“We cannot let this moment of pandemic, which calls us all to unity as God’s children, become the occasion for further prejudice, exclusion and injustice.”
Since the outbreak of Covid-19, I have thought often about Sister Mary Anthony Duchemin and the extraordinary sacrifice that she made to the church and community at large in 1832.
The Covid-19 pandemic has revealed a kind of American Catholic exceptionalism, writes Michael Bayer. In fact, other Catholics, now and throughout history, have not had regular physical access to the sacraments.
The far right denounces the European Union as anti-Christian totalitarianism, but Michael Daniel Driessen writes that the E.U. has its roots in Catholic universalism and a suspicion of the nation-state.
The ordination of a transitional deacon in Kansas shows how even a pandemic can't stop one of the church's cherished rituals, even if it sets limits on participation by family and loved ones.
Not only are public Masses suspended and people lack that weekly touchpoint with their parish, people also have lost jobs or been furloughed, and some are cutting back on expenditures because they fear for the future.
DACA was implemented in 2012 under an executive order from President Barack Obama, but in 2017, the Trump administration rescinded it and its future is now in the hands of the Supreme Court of the United States
Due to the economic problems created by the pandemic, the Franciscan University of Steubenville, Ohio has announced that it will assume the remaining tuition costs after scholarships and grants for the fall 2020 semester have been used. It will apply to all incoming full-time undergraduate students enrolled in on-campus programs.
The government of the federal state of Berlin has permitted church services with up to 50 participants from May 4 provided that hygiene and social distancing requirements are observed.
In April, as Italy and the Vatican moved toward their seventh week in lockdown, Catholic News Service asked several people for their "post-pandemic resolutions."
For now, the overall picture is dark, writes Leo O‘Donovan, S.J., of Jesuit Refugee Service USA, but we must still work for our brothers and sisters so that hope can endure and even blossom.
Love is a resolve we must renew each day. We ought to remember this when we promise we will live differently, more deeply, once life returns to normal.