A bishop has said that a proposal to test potential coronavirus vaccines on Kenyan citizens could undermine human rights, and amount to a breach of the country’s constitution, especially if they are not fully informed of the risks involved. “The Covid-19 pandemic is a grave matter at hand, but it should not in any way be used to compromise the rights and dignity of citizens”, Bishop James Wainaina of Muranga said on 7 May. “Everything should be done with maximum openness, and testing should not be carried out on unsuspecting citizens.” The bishop was reacting after Kenyan media reported that drugs and vaccines in development to treat COVID-19 could be tested in the country. A 5 May report in Kenya’s highest circulation newspaper, Daily Nation, claimed that local researchers participating in an international study were seeking final approval to test three drugs on Kenyans.
On Friday 15 May Guillermo Ramírez of the Diocese of Chosica died from Covid-19, the first priest in Peru to die from the virus. Fr Ramírez was Director of Studies at the Juan XXII Theological Studies Superior Institute. Covid-19 cases in Peru are concentrated in the capital, Lima, where intensive care units are at capacity.
A Catholic church in the New York borough of Queens has been devastated by the coronavirus. At least 63 parishioners from St Bartholomew Catholic Church in the Elmhurst neighbourhood have died. The parish is attended by Latin American immigrants, many of them undocumented, who work in essential jobs and often share crowded apartments.
Seoul Archdiocese has promoted a blood donation campaign after supplies in South Korea fell sharply during the Covid-19 outbreak. It held an event called “Myeongdong, Spread Love with Blood Donation” in Seoul on 13 May. Auxiliary Bishop Timothy Yu Gyoung-chon of Seoul joined many priests, religious, archdiocesan staff and parishioners to visit a blood donation bus set up in collaboration with BloodNet of Korea. Religious activities resumed – with masks and social distancing - two weeks ago following a drop in virus infections.
The US bishops said last week they are “heartbroken” that indigenous people are suffering from Covid-19 at “disproportionately high rates” and lacking sufficient resources to respond to the crisis. “We cherish our close connections to native communities through our Catholic parishes, missions and schools,” they added. Infection rates are high in the Navajo Nation, which spans northeast Arizona and parts of Utah and New Mexico. More than 140 Navajo have died. Churches have sent food donations and hygiene kits.
Churches in Samar province and southern Luzon in the Philippines have become evacuation centres for victims of Typhoon Ambo, which made landfall on 14 May and forced 141,000 people out of their homes. Tens of thousands fled to churches and other shelters, raising fears that evacuation locations could become hotbeds of coronavirus infection.Authorities ordered people to evacuate "wearing masks and respecting social distancing", but this was not always possible. Philippines has reported more than 12,700 Covid-19 cases, and more than 830 deaths, among the highest in Southeast Asia.
Chad’s bishops have praised the government’s prompt response to the Covid-19 pandemic but have asked it "to ensure the country's food security” when the pandemic has subsided. “Essential goods and in particular food come from rural areas,” they say; “the rainy season has already arrived and now is the time for sowing, so concrete steps must be taken to allow farmers to plant crops in their fields safely.”
Heads of Churches in the Holy Land have warned that Israel’s planned annexation of West Bank land will sabotage hopes for peace.In a declaration signed by 13 Patriarchs and bishops - including Archbishop Pierbattista Pizzaballa, Apostolic Administrator of the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem - they say that such a move will fuel the “vicious circle” of endless human tragedies in the region. Israel's parliament has sworn in a new government led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Its agenda includes a possible declaration of sovereignty over Jewish settlements and the Jordan Valley in the West Bank. Bishop Declan Lang, head of International Affairs for the bishops of England and Wales, said that a plan to annex West Bank land unilaterally would destroy any hope of a two-state solution for Israel and Palestine.
Two months after lockdown regulations hit churches hard Catholics in South Africa are contemplating the return to public worship. “Worship must be resumed,” Archbishop of Cape Town Stephen Brislin told The Tablet. “The important questions are: when will it be optimum to do so while ensuring the protection of health and life as much as possible, and how is it to be done.” President Cyril Ramaphosa has been gradually easing restrictions since 30 April. The lockdown has exposed the inequity of South African society as the poor are crowded in rundown communities while hoping for food handouts, Brislin said. It has shown “how vulnerable millions of people in this country are, and the fact that we continue to live in two separate worlds of the ‘haves and have-nots’.”
The Marian sanctuary at Lourdes partly reopened from lockdown on 16 May, welcoming pilgrims from a 100-km radius around the shrine in southwestern France and limiting them to visits without the traditional bath in the site’s waters. “We need the pilgrims and the pilgrims need Lourdes,” said sanctuary rector Mgr Olivier Ribadeau Dumas, calling their return a sign of hope. Pilgrims wearing obligatory face masks were admitted to light votive candles, receive holy water and go to specially designed confession stations, but could only pray from across the Gave river towards the grotto where Bernadette Soubirous said the Blessed Virgin appeared to her in 1858.
Zimbabwe Heads of Christian Denominations (ZHOCD) expressed shock over the abduction and torture of three women members of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) on 13 May. Joana Mamombe, 26, an MDC MP, Cecilia Chimbiri and Netsai Marova, were arrested at a party gathering and were later abducted from police custody in the capital Harare. They disappeared for two days and were later found dumped 80 kilometres outside Harare. They shared horrific stories of sexual assault and inhuman treatment. “We are appalled to see how women could suffer in custody of the state, not only these women but also the brutal assault of two Bulawayo women on 16 April by six policemen,” ZHOCD said in a 17 May statement.
Four monks who lived in the north of Mozambique were forced to flee across the border to their native Tanzania when their monastery was attacked by Islamist insurgents. The attack took place in the village of Auasse, Cabo Delgado district, an area that has seen repeated attacks over the past two years. The attackers claimed to be fighting for the imposition of sharia law. The attack on the monastery, which included the destruction of a hospital that the monks were building in the village, followed an attack last month on a Catholic mission. No one was killed in either attack.
Loading ...
