Washington D.C., Apr 2, 2020 / 11:55 pm (CNA).- An expert research professor on vaccines at the Catholic University of America is working with the university to make his patents available royalty-free to help fight the coronavirus pandemic.
Dr. Veniga… […]
Denver, Colo., Apr 2, 2020 / 05:00 pm (CNA).- What does a traveling evangelist do when a global pandemic keeps him at home? He goes online!
One Catholic evangelist said that lessons he’s learning about online evangelization during the coronavirus pandemic could make some Catholic ministries far more effective than they once were.
Chris Stefanick, who hosts EWTN’s “Real Life Catholic,” also travels the country, speaking to more than 80,000 people each year. His travels are the way he spreads the Word of God, and the way he makes a living.
Stefanick told CNA that preaching during the pandemic has meant a slew of personal and practical challenges. But he said those challenges could compel the Church to develop and refine effective use of technology for evangelization.
“This is not a time for the Church to slow down its ministry. It’s time to aggressively pivot and quickly pivot. This hasn’t changed what we do at that core,” Stefanick said.
In the past, even the recent past, Stefanick said, his evangelization work has focused mostly on events at which he speaks about how the Gospel, and the Church, have transformed his life and the lives of others.
His ministry has “able to leverage my gift for speaking with 40 parishes a year and that makes an impact,” he said.
But those events, however effective they are, have impact limited by attendance.
“Taking that same thing and doing it digitally,” Stefanick explained, broadens the reach of his ministry.
“If this succeeds, we can work with hundreds and hundreds of parishes. Whereas the events were limited by how many places I can get to.”
The pandemic will “make us more effective because this will strengthen the whole digital component of our ministry. So instead of being 75% about events, 25% digital, now it’s 100% digital. By the time we are out of this, we [will] strengthen that component,” he said.
Stefanick pointed to “I AM,” a virtual coaching program that was released by his ministry, Real Life Catholic, on Ash Wednesday. He said the initiative aims to help users replace negative self-thoughts with positive reflections on the Word of God. Drawing from struggles in his own life, he said, “I AM” is a program that is relevant to everyone, even non-Catholics.
“We have a 30-day coaching program and it’s [one] of the most effective ministr[ies] we’ve ever done, based on the responses of people [and] how it’s hitting their hearts. It’s a program about helping people rewire how they talk to themselves and replace self-talk with the uplifting Word of God,” he said.
“I’ve been with the Lord for a long time and I wrote some of this out of personal experience of the things that I struggle with negative self-talk.”
The coronavirus lockdown has changed Stefanick’s daily work schedule and brought about some own personal concerns, including worries about finances and the fragility of society. He said, though, it is also a blessing to spend so much time with family.
“I can perceive the good for me in that I haven’t been home this much in 10 years and it’s the Sabbath that’s made me relook at life. We’ll never get this chance again. God willing. We will never get the chance again to pause on so many of our activities,” he said.
“So it led to a lot of reflection, self-correction, repentance, prayer, silence and family time. Doing things like taking walks with kids, things I never did before that I regret not having done. Very simple things that you lose track of when life is going 300 miles an hour.”
Stefanick said the pandemic is also an opportunity to trust in the Lord.
“It also forces a real look, not theoretical, but a very real [look] at life and death,” he said. “We’re delusional in the Western world. We forget … how fragile the whole system is that insulates us from our need, from death, from everything,” Stefanick said.
“I found myself in moments of fear when going to the grocery store and seeing everything [going] totally nuts, “ he said. “[It’s ] forced me to come back to, ‘Lord, you are really my provider and whatever happens to me, your only motive is love.’ And that’s where my peace comes from. Not [from] having enough to pay bills and enough stuff out there to get what I need.”
Stefanick said the pandemic requires a different kind of courage than many people might have expected, adding that members of the Church are all called to a sort of monastic lifestyle at the moment. He said it would be potentially hazardous for people to break the quarantine, and should focus on an important work of mercy – prayer.
He pointed to a challenge from Pope Francis, who has offered a plenary indulgence to people suffering from COVID-19 and their caretakers, including healthcare workers, along with their benefactors in prayer.
The pandemic will lead to more death in the upcoming weeks and those in the hospitals need to know that prayers are being offered for them, Stefanick said..
“What’s being asked of us during this time is withdrawal, silence, and the life of a Carthusian monk … not the life of an evangelist missionary. So that’s a different kind of heroism and it’s no less difficult. Frankly. I think it would be easier for me if I knew I could go out and help people and risk my life going to Mass,” he said.
“We really have to pray for the world right now … We should be praying a lot for people who are facing death. It’s going to be a lot of bad news in the month ahead. A lot of people are gonna lose their lives and they need prayers.”
Washington D.C., Apr 2, 2020 / 04:00 pm (CNA).- Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has disputed Planned Parenthood’s claim that the state targeted abortion clinics in an order prohibiting non-essential medical procedures during the coronavirus pandemic.
Interview an interview that will air Thursday on EWTN Pro-Life Weekly, Paxton said that the abortion provider was itself demanding special treatment in a legal challenge to the executive issued last month by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott.
Abbott issued the executive order (GA 09) on March 22, halting non-essential surgeries and medical procedures during the coronavirus pandemic, in order to free up resources and medical personnel to treat COVID patients.
Abbott clarified that the order would apply to “any type of abortion that is not medically necessary to preserve the life or health of the mother.”
“What they are actually asking to be singled out,” Paxton said Thursday. “[They want] to be treated better than everybody else during this crisis, so they could be doing elective abortions, when those resources could otherwise be used to save somebody’s life.”
Planned Parenthood and other pro-abortion groups filed litigation over the executive order, claiming Abbott singled out the procedure. A federal district court initially blocked the order, but the Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued a stay on that ruling March 31, permitting Abbott’s order to go into effect.
In a statement Tuesday, Alexis McGill Johnson, acting president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, called Abbott’s order “heartless,” adding, “No other form of health care is being targeted this way — only abortion.”
During the interview on EWTN Pro-Life Weekly, Paxton argued that the Texas order does not single out abortion clinics, but is “a ban on elective procedures which also includes abortion.”
“It includes orthopedic surgeries, it includes dental procedures, it includes dermatological procedures, it includes all kinds of elective procedures, they are not being singled out, they are just being treated like everybody else,” Paxton said.
Paxton argued that any type of nonessential medical procedure “had to be stopped” in an effort to conserve personal protective equipment for health care professionals battling the coronavirus pandemic.
“We’re trying to conserve those because there’s a shortage of them, and conserve resources like hospital beds, and even the focus of doctors’ time,” Paxton said.
Paxton argued that through its lawsuit, Planned Parenthood is asking for special treatment.
“We didn’t want anybody treated any differently but apparently Planned Parenthood and the abortion providers felt like they should be given an exception to how other people and how other providers are being treated,” he said.
The order, Paxton said, “applies to everyone.”
The full interview with Paxton will air Thursday at 10:00 PM EST on EWTN.
Texas Attorney General @KenPaxtonTX explains how Governor Greg Abbot’s order was designed to conserve medical supplies during the #coronavirus pandemic. He also discusses the ongoing legal battle with @PPact.
Watch the full interview tonight. #prolife pic.twitter.com/lzTeao1gH3
— EWTN Pro-Life Weekly (@EWTNProLife) April 2, 2020
Kate Scanlon is a producer for EWTN Pro-Life Weekly.
Washington D.C., Apr 2, 2020 / 03:00 pm (CNA).- While sports around the country have seen their seasons suspended due to COVID-19, spatula baseball season is in full swing at one of the L’Arche community houses in Washington, D.C.
Faced with quarantines and stay-at-home orders, the four houses of L’Arche Greater Washington, D.C. (GWDC) were forced to adjust to a whole host of changes to keep the members of the community safe.
But, according to Luke Smith, executive director and community leader of L’Arche Greater Washington, the changes have meant that the L’Arche homes are doing what they do best: embracing creativity.
“We’re very creative as a community,” Smith said, noting that there are many artists within the organization. “We’re intentional communities, so we’re intentional about how we share our gifts–and we’re full of gifts–and so, and we’ve taken time to kind of lean into our creative energies.”
L’Arche GWDC is part of L’Arche International, “a worldwide federation of people, with and without intellectual disabilities, working together for a world where all belong.” L’Arche communities consist of “core members,” who have intellectual disabilities, and “assistants,” who generally do not have intellectual disabilities, and who live in community with core members. There are 14 “core members” in the Washington area.
Part of L’Arche’s “leaning in” to creativity involves devising new ways to pass the time. One home is having community members give “TED Talks” each night about topics they are interested in, and residents at another home invented “spatula baseball”–a game that has proven to be quite popular.
Unlike traditional baseball, which uses a bat and a ball, “spatula baseball” is designed to be played indoors–Smith said it is typically played in the kitchen and living room–and uses a spatula in place of the bat and a paper ball instead of a baseball. Once batters hit the ball, they proceed to walk around the bases.
Smith said that while community members are flexing their creative muscles at this time, others have tried to stick to a routine, even though they can no longer attend day programs or go to work due to the coronavirus.
“People are still getting up to have breakfast as they would do normally, still getting dressed to go to work,” he said. “Charles, who’s a member of the community, is still wearing a tie every day, as he would do normally.”
The core members understand why they cannot go to their jobs or programs and, Smith said, they have learned on the news about the coronavirus and why it is important to practice social distancing and handwashing. Being part of an international federation means that L’Arche GWDC can see how the homes abroad were dealing with the virus.
“We know that other members in other communities are experiencing this too,” he said. “So that reality of ‘we are doing this together, not just as a national population of people here in the U.S., but also as people of L’Arche across the world,’ has helped to set the tone.”
Even though Washington and Virginia are both under some variation of stay-at-home directives, the world of L’Arche’s community continues, albeit with modifications, said Smith. This Tuesday’s prayer service, which is normally held in-person, will instead be done via Zoom.
He added that there has been an “unintended benefit” of a new reliance on technology–being able to reconnect with past community members.
“Technology is a wonderful way of ensuring that we remain an intentional community, where we continue those mutual relationships or we are able to flourish–even in the midst of this,” said Smith.
Smith said that other measures, such as new screening procedures and temperature checks for any guests to the homes, as well as changes to who is permitted to go grocery shopping and when, are to ensure the health of the core members and assistants, many of whom are considered to be medically vulnerable.
“People with intellectual disabilities are often the most impacted by this,” said Smith. “And we have people in our community who are no longer at work. They are people with intellectual disabilities who are no longer receiving a paycheck and they are no longer engaged in, what is being meaningful and is meaningful for them.”
Smith also raised concerns about the potential quality of medical care that the core members would receive if they were to fall ill as extra motivation to introduce additional safety steps. He noted several states have been accused of issuing disaster preparedness plans that, should the situation arise, could prioritize giving care to people without intellectual disabilities if there were a shortage of ventilators.
“I am particularly mindful of that, in light of some personal experiences in my own community here in DC, where we’ve had issues in the past in terms of communicating the dignity of someone with their medical provider or the medical system,” said Smith.
Smith praised the “great work” of the assistants of L’Arche GWDC, as they have made “sacrifices in limiting what they are doing, to make sure that our homes are safe and healthy and protected.”
An obstacle facing L’Arche GWDC is the cancelation of their fundraising breakfast, as well as the challenges they face in obtaining common household supplies, which typically sell out very quickly. Smith said the communities have a wish list where people could support them financially if they wish.
As the DC-area concludes its third week of coronavirus-related restrictions, Smith told CNA that he has been careful to work to maintain a strong sense of community and cooperation within the homes.
“One of the things that we practice every day at the L’Arche community is the reality of forgiveness and celebration are daily parts of our reality,” he said.
“I’ve been sharing with the community that we need to be gentle with ourselves and gentle with others and that it’s okay to be frustrated with the coronavirus, but we don’t need to be frustrated with each other.” He said his community has “really leaned in” to this mentality.
“We’ve been able to lean into each other, and ask each other for support, and ask each other for space and time,” he added.
Smith told CNA that he hopes the L’Arche community is able to be a sign of hope and community for not only each other, but also for other members of the greater DC area–particularly those who have been impacted in one way or another by the coronavirus.
“We are praying with you,” said Smith. “We are thinking of ways we can support you. L’Arche wants to give, too; we as a community want to be supportive.”
Denver, Colo., Apr 2, 2020 / 04:00 am (CNA).- Dawne Mechlinski was a parish music minister for 41 years.
When she was 12 years old, when she was asked to be the organist at her parish in Point Pleasant Beach, New Jersey. She agreed, and added organ lessons onto her piano lessons. After attending Westminster Choir College, she’s been a full-time director of music since 1988 in the Diocese of Trenton, New Jersey.
Mechlinski, now 53, is the kind of parish music minister who sticks around – she’s only ever served at three different parishes, including her childhood parish. She’s been at her current parish, St. Mark’s in Sea Girt, since 2006.
That is, until the coronavirus pandemic struck.
At first, Mechlinski said employees of the parish took their own social distancing and health precautions, but for the most part, “everything was normal. Then on the weekend of the 14th and 15th (of March), I had questions from parents of choir members.”
The parents were wondering if choir practice was continuing, and if so, what it would look like. Mechlinski, who directs four choirs, decided to cancel choir for the weekend. Instead she played the organ while one person sang for all four Masses.
Attendance was low, Mechlinski noted, as social distancing was already catching on throughout the United States, but the collection basket wasn’t hit too hard, as many parishioners have moved to online donations.
Later that week, on Thursday, March 19, Mechlinski played the organ again for a funeral Mass. That evening, she got the call.
“We’ve decided you’re furloughed,” the parish business administrator told Mechlinski.
“I even had to question really what that meant,” she said. “I thought that was a military term, to be honest. I wasn’t prepared. I actually thought she was calling to give me protocol, how we would be handling things, what would be going on down the road.”
“And the business administrator just said, ‘This is what everyone (in the diocese) is doing, this is how we’ll handle it.’ She was reading me this letter. And that was it. She said, ‘You will be paid until tomorrow,’ which was Friday. I’m off on Wednesdays and Fridays, and that was it.”
Bishops across the United States have suspended public liturgies and closed church buildings in the past few weeks in response to state-issued public safety policies, and Catholic leaders have warned of an immediate revenue shortfall. Consequences of that shortfall include staff reductions, furloughs, and decreased hours.
The furlough came as a shock to Mechlinski, who noted that her parish is located in a “very affluent” area. Music ministry has been her life-long passion, it’s also her career: the primary source of income for a widowed mother to four children, two of whom still live at home and have significant medical needs.
Mechlinski said she tried to ask some clarifying questions, but as of now, things are “not real clear.” She’s unsure what will happen to her health insurance or her life insurance. She was told that her parish had not been paying into unemployment insurance, so she’s not sure what she qualifies for as far as any kind of aid right now.
“I am…a little alarmed that they don’t have something in place for their employees as a protection,” she said. “I’ve asked for a letter of furlough explaining (the details) and I have yet to receive it. I’ve asked for it a couple of times just to have something permanent rather than a phone conversation.”
Linda Rosa, the business manager at St. Mark’s, told CNA that the parish had been in a deficit even before the coronavirus pandemic hit.
“We weren’t in the best shape to begin with. We were just trying to get out of it and all of a sudden, there’s something that happens,” Rosa said. She said she has been in touch with employees and with the diocese as the parish has had to make difficult financial decisions to furlough or lay off employees.
Rosa added that as of April 1, no full-time employee of the parish had yet gone without pay. Rosa said Mechlinski was still receiving pay for any personal or sick time off that she had not yet used in the year, as were the other employees. She said Mechlinski and all other employees’ benefits will be covered by the parish for the duration of the pandemic.
“We’re just continuing to pray for all those that have been affected,” Rosa said.
Rayanne Bennett, director of communications in the Diocese of Trenton, told CNA that furloughs were an “unfortunate necessity” due to the coronavirus pandemic, as the drop in donations at the parish level also affects the financial stability of the diocese.
Bennett said that the diocese will pay for the health insurance of all furloughed employees for three months “at minimum,” and has advised all furloughed staff to apply for unemployment benefits through new federal coronavirus benefits.
“We are doing all that we can and will continue to give this our best effort. While there is great uncertainty at this time, it is our hope that we can restore our parishes, schools and diocesan operations to full staffing once the current emergency has passed,” Bennett said.
Mechlinski said she’s unsure of what comes next. She’s hoping that the terms of her furlough become more clear, and she plans to look into what federal aid she may qualify for. A friend of hers, who was recovering from coronavirus with his wife, set up a GoFundMe page to support her.
“He really stepped out and said, ‘Listen, I need to do something for you.’ So he put together a GoFundMe, which I thought was really sweet,” she said. “It’s going to be the angels among us that are all going to help us to get through. The community that continues to lift everyone up, and whatever means of support that people find in their hearts is a blessing.”
Ministry is also a passion for Emily Davenport, 23, who served as a full-time missionary with LifeTeen last year in Georgia before moving to Sandusky, Ohio in September for a job as a youth minister.
The position had been vacant for about a year and a half, Davenport said, and she’s spent most of this year building a youth program back up from scratch.
But now, she’s back home in St. Louis, living with her parents and her 19 year-old seminarian brother, after she was laid off due to the coronavirus pandemic.
“What we have been told is that we’re laid off until Sunday Masses resume, so as far as we know, the plan and the hope is that we’re all rehired,” Davenport said.
“But I also know that shortly before we got laid off, we were told nobody was going to get laid off. And so it’s like everything feels very unpredictable,” she added.
Davenport said she doesn’t have hard feelings about being laid off, and that her pastor handled the situation well.
“Our pastor is fantastic, for the record,” she said. “He’s a really wonderful man. He’s really… trying very, very hard to be prudent for the future of the parish. And so almost as soon as public Masses were canceled, most of our parish staff was either laid off or (had) hours cut. He was an accountant before he was a priest, so he has a lot more managerial foresight than I think…a lot of pastors do.”
Davenport said when her pastor called to tell her the news, he explained to her how she could apply for unemployment benefits.
The parish is also covering Davenport’s health insurance for the pandemic at no cost to her, and because Davenport had been living in parish-provided housing, and has now moved back home with her parents, she doesn’t owe rent anywhere.
“I see them trying to do everything they can. It’s just a sucky situation,” she said.
Fr. Monte Hoyles, the pastor of the Catholic Parishes of Sandusky, the tri-parish conglomerate where Davenport had worked, told CNA he hoped that he could bring his staff back as soon as possible.
“I mean, (laying off staff) is not something you want to do. Who would want to do that?” he said.
“But with very little money coming in and salaries to pay…until we can get back (to public Masses) this was the only way to ensure that we’re able to continue what things we can do for right now,” Hoyles said, adding that the parishes are covering health insurance for all laid-off employees who qualified for it.
“I told my employees from the three parishes and also our cemeteries…I want to bring you back as absolutely soon as I possibly can,” Hoyles said.
Davenport said she feels blessed because she has her family as a safety net, and her dad’s job is pretty secure. But she still has bills to pay, and she doesn’t want to rely on her family for long.
“I was on ‘operation trying to be an independent adult’, but at least for now, I’m trying to take care of my cable bill, and the other things like…car insurance and my car payment,” she said.
“Maybe the bank will be able to let me wait a month or two before paying car payments, in the hope that my job would be back and I’d be able to just pick up where I left off,” she added.
She said she hopes to return to ministry, but that all depends on how things go in the near future with the Church and the pandemic.
“I know I’ll be okay for a few months, but after those few months, I’d have to start finding other ways to take care of those bills.”
Cassandra Tkaczow is another Church employee facing a layoff due to the coronavirus pandemic. Tkaczow was in her second year as an assistant campus minister at Alfred State and Alfred University in New York until March 18, when she was laid off.
“The students were on spring break when everything really started to explode here in New York state,” Tkaczow said. One of her students called her to explain that she wouldn’t be coming back for the semester, but the school’s official policy had not yet been decided.
A few days later, Alfred State College and Alfred University announced that the students would be allowed to come back to campus to collect their belongings, but that all classes would be taking place online.
At first, Tkaczow said, it seemed like she would be getting paid through the end of the semester, and she would just be moving her ministry online. Just days after that plan was discussed, she was laid off.
“Both of us (Tkaczow and her boss) had a suspicion, with the bankruptcy of the diocese in Buffalo that we would not be coming back for the next semester, but we didn’t expect it to be this soon,” she said. The Diocese of Buffalo filed for bankruptcy last year due to sexual abuse lawsuits.
According to a statement from the Diocese of Buffalo provided to CNA, the coronavirus pandemic accelerated diocesan plans of financial reorganization.
“While we deeply regret the very personal impact that this process of realignment will have on dedicated employees of the Catholic Center, we must assess how best to deploy the resources of the Diocese in ways that reflect responsible stewardship and which offer the greatest benefit for our parishes,” Fr. Peter Kalaus, vicar general and moderator of the curia for the diocese, said in a statement.
“We anticipate that the ongoing coronavirus pandemic will have a severe impact on parishes and exacerbate the financial challenges that the Diocese is already confronting. It is why we are accelerating our plans to better align the functions of the Catholic Center with the needs of our parishes,” he added.
According to the statement, 21 employees have been laid off or furloughed and 3 people moved from full-time to part-time. Health insurance will be covered by the diocese through April, after which time employees will either need to find different insurance or pay premiums directly to the diocese.
Tkaczow has since moved back home with her parents, who also live in New York. Like Davenport, her housing had been provided, and so rent is not a worry right now.
Tkaczow said while she understands from a financial standpoint why her position was eliminated, she feels bad for her students.
“I also couldn’t help but think, how could they do this to the students? Because they just completely got rid of the campus ministry program, because of the bankruptcy. And with it being this early, how could they do that to them? How are they going to go forward in the coming semesters and years?”
For now, she’s been continuing to minister remotely to her students even without pay. She’s leading a rosary and social hour on Thursdays, and on Mondays she’s leading a Bible study.
While Tkaczow has a degree in computer science, she said her passion is for ministry, and while she may have to find another job to pay the bills for a time, “if God calls me to be in campus ministry or youth minister again, I would not hesitate in saying yes.”
The small parishes of St. Mary in Bloomfield, New Mexico and St Rose of Lima in Blanco New Mexico, in the Diocese of Gallup, have fared slightly better in the coronavirus fallout.
Fr. Josh Mayer, pastor of both parishes, told CNA that he expects to be able to pay his employees for the next six months or so, even if extreme social distancing measures for the pandemic continue.
“Our parishes are in a very blessed position to be able to take care of our staff for a while,” Mayer told CNA.
Mayer said due to canceled Masses, regular tithes to the parish are down to about a third of what they normally are. That could pick up slightly as more parishioners adjust to online donations, but for the most part, a lot of his parishioners haven’t taken to that in recent years, he said.
But the parish is still in a position to pay its staff for a while, and Mayer said he has plenty for them to do.
“I’ve got lots of projects I can give our people to do. Our maintenance guy has to come in and work on stuff here…even when buildings aren’t being used, they need upkeep,” he said.
“And we’re figuring out…how our parish kind of shifts some of our activities to different categories I guess. I mean a lot of stuff that we do with parishioners, we can still do. It just has to look really different,” he said.
Mayer said he was touched by the generosity of his financial manager, Sally Bales, who took a look at the books and the decreased donations and offered to donate her salary back to the parish for the time being so that other staff could remain on payroll.
“We’re just hoping that we can keep everybody employed in the meantime, so something like what Sally did is a huge boon for that,” he said.
“It definitely helps take care of the other parishioners or the other staff and helps ensure that we can keep them employed.”
Bales told CNA that because she and her husband are retired, she decided to donate her salary back for a while, to help younger staff members who are raising families and are relying on their jobs as their main source of income.
“The other staff members are younger, of course, than I am, and that’s their sole income, so it’s a lot harder picture for them than it is for me,” she said.
Bales, who manages the finances of both parishes, said that one of the parishes has a significantly higher percentage of online donations than the other.
“The parish that had more involvement online has not been as adversely affected as the one that people typically give cash at Sunday Mass,” she said.
“That’s one thing I shared with Father, so that he can maybe encourage people to do more online giving. Our expenses don’t change much whether we have Mass or not, and yet our donations are definitely volatile whether we have a physical gathering or not,” she added.
Some parishioners have been mailing in donations, Bales added, and staff have been calling people to encourage them to move to online giving, since “we don’t really see an end when this is going to wrap up.”
Bales said she’s grateful that the parishes had some money set aside, so that they are not relying on the current week’s donations to pay staff salaries.
“As it happens, the parishes that I support have been very conservative and have some money set aside. It’s not like we have to have the money this week to pay the next week salary, so that’s wonderful,” she said.
Bales added that while she and her husband will miss her income from the parish for the time, they realize it isn’t something they need as much as other people on staff do.
“It’s money. It would delay things we would want, but not things that we need. I think that’s the difference,” she said.
“I think that actually, people that are retired or are in a better position to support the parish than the young employed people that are losing their jobs or having their time cut back,” she said.
“And so I think it’s a time for people that do have a regular income coming in to step up their donations. Usually, you think of someone on a fixed income is on the short end of the stick, but in this situation, we’re really in a better position than someone who’s currently earning their keep.”
CNA Staff, Apr 1, 2020 / 03:10 pm (CNA).- All public celebration of Mass has been suspended in every Latin Rite diocese in the United States because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Many bishops have now also taken steps to limit or suspend access t… […]
Little Rock, Ark., Mar 31, 2020 / 07:01 pm (CNA).- An EF3 tornado blew through Jonesboro, Arkansas, this week, and although no deaths have been reported, Catholic Charities of Arkansas is gearing up to help those whose livelihoods will be affected by the disaster.
Patrick Gallaher, director of Catholic Charities of Arkansas, told CNA that he anticipates that their involvement with the disaster in Jonesboro will involve long term case management to help uninsured and underinsured families recover and settle into permanent housing.
Typically, with a tornado like this, Catholic Charities will work with Habitat for Humanity to help get underinsured people into a Habitat for Humanity house, he said.
“We have been in contact with the parish in Jonesboro, Blessed Sacrament Church, and with their local Society of St. Vincent de Paul Council, but have not received any reports of damage or need at this moment. Once we begin receiving information from Jonesboro, we will be able to craft a response to meet the specific needs,” Gallaher said.
The tornado damaged nearly 200 structures, including several factories. Governor Asa Hutchinson has declared a state disaster and the state is seeking a federal designation from the national government.
Though Catholic Charities of Arkansas is not part of the immediate emergency response, Gallaher clarified, first responders in the county, with state assistance, have set up an emergency shelter with care being taken not to spread the coronavirus (COVID-19).
Craigshead County, where Jonesboro is located, has eight confirmed COVID-19 cases. The state as a whole has around 500.
Gallaher said the main difficulties in helping victims of the tornado is a lack of volunteers and funds amid the coronavirus pandemic.
“Most of my volunteers, my disaster volunteers, are elderly people. And I wasn’t even going to call them, I don’t want to take a chance,” Gallaher told CNA.
He also noted that fundraising has been made more difficult by the suspension of public Masses in the Diocese of Little Rock.
About three percent of the state’s population is undocumented immigrants, who will not be eligible for federal or state unemployment assistance, Gallaher said. With Jonesboro as a manufacturing hub, and much of the city’s factory capacity destroyed, Gallaher said he expects Catholic Charities will likely start receiving requests for assistance with food.
“I expect that as the protocols put in place to contain the epidemic continue, we will be hearing from families unable to meet their daily needs because of lack of employment. Although the federal and state response regarding unemployment insurance and direct payments will help most, there will be a segment of our population that is ineligible and will need assistance,” Gallaher said.
CNA Staff, Mar 31, 2020 / 06:30 pm (CNA).- Kentucky’s attorney general has joined the national controversy over whether abortion clinics can continue to operate at a time when other surgeries and procedures have been canceled or delayed to conserve medical resources to combat the novel coronavirus.
“Abortion providers should join the thousands of other medical professionals across the state in ceasing elective procedures, unless the life of the mother is at risk, to protect the health of their patients and slow the spread of the coronavirus,” Kentucky’s Attorney General Daniel Cameron said March 27.
The attorney general has asked Kentucky’s Acting Secretary of Health and Family Services Eric Friedlander to certify that abortion providers are not essential under the governor’s executive order barring non-essential medical procedures. The certification is necessary to act against any abortion clinics in violation.
According to Cameron, the certification would advance the goals of conserving medical supplies and advancing the “social distancing” deemed necessary to slow the spread of the coronavirus, also known as COVID-19.
“Acting Secretary Friedlander is on the front lines of fighting the COVID-19 pandemic, and I am confident that he understands, better than anyone, the necessity of ending abortion procedures during this health crisis,” Cameron said. “His certification will immediately trigger action by our office to stop elective procedures during the pandemic.”
The only remaining abortion clinic in the state is EMW Women’s Surgical Center in Louisville. It continues to perform abortions.
Cameron, the current attorney general, is a Republican. He made the request to the administration of Gov. Andy Beshear, a Democrat, who was Kentucky Attorney General from 2016 to 2019.
Beshear campaigned on a pro-abortion rights position and defeated deeply controversial incumbent Republican Gov. Matt Bevin by about 5,000 votes in the November 2019 elections.
State legislators have proposed a bill to allow the attorney general’s office to proceed with legal action without a certification from the health and family services department, the CBS affiliate WLKY reports.
The State Senate could consider the legislation, House Bill 451, on Wednesday. A floor amendment could bar abortions during the response to the coronavirus outbreak.
CNA contacted the Kentucky Attorney General’s Office for comment but did not receive a response by deadline.
Federal judges in Texas, Alabama, and Ohio on Monday halted state rules that would limit or halt entirely abortions during the coronavirus pandemic on the grounds they are non-essential surgeries. On Tuesday the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals temporarily reinstated the Texas rule.
Indiana, Oklahoma, and Iowa have similarly acted to limit abortions. A hearing on the Iowa law is pending and the others too could be challenged in court.
For their part, officials in Hawaii, Illinois, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, and Oregon have said abortions may continue.
In Utah, judgment about the medical necessity of an abortion will be left to the doctor, a spokesperson for the Utah Department of Health told the pro-abortion rights website Rewire News.
Portland, Maine, Mar 31, 2020 / 05:00 pm (CNA).- With public Masses cancelled across the United States, ahead of Palm Sunday this weekend, some Maine Catholics are being encouraged to adopt a substitute devotional practice: pine branches.
Traditionally, Catholics receive blessed palm branches during Mass on Palm Sunday, this year celebrated on 5 April, to mark Christ’s arrival into Jerusalem and the start of Holy Week. That will not happen this year, due to the coronavirus outbreak and the nationwide suspension of public Masses.
“Unfortunately, we won’t be blessing any palms in this year’s celebration because we won’t be able to process with them, nor can we distribute them so that you can place blessed palms in your home after Mass,” said Fr. Louis Phillips of the Diocese of Portland (ME) said.
Instead, he has suggested to his parishioners at his three parishes to go outside–in a socially-distant manner–and clip a small pine branch to place behind a crucifix.
Phillips dubbed the idea “Pine Sunday,” and he is encouraging it among Catholics at St. Anne Parish in Gorham, St. Anthony of Padua Parish in Westbrook, and Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Windham.
He told CNA that the idea of people came from a conversation he had with friends living in Florida. He realized that they would be able to grab a palm–albeit a non-blessed palm–from one of the naturally growing palm trees, and place it in their homes.
“I thought, ‘Oh, too bad we don’t have any palm trees in Maine,’” said Phillips. “Then I got to thinking. I was looking outside, and thinking ‘but we do have plenty of pine trees.’”
Maine’s official state nickname is “The Pine Tree State” and the trees are ubiquitous throughout the region.
“So I got to thinking that the people of Jesus’ time when they welcomed Him into Jerusalem that day, that first Palm Sunday, what they were doing in essence was laying out a red carpet for him,” said Phillips. Palm branches were readily available in Jerusalem, he explained, so they were a natural choice.
Phillips said that he hopes the presence of the pine branch will serve as a reminder of the Passion of Jesus Christ and His death on the cross, as well as a remembrance of the unusual time that was Lent 2020.
“I think this will be a Holy Week that none of us will forget, but that might just bring to mind the blessings and the challenges that we’re facing today. Maybe when we look back on it in retrospect in months to come, we’ll find some meaning in it all,” said Phillips.
“So I thought maybe those pine branches could help do that, and still connect us really not only with the events of Holy Week but connect us with one another. If we kind of do this collectively, even though we are separated physically, there’s something to be said when still we come together to pray together and celebrate our faith together through this simple thing,” he added.
The palms that were set to be delivered and distributed to the parishioners at Phillips’ three parishes will instead be used to decorate the church where Mass is live-streamed. Phillips said that this year, pine branches will also be a part of those decorations.
At least one other priest in Maine has endorsed the concept of “Pine Sunday” for this year.
Fr. Seamus Griesbach, the director of vocations for the Diocese of Portland, approved of the “Pine Sunday” idea, and thought it was an excellent substitute for the traditional Palm Sunday tradition.
“I was like, that is an awesome idea,” said Griesbach, when he learned of Phillips’ suggestion.
YouTube, Griesbach said, half-jokingly, that the process of clipping a pine branch could also be a way to promote handwashing, as pine sap is incredibly sticky.
“That stuff is nasty, it never comes off,” said Griesbach. “If you can wash that pine sap off your hands, you know that the coronavirus certainly isn’t surviving.”
Denver, Colo., Mar 31, 2020 / 04:00 pm (CNA).- The coronavirus pandemic has led colleges across the country to close their dorms, and offer classes online. As students return home with time on their hands, Catholics involved in campus ministry have offered advice on how to spend this time wisely.
Father John Ignatius, SJC, who served as chaplain at the University of Denver, and Peter Nguyen, a FOCUS missionary for Harvard University, have emphasized the important role of community, spiritual life, and charitable actions amidst quarantine.
Ignatius, who also leads the Servants of Christ Jesus religious community, told CNA that displaced students should prioritize prayer, community, and exercise, while making efforts to limit their screen time.
“It’ll be so easy to binge on episodes [on] Netflix. [They should] decrease screen time and extracurricular time to be more relational,” Fr. Ignatius said.
“College students would do well to stay in touch with each other via phones … Hopefully it’s a live conversation by phone or by Skype or FaceTime or any of the mediums you’re actually having face time with peers that are at a distance.”
Fr. Ignatius said displaced students should also make time for charity, especially by picking up the phone.
“Just consider the consolation and the blessing that a grandson or a granddaughter could give to someone who’s isolated and scared. It makes all the difference in the world to have just a 15 or 20 minute conversation with the grandparents and just think beyond one’s own interests,” he said.
The priest added that students might also consider offering virtual tutoring to children they know have been displaced from school, or, if local laws permit it, offering snacks or essentials to homeless people while taking a walk.
Fr. Ignatius emphasized that the pandemic is an opportunity to reignite a neglected prayer life. He suggested students might pray the Liturgy of the Hours, or spend time reading scripture. He also pointed to resources from groups like FOCUS, which have made spiritual resources available online.
Nguyen, the FOCUS missionary, also stressed the importance of reinvigorating a prayer life, noting that too much free-time can become its own kind distraction from prayer. He said during these difficult times, it is important to rely on the Lord.
“I think the notion of free time is a little scary because [in] school they have all these activities and they have classes and they have their sacramental life ….It’s scheduled out and so there’s a certain safety and security in order that we as Catholics know is there,” Nguyen told CNA.
“If we’re in the crucible right now with the Lord, the one thing that will help sustain us is daily conversation and prayer with him.”
Nguyen pointed to some of the virtual options the students have available for them at Harvard. He said FOCUS at the university has started online events, including Bible studies and virtual praise and worship sessions, which last Sunday drew around 200 hundreds views from students.
“We believe the word of God is so effective, especially in this trying time. I think … people are kind of longing for a sense of spiritual nourishment,” he said.
While FOCUS has launched its discipleship program online as well, he said, the most important aspect is to focus on accountability and personal investment through consistent contact with these students, Nguyen said..
“In this time, we’re still doing virtual things in order to continue to minister to our students who we encourage to their friends through the use of Zoom and in conversation on the phone, et cetera… Personal investment is probably the most important thing that we can be doing right now,” he said.
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