Year: 2020

LiCAS News
Inday Espina-Varona, Philippines
April 17, 2020

Health officials have ordered a stop to the testing of people for COVID-19 in a village in the central Philippines after learning that at least 54 residents have been infected by the disease.

Daisy Villa of the Cebu City Health department announced a stop to tests as armed soldiers and policemen started to barricade the village of Zapatera to prevent residents from leaving.

Villa said the order to stop the tests came from the country’s Department of Health in Manila, which advised local officials to consider the entire village infected.

Health undersecretary Rosario Vergeire denied a halt to testing in Zapatera village.

Cebu City Mayor Ergardo Labella, responding to appeals by the local village head, ordered mass testing to continue.

The city government said 82 have now tested positive in the village. The mayor ordered testing in all other nearby villages.

The alarm in the city of Cebu came as the mayor of the city of Valenzuela in the capital announced that its first round of mass testing showed five of 40 tests turned out positive for infection.

Valenzuela Mayor Rex Gatchalian ordered those confirmed of the disease to be isolated in a building initially constructed as a drug rehabilitation facility.

“We will take care of them,” said the mayor. “We’ll make sure they are well-fed and they’ll be given medical intervention,” he said.

Gatchalian said the patients will again be tested based on existing testing protocols “until they turn negative.”

On April 17, the health department recorded 218 new cases of COVID-19, raising the total to 5,878.

The gap between the number of recoveries and deaths further widened as 52 more people recovered from the disease, bringing the total to 487. The death toll is now 387, with 25 new fatalities.

Gatchalian typifies local government executives in the Philippines who have become critical of the national health department’s cumbersome COVID-19 testing protocol.

The mayor decided to focus first on patients with known exposure to cases earlier confirmed by the Department of Health.

“If we want to contain the spread of COVID-19, then we have to test exposed residents, whether or not they have symptoms, and then isolate the new infections,” he said.

This modified process of testing would also allow a new round of contact tracing, said Gatchalian.

He described the first results of the mass testing in his city as “alarming.”

He warned that not testing all persons with exposure to confirmed cases increases the odds of community transmission even with a lockdown.

The city government is spending local funds for the tests, with an initial target of 550, followed by mass testing of health personnel.

The first round will be completed on April 18, with kits sourced from South Korea but using the Philippine health department’s two-day test process.

The mayor said kits and testing cost about US$100 per patient, with a private hospital processing swab samples.

The case in the central Philippine city of Cebu is sobering and raises questions of what the national government risked by delaying the purchase of test kits and authorizing decentralized tests.

On April 16, the Philippine Senate has passed a resolution calling for the resignation of Health Secretary Francisco Duque III, citing failure in leadership.

President Rodrigo Duterte, however, rejected the call.

The health secretary also got the support of a Catholic bishop who said Duque may not be a perfect leader but “he is delivering something.”

“The fact that the increase of the infection of the virus is not the same with other countries means there is good management involved,” said Bishop Oscar Florencio of the Military Ordinariate.

The prelate said if there is really a need to change Duque, it should come from the president.

“If [the senators] are persistent to remove Duque then let’s wait up to the end of the enhanced community quarantine by the end of April and strategize again,” he said.

Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles said the inter-agency task force handling the government’s COVID-19 response appreciates Duque for “telling it as it is.”

Duque earlier claimed a tight global supply market prevented the arrival of test purchases, but legislators said the government only started looking after a surge in infections.

The Philippines until last week was dependent on donations from China, Singapore, South Korea, and other aid partners.

Two Definitions of Peace

April 15, 2020
Virginia Forrester
General Audience

This morning’s General Audience was held at 9:30 am from the Library of the Apostolic Vatican Palace.

Taking up the series of catecheses on the Beatitudes, in his address in Italian the Pope focused his meditation on the seventh: “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God” (Matthew 5:9).

After summarizing his catechesis in several languages, the Holy Father expressed special greetings to the faithful.

The General Audience ended with the recitation of the Pater Noster and the Apostolic Blessing.

The Holy Father’s Catechesis

Dear Brothers and Sisters, good morning!

Today’s catechesis is dedicated to the seventh Beatitude, that of the “peacemakers,” who are proclaimed sons of God. I rejoice that it happens immediately after Easter, because the peace of Christ is the fruit of his Death and Resurrection, as we heard in the Letter of Saint Paul.

To understand this Beatitude it’s necessary to explain the meaning of the word “peace,” which can be misunderstood or sometimes trivialized.  We must orient ourselves between two ideas of peace: the first is the biblical, where the beautiful word shalom appears, which expresses abundance, prosperity, and wellbeing. When in Hebrew one wishes shalom, one wishes a good life, full, prosperous but also in keeping with truth and justice, which will have fulfillment in the Messiah, Prince of Peace (Cf. Isaiah 9:6; Micah 5:4-5).

There is, then, the other meaning, more widespread, of the word “peace,” which is understood as a sort of inner tranquillity: I am tranquil, I am in peace. This is a modern idea, psychological and more suggestive. One thinks commonly that peace is quiet, harmony and internal balance. This meaning of the word “peace” is incomplete and can’t be absolutized, because in life restlessness can be an important moment of growth. Often it’s the Lord Himself who sows restlessness in us, to go to encounter Him, to meet Him. In this sense, it’s an important moment of growth; whereas, it can happen that interior tranquillity corresponds to a domesticated conscience and not to a true spiritual redemption. Many times the Lord must be a “sign of contradiction” (Cf. Luke 2:43-35), shaking our false securities, to lead us to salvation. And in that moment it seems there is no peace but it is the Lord who puts us on this way, to arrive at the peace that He Himself will give us.

At this point we must remember that the Lord understands His peace as different from human <peace>, from that of the world, when He says: ”Peace I leave you; my peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you” (John 14:27). Jesus’ peace is another peace, different from worldly peace. We ask ourselves: how does the world give peace? If we think of warlike conflicts — wars normally end in two ways: either the defeat of one of the sides or with peace treaties. We can only hope and pray that this second way is always entered into; however, we must consider that history is an infinite series of peace treaties refuted by successive wars, or by the metamorphosis of those same wars in other ways and in other places. In our time also, a piecemeal” war is being fought on more scenarios and in different ways.[1] We must at least suspect that in the framework of a globalization made up especially of economic and financial interests, the “peace” of some corresponds to the “war” of others.  And this isn’t Christ’s peace!

Instead, how does the Lord Jesus give His peace? We heard Saint Paul say that the peace of Christ is “to make of two, one” (Cf. Ephesians 2:14), to cancel enmity and reconcile. And the way to fulfill this work of peace is His body. In fact, He reconciles all things and puts peace with the Blood of His Cross, as the same Apostle says elsewhere (Cf. Colossians 1:20). And here I ask myself, we can all ask ourselves: who are, then, the “peacemakers”? The seventh Beatitude is the most active, explicitly operative. The verbal expression is analogous to that used in the first verse of the Bible for creation and it indicates initiative and laboriousness. By its nature love is creative — love is always creative — and seeks reconciliation at all cost. Those are called sons of God who have learned the art of peace and exercise it; they know that there is no reconciliation without giving one’s life, and that peace is always sought no matter what. Don’t forget this! It’s sought thus. This isn’t an autonomous work, fruit of one’s own capabilities; it’s a manifestation of grace received from Christ, who is our peace, who has rendered us sons of God.

True shalom and true interior balance flow from Christ’s peace, which comes from His Cross and generates a new humanity, embodied in an infinite array of men and women Saints, inventive, creative, who always thought of new ways to love –, the men and women Saints that make peace. This life of sons of God, which by the Blood of Christ our brothers seek and discover, is true happiness. Blessed are those that go on this way.

And again, happy Easter to all, in the peace of Christ!

[Original text: Italian]  [ZENIT’s translation by Virginia M. Forrester]

© Libreria Editrice Vatican

In Italian

I greet warmly the Italian-speaking faithful. I wish you all to live fully the Easter message, in fidelity to your Baptism and to be joyful witnesses of Christ, dead and risen for us.

Finally, I greet young people, the sick, the elderly and newlyweds. Dearests, I exhort you to look constantly at Jesus who has overcome death and who helps us to accept the sufferings and trials of life, as a precious occasion of redemption and salvation. May the Lord bless you and the Virgin Mary protect you!

 [Original text: Italian]  [ZENIT’s translation by Virginia M. Forrester]
[1] Cf. Homily in the Military Shrine of Redipuglia, September 13, 2014; Homily at Sarajevo, June 6, 2015; Address to the Pontifical Council for the Interpretation of Legislative Texts, February 21, 2020.
© Libreria Editrice Vatican

Licas news
Jose Torres Jr.,  Philippines
April 15, 2020

The Archdiocese of Manila will be implementing changes in its activities even after the lockdown due to the global spread of the new coronavirus disease.

Bishop Broderick Pabillo, Manila’s apostolic administrator, said the archdiocese will definitely strengthen its social media presence and improve the ministry for the sick.

The prelate said the global health crisis has proven that social media has become an important toll in the people’s practice of their faith.

“Some realizations become clear to us,” said Bishop Pabillo in a pastoral statement released this week.

He noted that parishes that have “well-developed social media ministry” were 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,” said the bishop.

He said the media apostolate “is here to stay and will play a greater role in the life of the Church from now on.”

Bishop Pabillo also urged all church institutions to set up “good social media ministries.”

He also noted that the pandemic “has shown us the importance of the ministry to the sick.”

The bishop said that in the Archdiocese of Manila there are only five priests who are in the hospital chaplaincy. Most of 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,” he said.

The prelate said the ministry to the sick should not only cater to the sick in hospitals but also to the medical staff, and the elderly in their homes.

He said there is a need to recruit younger lay ministers from older altar servers, or older choir members, or even ask religious sisters and brothers to help in the ministry.

In his pastoral statement, Bishop Pabillo also noted that the practice of “social distancing” will continue even after the pandemic.

He said there should be more Masses on Sundays after the pandemic to limit the attendance of people or ask the people to come when there are less people.

“Each parish is to determine the adequate spaces to be observed between the Mass attendees,” said the bishop.

“This would mean that Masses should no longer be on an hourly basis,” he said, adding that some time should be given between services for the cleaning of the church.

Big celebrations should be done outdoors, and churches can invest in big screens and outdoor sound systems for people who will remain outside the church.

The bishop said he expects alcohol and hand sanitizers to become regular features at the door of churches and offices.

He mulled providing a foot bath at the door steps of churches and offices.

Bishop Pabillo said people have to do away with the practice of touching or kissing religious images in churches, saying a bow or a moment of silent prayer would be enough. He urged members of the clergy in the archdiocese to use their creativity to serve the faithful “in the new situation that we are now in.”

By CBCP News
April 15, 2020
Manila, Philippines

A church official has echoed the calls for the immediate release of the government’s cash aid to workers, as Covid-19 quarantine measures continue to affect their livelihood and food security.

Bishop Gerardo Alminaza of San Carlos pressed for a sense of urgency in assisting the country’s ordinary workers.

“We strongly demand that the Department of Labor and Employment immediately release the financial assistance to all affected workers whether from small, medium, and large enterprises,” Alminaza said.

The bishop, who also co-chairs the Church People – Workers Solidarity (CWS), said that many workers have not yet received the cash assistance since the Luzon-wide lockdown was imposed.

“Thus, workers and their families are left without income to buy food and other basic necessities,” said Alminaza.

He also urged the government to ask companies employing affected workers to apply for the cash assistance to mitigate the impact of the quarantine measures due to the coronavirus pandemic.

According to him, the DOLE assistance requires employers as the ones who should apply for the financial assistance for their workers.

“We reiterate our call to the government to oblige all companies to apply on behalf of their workers and/or allow workers to apply directly for the said assistance,” said the bishop.

About 220,000 workers affected by the lockdown have benefited from its Covid-19 Adjustment Measures Program, the DOLE said.

Around 1.4 million workers have reportedly been displaced since the lockdown forced businesses to temporarily close or implement flexible work arrangements.

By CBCP News
April 15, 2020
Manila, Philippines

As church groups joined various efforts in distributing aid, a Catholic charity focused its attention to helping people with disabilities and informal workers.

Catholic Relief Services is supporting PWDs and workers in the informal economy who are struggling because of the Covid-19 lockdown with over P1.2 million of initial assistance.

Matthew McGarry, CRS sub-regional country representative, said that beyond the dangers of the disease itself is the current situation for poor families to meet their basic needs.

“We are focusing our efforts on assisting the most vulnerable populations, who bear the brunt of the lockdown and are at the greatest risk from the spread of Covid-19,” McGarry said.

CRS, the U.S. bishops’ overseas relief and development agency, has programs across Asia. They have a sub-regional office in Manila.

The agency has partnered with Tahanang Walang Hagdanan, Inc. (TWHI) to help at least 116 people with disabilities in a TWHI residential facility in Cainta, Rizal.

The assistance include a one-month supply of food and hygiene items that the residents themselves selected during remote consultations with CRS and TWHI.

Melo Bueza, TWHI’s social worker, said people with disabilities are suffering the brunt of the coronavirus outbreak.

Licas news
Mark Saludes, Philippines
April 15, 2020

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, or Bong to his friends, celebrated his 34th anniversary as a priest on Holy Saturday.

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

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

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.

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.