– Tej Francis
Email: tejfrancis@gmail.com
VATICAN
Pope: How I am living through the Covid-19 pandemic
Asked how he and the Curia are experiencing this unprecedented time, Pope Francis says that everyone is working despite the restrictions. “The Curia is trying to carry on its work, and to live normally, organizing in shifts so that not everyone is present at the same time. It’s been well thought out. We are sticking to the measures ordered by the health authorities. Here in the Santa Marta residence we now have two shifts for meals, which helps a lot to alleviate the impact. Everyone works in his office or from his room, using technology. Everyone is working; there are no idlers here.”
The Pope also reveals that he is praying more and thinking of his responsibilities now, and what will come afterwards.
“I’m living this as a time of great uncertainty. It’s a time for inventing, for creativity”, he said. The Pope points out that, “the creativity of the Christian needs to show forth in opening up new horizons, opening windows, opening transcendence toward God and toward people, and in creating new ways of being at home. It’s not easy to be confined to your house.”
“We have to respond to our confinement with all our creativity”, the Pope continues. “We can either get depressed and alienated—through media that can take us out of our reality—or we can get creative. At home we need an apostolic creativity, a creativity shorn of so many useless things, but with a yearning to express our faith in community, as the people of God. So: to be in lockdown, but yearning, with that memory that yearns and begets hope—this is what will help us escape our confinement.”
RWANDA
AID GROUP COMMITS $5.5M TO SUPPORT PRIESTS AND NUNS SERVING COMMUNITIES MOST VULNERABLE TO COVID-19
(Aleteia) To help mitigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), the international pontifical charity serving the persecuted and suffering Church around the world, is providing $5.5 M in emergency funding to priests and nuns caring for the most vulnerable communities around the world.
In the face of increased social distress worldwide due to COVID-19, this vital initiative will assist priests and nuns who lost their basic means of subsistence, so that they are able to continue carrying out their spiritual and social ministries, such as administering the sacraments, teaching the faith, caring for the sick and elderly, helping the poor and visiting prisoners.
ACN’s funding will be a broad-spectrum intervention, targeting the Middle East, Central and Eastern Europe, Latin America, Asia, and Africa, through project support.
“We are united in prayer with the brave and dedicated priests and nuns who give their all to serve the world’s most vulnerable communities, and with all who are suffering around the world,” Heine-Geldern continued.
“I am so thankful to our donors, who, often despite their own pain and hardship, are reaching out to their fellow faithful. It is a beautiful gesture, one that is helping to keep the faith alive.”
Rome, Italy
Happy 93rd birthday to the Pope Emeritus
(CNA) Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI celebrated his 93rd birthday Thursday April 16, at his Vatican residence during Italy’s coronavirus lockdown.
The retired pope, who lives in the Mater Ecclesia monastery on Vatican grounds, did not have any visitors due to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to his personal secretary, Archbishop Georg Ganswein.
Ganswein told Vatican News April 16 that Benedict had received many emails, letters, and phone calls wishing him a happy birthday, including from his older brother Georg Ratzinger.
Benedict XVI’s quiet birthday began with Mass in the monastery chapel, and included prayer and reading, Ganswein said. Benedict also listened to some traditional songs from his homeland of Bavaria.
Ganswein said the pope emeritus is keeping informed on the coronavirus pandemic and prays daily for the sick and suffering.
“He was also particularly struck by the many priests, doctors, and nurses who have died, especially in north Italy, in carrying out their service to coronavirus patients,” the secretary said.
On his birthday, Benedict was gifted a copy of a new book on his life, written by German journalist Peter Seewald. Volume one of “Benedict XVI: The Biography” will be published in German May 4 and in English toward the end of 2020.
In a letter published in an Italian newspaper in February 2018, Benedict said, “I can only say that at the end of a slow decline in physical strength, inwardly I am on pilgrimage home.”
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