With the World Health Organization’s declaration that COVID-19 “no longer constitutes a public health emergency of international concern,” the leadership of the Italian bishops’ conference said church activities, including liturgies, could be celebrated as they were before the pandemic began in 2020.
Pope Francis asked people to pray for those running small- and medium-sized businesses since they contribute so much to the good of the local community and are still hard-hit by so many crises.
Lent, the spiritual season of prayer and sacrifice, has an extra pull to it this year because once again — and now for the third time — it will be under the cloud of the coronavirus pandemic.
As Europe rolls out its vaccination campaign for young children this week, a top Vatican official has endorsed the move, saying children have been uniquely impacted by the pandemic and must be protected and cared for.
Over the weekend Pope Francis issued a barrage of tweets outlining his vision for a post-COVID world, pushing for an adaptation of current socio-economic models so they prioritize the poor and are based on a mentality of solidarity rather than profit.
The new CEO of the Knights of Columbus said the international fraternal organization’s members “are poised to lead the way toward recovery and a future of renewal.”
Two years may seem a ways off, but the Diocese of Brooklyn is already planning for the intercontinental edition of World Youth Day (WYD), scheduled to be held in Lisbon, Portugal in 2023. Father Gerard J. Sauer, diocesan director of pilgrimages and pastor of St. Patrick’s in Bay Ridge, said the diocese is keeping health and safety measures in mind and remaining attentive to COVID-19-related news and updates.
Today, at noon, Cardinal Wilton Gregory of Washington will lead up to 1,000 in-person faithful in a worldwide recitation of the rosary in response to Pope Francis’ call for a “marathon” of prayer in May “to ask for the end of the pandemic.”
The CHSAA is hosting a boys’ spring basketball tournament.
Under the gaze of a seventh-century icon of Mary, Pope Francis launched a monthlong, global recitation of the rosary, pleading for Mary’s intercession for the end of the COVID-19 pandemic. And he prayed May 1 that Mary would move people’s consciences “so that the enormous amounts spent to increase and perfect weapons are instead used to promote research to prevent similar catastrophes in the future.”
