[Catholic Caucus] In preface to new book, Pope Francis supports govt’s COVID church shutdowns

LifeSite News ^ | July 31, 2020 | Dorothy Cummings McLean

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[Catholic Caucus] In preface to new book, Pope Francis supports govt’s COVID church shutdowns

The pontiff supported governments’ decision to ban Masses during the first months of the crisis while acknowledging that many Catholics had suffered a 'painful Eucharistic fast.'

VATICAN CITY, July 30, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) ― Pope Francis has contributed a preface to a book of personal reflections by Cardinal Walter Kasper, among others, about the COVID-19 pandemic.

The book, published in Italy by Libreria Editrice Vaticana, is entitled Communion and Hope: Witnessing Faith in the Times of Coronavirus in Italy. For the Spanish-speaking market, it is called “God in the Pandemic.” A collection of essays, the volume was edited by Cardinal Kasper, 87, and the Indo-German founder of the Walter Kasper Institute, Fr. George Augustin, 64.

Contributors include Archbishop Bruno Forte, the pro-LGBT theologian who introduced the issue of homosexuality at the Synod for the Family.

According to the Holy See’s own Vatican News, Pope Francis likened the coronavirus pandemic to a sudden “storm.”

“Like a sudden breaking storm, the coronavirus crisis has caught us all by surprise, abruptly changing on a global level our personal, public, family and working lives,” the pontiff wrote.

Francis noted that people had lost loved ones, jobs and financial stability. He reflected also that Christians were unable to celebrate Easter in church and that many had not had recourse to the sacraments. 

“This dramatic situation highlights the vulnerable nature of our human condition, limited as it is by time and contingency,” he wrote.

The pontiff saw a bright side to the pandemic in that it has helped people to contemplate what is truly important in life.

“It reminds us that we have forgotten or simply delayed attending to some of the key issues in life,” he wrote. 

“It is making us evaluate what is really important and necessary, and what is of secondary or only superficial importance.”

This “time of trial” is reorienting us toward God, Francis said. He also reflected that it has made us aware of our dependence on others and our call to serve others and our “gravely diseased planet.”

Vatican News reported that this year’s Easter, which most Catholics and other Christians spent at home, locked out of churches, led Pope Francis to reflect that the “Easter message of Christ’s victory over death ... showed Christians that we cannot remain paralyzed in the face of the pandemic.”

“Easter brings us hope, trust and encouragement,” he wrote. 

“It strengthens our sense of solidarity. It speaks to us of overcoming past rivalries so that we may see each other, above and beyond any differences, as members of one large family, where we bear each others’ burdens."

Francis then compared the contagion of the disease to the “contagion of love” and expressed gratitude for the good deeds of medical professionals and priests during the pandemic.

Controversially, he supported governments’ decision to ban the public celebration of Masses during the first months of the crisis while acknowledging that many Catholics had suffered a “painful Eucharistic fast.” Pope Francis also acknowledged that livestreamed Masses were “no substitute for the living presence of the Lord in the celebration of the Eucharist” and expressed his satisfaction that in many places, Catholics have been allowed to return to Mass in person. 

“The presence of the Risen Lord in His Word and through the celebration of the Eucharist will give us the strength we need to resolve the difficulties and challenges that we will face after the coronavirus crisis,” he wrote.

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Ping

[LadyDoc]

A priest in one of the Manila slums had an altar on a pickup with loudspeakers and was saying mass in the street so people could attend by watching out of doorways and windows.

So there were ways to get around the quarantine.

But indoor spread is a risk in the old churches here, so our churches have only reopened a month ago. even with all the windows open, so our rural churches limit how many can attend...the Pentecostal church that meets in out business meeting room is only allowed 10 people for example (usually 30 attend).

Funerals are worse...the long wakes usually held in people's homes are forbidden And only 10 are allowed to go to the mass and burial.

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During the height of the scamdemic, our Catholic church had five periods of one-hour Eucharistic Adoration on both Saturdays and Sundays. Everyone had their scheduled times.

During those periods, our priest would hear confessions outside, from behind a screened prie dieu.