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The Lenten Holy Land collection will be moved to September this year because of the suspension of public Masses in many places in the world due to the coronavirus, the Vatican stated Thursday.
Mother Teresa's example should inspire us to seek out those whose suffering is hidden during the coronavirus crisis, Pope Francis said at his daily Mass on Thursday.
The news of the hospitalization of the President of the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM), Phillip Cardinal Ouédraogo, with COVID-19 was received with shock across the continent, with Catholic Church leaders known to the Burkinabe Prelate expressing their solidarity in messages seen by ACI Africa.
With the global pandemic of COVID-19 receiving unrivalled news media coverage, a Bishop in Kenya has challenged personalities behind “all the channels of communication” to strive to tell stories that give “hope and preparedness” rather than despair.
With rising number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the West African nation of Ghana, Catholic Bishops in the country have directed Parish Priests to skip key liturgical observances, including Palm Sunday procession that signifies the triumphant entry of Jesus into Jerusalem.
It is past noon on Tuesday, March 31 but Jane Mutiso, who has been ailing for the past six years is still lying in bed in a dark single-roomed hut that is made of corrugated iron sheets in Mukuru kwa Njenga, an expansive informal settlement on the fringes of Kenya’s capital city, Nairobi. Located East of the central business district, the area is served by St. Mary’s Parish under the pastoral care of the Holy Ghost Fathers, also known as the Spiritans.
The President of the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM), Phillip Cardinal Ouédraogo, has tested positive for COVID-19. The Burkinabe Prelate is the first African Cardinal known to have the virus that has infected at least 591,246 across the globe.
The installation of Archbishop Mattew Ishaya Audu as the Local Ordinary of Jos in Nigeria that took place Tuesday, March 31 was witnessed by 50 people in line with the government’s directive to limit public gatherings in a bid to curb the spread of COVID-19 in Africa’s most populous nation.
Kenyans, including members of the clergy, religious men and women, lay faithful and government officials have paid glowing tribute to the Archbishop emeritus of Nairobi, Raphael Ndingi Mwana a’Nzeki following his death that occured Monday, March 30.
More than 11,500 people have died of COVID-19 in Italy after a total of 101,739 people have been documented by the Italian Ministry of Health as infected with the coronavirus.
Pope Francis prayed Tuesday for all those who do not have homes to go to during the coronavirus pandemic, that people may be aware of this reality and that the Church will welcome them.
An African nun who is a scripture scholar has, after interacting with people “devastated” by the reality of locked up churches occasioned by the raft of measures to curb the spread of COVID-19, encouraged the people of God to adopt a learning attitude and look at the experience as an opportunity to reflect “about what it means to be church.”
With 22 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and three deaths recorded in Niger, a Society of African Missions (SMA) Priest ministering in the country has confirmed the fears of many critics of African countries that the global pandemic, which has claimed the lives of at least 37,780 people globally, will only worsen an already fragile health system in the landlocked west African nation.
As health facilities grapple with a shortage of Personal Protective Equipment (PPEs) in the wake of the outbreak of COVID-19 and the increasing number of people infected with the disease, the Catholic Church in Ghana has launched an appeal inviting all Catholics to donate protective equipment and other medical supplies to support the 46 Hospitals and the 83 Clinics run by the Church under the National Catholic Health Service in the fight against the pandemic.
The brutality meted out on a section of Kenyans by police officers in their bid to enforce the dawn-to-dusk curfew put in place by the government to curb the spread of COVID-19 has caught the attention of Catholic Bishops who, while condemning the Friday, March 27 episodes, have called on security officers to act with a human face, respecting the dignity of persons.
With 162 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the West African nation of Senegal, the Archdiocese of Dakar has adjusted schedules for burials at in the two Catholic cemeteries to take place “only in the morning” to allow the staff enough time to meet a curfew deadline, one of the measures put in place to avoid the spread of the virus that has claimed at least 37,815 lives across the globe.
Six sisters in one northern Italian convent have died of coronavirus, and nine sisters are being treated in the hospital after testing positive for COVID-19, according to Italian media. Coronavirus is spreading among several religious houses in Italy.
The decision to postpone a three-week lockdown of Kinshasa, the capital city of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), which had been announced as one of the raft of measures to contain the spread of COVID-19, has been criticized by the country’s senior Prelate who has faulted the government for taking chances with the lives of Congolese people in the face of the virus that has claimed the lives of at least 31,000 globally.
With three confirmed COVID-19 cases and one related death in Zimbabwe, Catholic Bishops in the Southern African nation on Tuesday, March 24 resolved to close all Churches in the country, to facilitate “effective self-isolation for all.”
In a keen adherence to the directives of South Sudan government to stop social gatherings as a measure to prevent the outbreak of COVID-19 in the East African country, which is yet to record a case of the deadly virus, the Catholic Archdiocese of Juba has announced the closure of all Catholic-run institutions in the country’s only Metropolitan See.