Licas news Mark Saludes, Philippines April 15, 2020
Father Alfredo Guerrero of Cubao Diocese in the Philippine capital delivers a homily in a live video streaming on Palm Sunday. (Photo by Mark Saludes)
At 62 years of age, Father Alfredo Guerrero of the Cubao Diocese in Manila admitted that he is not that young and is among those who are at risk of infection of the new coronavirus.
To ensure that he will be healthy and safe from the virus, the priest said he takes all the necessary precautions and maintains the “right dose” of his own medicine against the crisis.
“I always laugh and make other people laugh,” said the priest, a believer in the maxim that “laughter is still the best medicine.”
On Palm Sunday, Father Alfredo used humor to remind the faithful of the meaning of the blessing of the palms.
“We put them on our doors or altars to signify that we welcome Jesus in our homes,” he said.
“It is not an amulet to protect you from evil, especially if evil sleeps beside you, eats with you, and pays the rent,” the priest said in jest.
“It cannot protect you if the evil is your spouse,” he said.
No one laughed, except for the few church workers inside the chapel who were live streaming the celebration online.
The chapel was empty because of the “enhanced community quarantine” across the country. Public mass gatherings have been prohibited for a month now.
“I am not used to cracking jokes that no one laughs,” said the priest.
“Maybe people are laughing while they were watching the Mass on the internet, but it is different when you see them laugh in person,” he said.
Father Alfredo Guerrero celebrates Mass in an empty chapel on Palm Sunday. (Photo by Mark Saludes)
Father Alfredo, or Bong to his friends, celebrated his 34th anniversary as a priest on Holy Saturday.
Caritas Manila has distributed P1 Billion worth of gift checks to help the poor.
In the past month, most of the work of many parishes was not that of liturgical celebrations. Of course, we had to prepare our churches and ourselves for the online masses and other religious services. Those did not take much time. What took most of our time was organizing how to distribute the gift certificates (GCs) and in large part, the actual giving of the GCs to the poor families together with our volunteers and barangay officials. Some parishes also spent time packing rice and other goods to distribute to the people. In a word, works of charity characterized our church activities during this time.
We have done a lot to help many people during this lock down. We now house more than 440 street people in 8 facilities in the archdiocese of Manila. Some 510 medical front liners are given lodging in 23 parishes, hostels, and convents. We have generously received help in the form of food items and sleeping materials from many religious communities and generous parishioners. Helping the poor has been an important expression of our work as church during these days. We were able to reach more than 400,000 families through our gift checks and food packs.
After the quarantine days, it would not be right to just toss the street people back to the streets and to let the hospitals take care of their medical staff. We have to maintain the good will and the relationships that we have created with the beneficiaries, with the donors and with the administrations of various medical institutions. The parishes, schools and religious communities need to set up structures that can create a continuous relationship with the people. Besides, it would not mean that come May 1, there would no longer be any COVID 19. This virus will be around for some time so our effort to contain it should also continue.
Another consideration that we have to look deeply are our financial situation. People will give to the church once the public services start, but surely not as much as they had been doing. Everyone’s pocket has been affected by the quarantine. Thus the parishes are to plan very carefully with their finance councils how to make ends meet in the coming months. It is good that there are already vicariates who help the poor parishes meet their obligations to their personnel. As we have decided at the start of the lock down, as much as possible we will not dismiss people from our workforce. If people are not able to work, it is not that they do not want to work. Everyone among us is a victim of these hard times.
As we try to help our parish and school personnel, let us also explain to them to be patient and not to demand the same treatment as before, as if nothing had happened. The challenge now is how to keep the morale of our people high in spite of the fact that we all face hard times. Let us all face this new situation with generosity and trust.
Broderick Pabillo Chairman Episcopal Commission on Lay Apostolate April 14, 2020
A woman prays in an empty Santa Maria presso San Satiro church on Ash Wednesday, in Milan, northern Italy, Wednesday, Feb. 26, 2020. Italy has been struggling to contain the rapidly spreading outbreak that has given the country more coronavirus cases outside Asia than anywhere else. (AP/Antonio Calanni)/ National Catholic Reporter
An effect of the Corona virus pandemic that is here to stay is social distancing. The consciousness and the practice of social distancing will be with us long after the quarantine is lifted. What would this imply in our ministries in the Church? How do we limit the attendance of the people in our services? This may mean additional masses on Sundays and asking the people to come on the times when there are less people in order to reduce the density of mass goers in any given time. This can also mean the re-training of our ushers. We should get younger ones who can politely ask the people to keep social distancing. Each parish is to determine the adequate spaces to be observed between the mass attendees. Perhaps big celebrations should be done outdoors to follow the social distancing protocols. The churches can also invest in big LCD screens and a good outdoor sound system so that people can remain outside and still be part of the celebration.
Another thing that is here to stay is our consciousness of the need for constant handwashing. A regular feature of our churches will now be the alcohol bottles or hand sanitizers that will be made ubiquitous at the door of our churches and offices. A foot bath is to be provided at the door steps of our churches and offices. A new ministry can be started in the parishes – perhaps to be called “sanitation ministry” – whose task is to disinfect or clean the pews in between masses. This would mean that masses should no longer be on an hourly basis. Some time should be given between services for the cleaning of the pews and other “high touch” surfaces much used in the church.
An important Filipino social custom may also change – that of the mano po. Instead of getting the hand of the elderly or the priest and putting it on one’s forehead, or much worse, kissing the ring of the bishop, the people would be taught to show their respect by a polite bow and similar gestures.
As Filipinos we are a tactile people. We want to express our nearness by touching. This we do to one another and also to the objects of devotion. Thus we see people lovingly and devotedly touching the statues and even the casing of the statues. We have to be educated to do without this form of reverence anymore. A slight bow or a moment of silent prayer in front of a statue is also a worthy expression of our desire to commune with God and his saints.
We have been telling the people during lent that if we cannot go to confession, we can obtain God’s forgiveness by a sincere contrition of our sins with firm resolve to come to confess our sins to a priest as soon as there is the opportunity. One of the conditions to fulfill in order to receive the plenary indulgence is to confess our sins to a priest. After the lockdown, it would be good if the vicariates can organize a kumpisalan ng bayan in all the parishes so that the faithful can avail themselves of this sacrament. Perhaps it would also help if parishes can re-design their confessional boxes that it would no longer be stuffy but that there be enough room for social distancing during confession. Proper physical distance should still be kept during the kumpisalan ng bayan.
Let us use our creativity on how to serve our people in the new situation that we are now in. If the new practices that we will adapt are properly explained to the people, they will understand. They will even appreciate that we are making changes so that we can serve God without jeopardizing our loved ones.
Bishop Broderick S. Pabillo Chairman Episcopal Commission on Lay Apostolate April 13, 2020
Live video is a powerful tool in your digital evangelization toolbox, and it’s definitely unchartered territory for the Church. (ecatholic.com)
After about a month of quarantine, many people have gotten used to it. Now, the challenge to us in the church is no longer on adjusting to the lock down. We should instead start looking forward to what we will do after the quarantine!
It would be too naïve to imagine that come May 1, we will all jump back to the life that we had before the quarantine. No! There will be a very gradual period of adjustment. Many of our ways of doing ministry will change. This early let us already project the changes that can come about based on our experiences during this past month and plan for them accordingly.
Some realizations become clear to us. First, the importance of the social media. Parishes who have well-developed social media ministry are able to reach their people easily and offer them services. Thus we should develop our social media ministry. Online religious services are here to stay. Many of our elderly people will hesitate to go to church; the social distancing cannot be easily done in our churches because we do not have that many churches. So the media apostolate is here to stay and will play a greater role in the life of the Church from now on. Thus all Church institutions are encouraged to set up good social media ministries.
If many of our elderly people would prefer to participate in the mass online after the lock down, we should be able to offer them the possibility of receiving communion in their homes. We should deploy more our lay ministers to bring communion to the sick and the elderly. In many parishes, we either do not have enough lay ministers, or many of our lay ministers are old, or both. The elderly ones can no longer give communion in the homes because they themselves are susceptible to be infected. Thus we need to recruit more and younger lay ministers. Can we fast track their recruitment and their formation? We can get from the older altar servers, or older choir members, or even ask the religious sisters and brothers to help in this ministry of bringing the Body of Christ to the elderly.
The pandemic has shown us the importance of the ministry to the sick. Not many parishes have this. In Manila we have only five priests of the archdiocese who are in the hospital chaplaincy. Most of our hospital chaplains are either religious or guest priests. We should seriously think as an archdiocese to strengthen our ministry to the sick, even down to the parochial level. This ministry does not only cater to the sick in the hospitals but also to the medical staff, and also to the sick and the elderly in their homes.
At the beginning of the lock down there were criticisms that the church to use its reputedly big money to help the poor. These criticisms soon died down when it apparent that we have churches, schools, and religious houses who were the first ones to open their facilities to house and feed the street people, the medical front liners and the uniformed personnel. People will not fault us for having big and good facilities as long as they see that these are open to serve those in need in times of emergency. This should be a deliberate choice by our institutions from one on since nowadays emergencies are a new normal in our life.
One thing that caught the admiration of the business community and the government is our silent but rapid mobilization to distribute more than 1 billion pesos worth of gift certificates (GCs) to the poor. Each family was given 1,000 pesos worth of GCs. This was done through the organizing capacity of Caritas Manila and the enthusiasm of more than 668 parishes in MegaManila and their volunteers. Our parishes would not be able to identify the poor families if there was no good networking with barangay officials. Many times the good relations with the barangay are forged because of the BECs. This is one thing that we have to develop more – better relations with the barangay especially through the BECs. Naging mabango ang simbahan sa buwang ito dahil sa ang simbahan ay bumaba sa mga tao. Talagang naramdaman nila ang simbahan, hindi sa kanyang gawaing pangsamba ngunit sa kanyang pagtulong sa mahihirap.
Pope Francis reads his “Urbi et Orbi” (“To the City and the World”) message in St. Peter’s Basilica with no public participation due to an outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) on Easter Sunday at the Vatican, April 12, 2020. (Photo by Vatican Media Handout)
LiCAS.news reporter April 12, 2020 Licas news
Dear brothers and sisters,
Happy Easter.
Today the Church’s proclamation echoes throughout the world: “Jesus Christ is risen!” – “He is truly risen!”.
Like a new flame this Good News springs up in the night: the night of a world already faced with epochal challenges and now oppressed by a pandemic severely testing our whole human family. In this night, the Church’s voice rings out: “Christ, my hope, has arisen!”.
This is a different “contagion”, a message transmitted from heart to heart – for every human heart awaits this Good News.
It is the contagion of hope: “Christ, my hope, is risen!”.
This is no magic formula that makes problems vanish. No, the resurrection of Christ is not that.
Instead, it is the victory of love over the root of evil, a victory that does not “by-pass” suffering and death, but passes through them, opening a path in the abyss, transforming evil into good: this is the unique hallmark of the power of God.
The Risen Lord is also the Crucified One, not someone else. In his glorious body he bears indelible wounds: wounds that have become windows of hope.
Let us turn our gaze to him that he may heal the wounds of an afflicted humanity.
Today my thoughts turn in the first place to the many who have been directly affected by the coronavirus: the sick, those who have died and family members who mourn the loss of their loved ones, to whom, in some cases, they were unable even to bid a final farewell.
May the Lord of life welcome the departed into his kingdom and grant comfort and hope to those still suffering, especially the elderly and those who are alone. May he never withdraw his consolation and help from those who are especially vulnerable, such as persons who work in nursing homes, or live in barracks and prisons. For many, this is an Easter of solitude lived amid the sorrow and hardship that the pandemic is causing, from physical suffering to economic difficulties.
This disease has not only deprived us of human closeness, but also of the possibility of receiving in person the consolation that flows from the sacraments, particularly the Eucharist and Reconciliation.
In many countries, it has not been possible to approach them, but the Lord has not left us alone! United in our prayer, we are convinced that he has laid his hand upon us, firmly reassuring us: Do not be afraid, “I have risen and I am with you still!”.
May Jesus, our Passover, grant strength and hope to doctors and nurses, who everywhere offer a witness of care and love for our neighbours, to the point of exhaustion and not infrequently at the expense of their own health.
Our gratitude and affection go to them, to all who work diligently to guarantee the essential services necessary for civil society, and to the law enforcement and military personnel who in many countries have helped ease people’s difficulties and sufferings.
In these weeks, the lives of millions of people have suddenly changed.
For many, remaining at home has been an opportunity to reflect, to withdraw from the frenetic pace of life, stay with loved ones and enjoy their company.
For many, though, this is also a time of worry about an uncertain future, about jobs that are at risk and about other consequences of the current crisis.
I encourage political leaders to work actively for the common good, to provide the means and resources needed to enable everyone to lead a dignified life and, when circumstances allow, to assist them in resuming their normal daily activities.
This is not a time for indifference, because the whole world is suffering and needs to be united in facing the pandemic.
Christians cannot gather in community, but they have an opportunity to reflect more deeply on the true meaning of this festival day
La Croix Eric Hodgens Australia April 11, 2020
Easter is one of the biggest holidays of the year throughout much of the world. It was originally a Holy Day. But its significance is changing.
In Western culture Easter has morphed from being a great cultural festival to being just another public holiday. In multicultural societies this applies even more so.
With the widespread shutdown due to the COVID-19 virus, Easter 2020 has been largely shut down. It’s just an empty break.
For the practicing Christian, however, the sense of loss is much greater because communal liturgies are banned.
Holy Week is the annual peak of Christian celebration. Palm Sunday celebrates Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem for the fateful week.
Christian churches re-visit this theme with processions.
Holy Thursday recalls Jesus’s Last Supper with his followers. His present-day followers celebrate the Lord’s Supper – the older title given to the Eucharist or Mass.
Good Friday mourns the crucifixion of Jesus with its veneration of the cross.
The climax is Easter Sunday. Jesus is risen from death to life. Christians remember Him not as dead, but living, by celebrating the Eucharist and attributing to him the instruction to do this in his memory.
Holy Week, therefore, is essentially a communal celebration of believers who are one in faith in Jesus dead, but risen. With COVID-19 blocking communal celebration, believers are at an enormous loss.
The coronavirus and Easter share the same eternal theme: life versus death. This was that theme that gave rise to Christianity.
People lived in an oppressive, unjust, poverty stricken and grubby world. Over the three years of Jesus’s public life his message of hope for the ordinary person attracted followers. He announced that God’s Kingdom of peace and justice was coming.
The heightened hope of that story was shattered by his death at the hands of the powers that be. It was then that his followers found an even better hope as they came to believe that Jesus was still alive – but in a different way and in a different dimension.
In Greek they called it the life for the ages (η αιώνια ζωή), translated into English as “Eternal Life”. A shrunken translation, but that’s what happens when imagination struggles for verbal expression.
The flow-on from Jesus’s resurrection is that those who believe in him also share in this different sort of life.
They get it when they first come to belief, and it endures beyond the believer’s earthly death. This reinforces Jesus’s idea of God’s coming kingdom of peace and justice par excellence.
Over time, the believers’ ideas developed. Central to Paul’s message in the mid-60s A.D. was Jesus risen to new life and the disciples’ sharing in it.
“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but may have eternal life.” (John 3:16)
A Joyful and a Blessed EASTER to you all!
At the outbreak of the Corona virus on the early part of this year 2020, it took some time before the WHO has declared the Covid19 a pandemic directing the leaders of all nations to take the necessary action to implement the guidelines on the imposition of an enhanced community quarantine or a lockdown, and the strict compliance of social distancing. This declaration caught us all by surprise as we were compelled to be in a complete lockdown requiring all residents to be confined at home till the end of this month.
Unquestionably, there is nothing that we can do with the imposition of a total lockdown. The appeal from the Law Enforcers and Frontliners was for all of us to stay home. Therefore, to be confined at home is the best response and help that we can offer to the same plea that is reiterated by the doctors, nurses, medical assistants and frontliners. And finding ourselves in this imposed situation we can all have the time to ponder on the things that truly matter in life.
There is not one of us who can remain to be indifferent to the trouble that this pandemic has brought to us. The Covid19, an invisible enemy, has brought havoc to all of us without any exception. The widespread suffering caused by the pandemic has cost so many lives and left some of our people in utter despair.
Thanks be to God for all the courageous frontliners (doctors, nurses, medical assistants, law enforcers, national and local Task Forces and the many volunteers) who in their selfless service have risked even their lives to care for the many victims of Covid19. Hearing the news and stories of their struggles move us to acknowledge that in these desperate and trying times their stories echo the very same story of the passion of Christ that has accomplished for us the Father’s gift of salvation.
Among the various experiences brought about by the pandemic that has required an enhanced community quarantine are challenging situations where individuals, families, and communities have been put in precarious circumstances. We hear of a huge number of workers who are daily wage earners and now unable to feed their family or support their daily needs; we also hear of neighbors or even subdivision homeowners who discriminate others who are classified as Persons Under Investigation (PUI), Persons Under Monitoring (PUM) or worse still those who have been diagnosed as Covid19 positive. Neither can we also ignore the heartaches and grief of family members who are unable to attend the funeral of a loved one. These very grim picture of the situation simply leaves us at a loss.
Even in the midst of the Covid19 pandemic, with all the havoc and devastation it has brought to the world, the season of LENT has, indeed, provided us the precious time to prepare for the glorious feast of EASTER. With great exultation we celebrate today the Feast of the Resurrection of Christ Jesus and we cannot help but acknowedge with grateful heart the overflowing grace that accompanies this joyous occasion. Is it not simply AMAZING that the feast that we commemorate year after year is the same marvelous celebration that contains the good news that is ever new – Christ is Risen! This feast of EASTER bursts forth with joy and exultation as it renews us to be able to radiate the gospel in season and out of season.
And in today’s feast of Christ’s Resurrection, we are, once again, reminded with JOY and GRATITUDE of our being * CALLED, * CHOSEN and * SENT into this broken world in order to radiate to everyone HOPE and CONSOLATION that flows from Christ’s Passion, Death and RESURRECTION.
My dear people of God in the Archdiocese of Manila,
An Easter Message is supposed to be a joyful message. Can there be joy when we have heard that the Enhanced Community Quarantine has been extended till the end of April? Can there be joy when the resources of many people have dwindled while the quarantine continues? Can there be joy when the news continues to speak about new infections and new deaths?
The joy of Easter is not a joy because there are no problems. It is a joy which surprises all of us, because when God acts, he acts in unexpected ways. In spite of the announcement of the Lord Jesus that he would rise again, the idea of the resurrection did not register among his disciples. So when Jesus was killed and buried, for the disciples, Jesus is over. He is dead. So when they saw the tomb empty, their first thought was, who took his body? And when they finally saw him, they were afraid. They thought they were seeing a ghost! Jesus had to assure them that it was he. He had to show them his wounded hands and side. He had to eat in front of them. The resurrection was totally unexpected to the disciples.
Easter for us this year is also totally unexpected. Not only because we are not able to do what we usually do on Easter – go to the Salubong, attend Mass, and celebrate with friends. As at the first Easter, are we open to be surprised by God? We do not know what will happen in the coming three weeks. We do not know what will be our life after the lock down. Surely, many things will change. What will they be? Of this we are sure, though: we will rise up from this pandemic. We will rise up, hopefully not to go back to our former way of life. We will rise up stronger and more confident. We will rise up with greater care for our health and our families. We will rise up strengthened in our relationships. Most especially, we will rise up with greater trust in our God who never leaves us and who sustains us in difficult times. Let us allow ourselves to be surprised by God.
The resurrection tells us that God is faithful. He is powerful. He overcomes evil and even death. This gives us hope and joy. We can say this with greater conviction this year. The quarantine period was hard, but we have lived through it renewed and with new realizations in life. It has given us new life. Let not the monotony of the quarantine put off the joy of Easter. The basis of this joy is not what we can do, but that the Risen Jesus is with us. He is acting among us and renewing us. Because of him, we shall overcome!
May this Easter give us greater trust and hope. Jesus is risen! He is with us! We will overcome! We will live a new life with Jesus! Happy Easter to you all.
+ Bishop BRODERICK S. PABILLO, D.D. Apostolic Administrator of Manila 11 April 2020
Makapangyarihan at mapagmahal na Ama, lumalapit kami sa Iyo sa aming pangangailangan, upang hilingin ang proteksiyon laban sa 2019 N-Corona Virus na nagpapahirap sa marami at kumikitil ng maraming buhay. Nagmamakaawa kami, Mapagmahal na Ama, na gabayan Mo ang mga taong nag-aaral kung saan nanggaling at sanhi ng epidemyang ito at sa mabilis na pagkalat nito.
Gabayan Mo ang mga kamay at isipan ng mga eksperto sa medikal na maaari silang maglingkod sa mga may sakit na may kakayanan at pakikiramay, at sa mga gobyerno at pribadong ahensya ay silang dapat makapaghanap ng lunas at solusyon sa epidemyang ito.
Iligtas Mo kami sa lahat ng uri ng karamdaman. Pagalingin Mo ang mga maysakit. At buhayin Mo sa amin ang pagkakawanggawa upang kalingain namin ang bawat isa.
Hinihiling namin ito sa pamamagitan ni Hesukristong Anak Mo na nabubuhay at naghahari kasama Mo at ng Espiritu Santo, iisang Diyos, magpasawalang hanggan. Amen!
Mahal na Birhen, mapagpagaling sa mga may sakit, ipanalangin Mo kami! San Raphael ang Arkanghel, ipanalangin Mo kami! San Roque, ipanalangin Mo kami! San Lorenzo Ruiz, ipanalangin Mo kami! San Pedro Calungsod, ipanalangin Mo kami! San Sebastian Martir, Ipanalangin Mo kami!
ORATIO IMPERATA on the threat from COVID-19
God our Father, we come to you in our need to ask your protection against the COVID 19 that has disturbed and even claimed lives. We pray that you guide the people tasked to find cures for this disease and to stem its transmission. Protect the medical experts that they may minister to the sick with competence and compassion. We pray for those afflicted. May they be restored to health soon. Protect those who care for them. Grant eternal rest to those who have died. Give us the grace in this trying time to work for the good of all and to help those in need. We implore you to stop the spread of this virus and to save us from our fears. Grant all these through our Lord Jesus Christ your Son who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever. Amen. We fly to Your protection, oh Holy Mother of God. Do not despise our petition in our necessities, but deliver us always from all dangers, Oh glorious and blessed Virgin. Amen. Our Lady, health of the sick, pray for us. St. Raphael the Archangel, pray for us. St. Roch, pray for us. St. Lorenzo Ruiz, pray for us St. Pedro Calungsod, pray for us.
Jerusalem is the foundation of our vision and our entire life. She is the city to which God gave a particular importance in the history of humanity. She is the city towards which all people are in movement – and where they will meet in friendship and love in the presence of the One Unique God, according to the vision of the prophet Isaiah: «In days to come the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be raised above the hills; all the nations shall stream to it (…) He shall judge between the nations, and shall arbitrate for many peoples; they shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more» (Is. 2:2-5). Today, the city is inhabited by two peoples of three religions; and it is on this prophetic vision and on the international resolutions concerning the totality of Jerusalem that any political solution must be based. This is the first issue that should be negotiated because the recognition of Jerusalem’s sanctity and its message will be a source of inspiration towards finding a solution to the entire problem, which is largely a problem of mutual trust and ability to set in place a new land in this land of God.
Kairos Palestine Document – A Moment of Truth, Chapter 9.5
Introduction
Christ is risen, indeed He is risen. Let us rejoice and be glad.
We rejoice because Jesus Christ, who triumphed over death, enables us also to triumph over all forms of death in our life. In our life, indeed, the forms of death are many.
Some of the world’s great—along with many of those who have power—are still walking in the ways of death. They are imposing many wars on our Middle East and on our Holy Land, the land of the Resurrection. They see nothing but death as a way to life. The strong in our land continue to see the death imposed on the Palestinian people as their only way to life and security.
