals and nursing homes have had to adapt their ministry to protect the elderly and those at greatest risk of contracting COVID-19.
Father Hugh Vincent Dyer, a Dominican priest in New York, took up residence in the nursing home where he has served as chaplain since December 2019. There are about 360 elderly residents at the nursing home, not all of them Catholic, the Federalist reports.
To continue to minister while keeping his distance, Father Dyer has been broadcasting Mass, the rosary, and meditations from the facility’s chapel via closed-circuit television.
He also has been using the CCTV system to screen films, some of which he has found “can trigger forgotten memories and fascinating stories.”
In addition, he has been broadcasting a weekly “Cultural Miscellany,” during which he reads poetry— some of which are favorites that the residents have specifically requested— and offers reflections on them.
Denver Newsroom, May 13, 2020 / 03:36 pm (CNA).- Neither the Vatican nor U.S. bishops have responded to a letter signed by several Catholic bishops, which argues that the coronavirus pandemic has been exploited in order to create a one-world government… […]
Vatican City, May 13, 2020 / 02:30 pm (CNA).- The new head of the Holy See’s financial office said Wednesday the Vatican is not at risk of fiscal default, even while reports in the Italian media indicate dire deficit projections for the Holy See.
Speaking to Vatican Media May 13, Jesuit Fr. Juan Antonio Guerrero Alves said the Holy See is sure to see its deficit grow due to the coronavirus pandemic, but is not in danger of default.
“That doesn’t mean that we are not naming the crisis for what it is. We’re certainly facing difficult years,” the priest said.
In fact, the Vatican had been facing difficult financial prospects before the coronavirus pandemic. In 2018, the Holy See had a budget deficit of 70 million euros in its 300 million euro budget.
Part of the 2018 budget deficit is connected to the write-off of a controversial loan involving a bankrupt Italian hospital. But even apart from that expense, Vatican deficits had raised alarms among curial leaders and the pope’s cardinal advisers before the pandemic began a global economic crisis.
Before the coronavirus pandemic, the ledgers indicated that income and expenses had remained “constant” from 2016 to 2020, Guerroro said, with expenses outpacing income by an average of 60 to 70 million euros annually, the priest said.
For the Holy See, the coronavirus crisis has meant the loss of revenue for the Vatican Museums, a major source of income for the Church’s curial work, along with collapsing market investments, uncertain income from real estate investments, and diminished contributions for the Church around the world.
On May 10, Italian newspaper Il Messaggero reported on an internal Vatican report that projects income reduction of at least 30%, and possibly as much as 80%, in the next fiscal year. Those projections forecast substantial increases in the annual budget deficit of the Holy See.
Responding to the situation, Guerrero offered different numbers. The priest said of internal projections that “the most optimistic calculate a decrease in revenue of around 25%; the most pessimistic, around 45%.”
The priest did not explain the discrepancy between his numbers and those of the internal report, but he did tell Vatican News “the best we can do is to be diligent and transparent. We’ll depend on the money we can count on.”
“We’ll build a zero base budget for 2021, beginning with the essentials for mission,” he added.
Guerrero underscored that the Holy See “is not a business,” and its “objective is not to make a profit,” but to be mission-focused.
According to Guerrero, the Holy See’s operating budget is “less than the average American university.”
He also said that the ongoing budget deficit “has nothing to do with” “poor administration” or an “immobile bureaucracy.” The priest added that the Peter’s Pence collection is not used as a deficit stop-gap, but is instead a donation intended to finance the mission of the Holy See, including the pope’s charitable work.
Forty-five percent of the Holy See’s budget goes to payroll, but neither Il Messaggero nor Guerrero said directly that layoffs could be coming. Instead, the internal report cited by the Italian newspaper discussed training staff to be able to complete more tasks, and mentioned the need for a broad overhaul of the Holy See’s approach to personnel, which it said was unlikely to happen amid current circumstances.
Guerrero started his term as the Vatican’s finance minister in January, after Pope Francis made the appointment in November 2019, to fill the position left empty by Cardinal George Pell’s departure in summer 2017.
The priest explained the distribution of the Holy See’s expenses, stating that roughly 45% covers personnel, 45% general and administrative expenses, and 7.5% is donated.
“There is a goal behind these numbers,” the priest said. “Behind the balance sheet there is a mission, the service that these expenses make possible. Perhaps we need to better explain, tell the story better. We certainly need to be clearer.”
Some portions of the Holy See’s budget, 15%, or 48 million, is used to operate Vatican Media and the related communications and publishing operations, he said. Ten percent goes to the nunciatures, the Vatican’ embassies in foreign countries.
Another 10% goes to support the Eastern churches and another 8.5% to the mission churches, according to Guerrero.
He also said that 6% of the budget, roughly 17 million, is paid in taxes to Italy every year.
About the impact COVID-19 will have on the Holy See’s finances, Guerrero said their calculations estimate a decrease in income of 25 to 45%.
He said the Holy See intends to cut expenses this year to help make up for the likely smaller revenue, but “it is clear that the deficit will increase.”
“We have asked each Entity to do everything possible to reduce expenses while safeguarding the essential services of its specific mission. At a more structural level (since the deficit is structural), we will have to centralize financial investments, improve personnel management, improve procurement management. Guidelines for procurement are about to be approved which will certainly lead to savings. We are working in constant collaboration with all the dicasteries, combining centralisation with subsidiarity; autonomy with checks and balances; professionalism with vocation.”
The prefect said he hopes to release a budget sheet sometime this year to show that the Holy See spends its money “to do good, and in the service of the Church.”
“It deserves trust.”
“We are not a great power. You can talk about the difficulty of making it in the large European countries. Imagine us. We need to be humble. We are a family with a small patrimony and the generous help of many. We’ll make it with our ability to manage well, with the help of God and the faithful. The whole Church is sustained in this way.”
CNA Staff, May 13, 2020 / 02:00 pm (CNA).- Members of Congress are calling for urgent U.S. action to fight locust swarms in East Africa, which they say could cause mass starvation during a pandemic. Early action now could save lives and resou… […]
Washington D.C., May 13, 2020 / 12:00 pm (CNA).- Public masses remain suspended in the Archdiocese of Washington amid the coronavirus pandemic, but the pews at the Shrine of the Sacred Heart are not empty.
Priests, parishioners, and staff at Sac… […]
Vatican City, May 13, 2020 / 11:00 am (CNA).- A cardinal has praised Vatican officials for their “heartfelt response” to his request for donations to those suffering amid the coronavirus crisis.
Cardinal Konrad Krajewski told CNA May 13 th… […]
CNA Staff, May 13, 2020 / 10:30 am (CNA).- Archbishop Wilton Gregory of Washington, D.C., has spoken out against the “murderous attack” which caused the death of Ahmaud Arbery in Georgia. The archbishop said the killing was a reminder … […]
Rome Newsroom, May 13, 2020 / 10:00 am (CNA).- For the first time in its history, the Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima celebrated the May 13 anniversary of the 1917 Marian apparitions without the presence of the public.
“Yes, the sanctuary is empty, but not deserted. We are physically separated, but spiritually united as a Church with Mary, in an intense way, with a heart full of faith and trust,” Cardinal António Marto said as he led the rosary on the eve of the anniversary.
“Holy Mary, teach us to believe, hope, and love you. Star of the Sea, shine on us and guide us on our way in the sea of history,” the cardinal prayed.
Marto, the bishop of Leiria-Fátima, offered Mass May 13 via livestream at the Fatima shrine, calling for conversion and dedication to the rosary in response to the coronavirus pandemic.
“A pandemic is a call to a deep spiritual conversion,” Cardinal Marto said in his homily May 13.
“A short time ago we were living with enormous trust in the technical-scientific power, in the economical-financial power, thinking that we were perhaps immune to any epidemic or, if it came, a quick solution would be found. But, unexpectedly, an unpredictable, invisible, silent virus, able to contaminate everything and all, staggering the world. We felt the ground falter under our feet,” he said.
Marto said that the current “dramatic and tragic situation” reveals humanity’s vulnerability and frailty, and invites one to reflect on what is essential in life.
In Portugal, the celebrations of Our Lady of Fatima began on the eve of the feast. Fr. Carlos Cabecinhas, the rector of the Marian shrine, invited families to place candles in the windows of their houses as a way to participate in the traditional procession of candles at Fatima from home.
The rector said that while people cannot make a pilgrimage with their feet, they can make an interior pilgrimage with their hearts.
Public Masses are expected to resume in Portugal May 30 with some restrictions laid out by Portugal’s bishops’ conference to help prevent the spread of COVID-19.
At Fatima’s Chapel of the Apparitions, Cardinal Marto led the rosary May 12 with meditations on the sorrowful mysteries for the intention of ending the coronavirus pandemic.
“To the virus pandemic we want to respond with unity and prayer, with compassion and tenderness,” he said.
“Today we respond with the rosary, a prayer for difficult times,” Marto said. “By meditating on the painful mysteries, we unite all the suffering humanity. We entrust our pain to Mary’s maternal heart.”
The cardinal then quoted the Virgin Mary’s request when she appeared to three shepherd children Lucia, Jacinta and Francisco on May 13, 1917: “Pray the rosary every day to bring peace to the world and an end to the war.”
Jacinta and Francisco Marto were canonized on May 13, 2017, by Pope Francis in Portugal. Both of the young saints died of the Spanish flu pandemic that killed between 50 and 100 million people in the early 20th century.
Pope Francis encouraged devotion to Our Lady of Fatima during his general audience offered via livestream from the Vatican’s Apostolic Palace May 13.
“Today we celebrate the liturgical memorial of Our Lady of Fatima,” he said. “We turn our thoughts to the apparitions and its message transmitted throughout the world.”
“In our prayer we ask God, through the intercession of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, for peace for the world, the end of the pandemic, the spirit of penance and our conversion,” Pope Francis said.
© Catholic World Report