COVID-19

The World Meeting of Families in Rome will be pushed back until June 2022 and World Youth Day in Lisbon, Portugal, will be pushed back until August 2023, the Vatican announced.

The chairmen of four U.S. bishops’ committees — joined by the leaders of several health care, bioethics and pro-life organizations — “urgently and respectfully” implored the commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to ensure any vaccines developed for the coronavirus “are free from any connection to abortion.”

Making a living as a farmer in the United States has never been easy. But the coronavirus pandemic has added new layers of complexity for farmers and the people living in the small towns that dot the rural landscape.

“We are a Church that values every human life. We are a Church in solidarity with others at this time. … We are a Church that understands sacrifice.
This couldn’t be clearer on a day like today, when we remember Jesus’ loving sacrifice for us.”

“While mitigation efforts to date have helped, the coronavirus continues to pose a serious health threat, particularly to the elderly and those with underlying illnesses.”

The coronavirus pandemic is creating fear over limited resources for treating patients, especially the most seriously ill, but “this is not a time to sideline our ethical and moral principles,” said the chairmen of three committees of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

“Today, in the tragedy of a pandemic, in the face of the many false securities that have now crumbled, in the face of so many hopes betrayed, in the sense of abandonment that weighs upon our hearts, Jesus says to each one of us, ‘Courage, open your heart to my love. You will feel the consolation of God who sustains you,'” Pope Francis said.

In the United States, restrictions include keeping priests from visiting patients in hospitals.