COVID-19

In his letter to pastors, Bishop Kettler also addressed a change in protocols for adoration chapels, and he included a reminder about the importance of wearing masks.

In a new video, the chairman of the U.S. bishops’ Committee on Doctrine reiterated that use of the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine “can be used in good moral conscience.”

It’s the Catholic Kinship Initiative — Parishes United Across America, and it’s designed to match financially stable parishes with a poor parish in another part of the country.

“You can’t be thinking, ‘What will we do after the pandemic?’ You have to be doing it now,” said Dominican Sister Teresa Rickard, president and executive director of Renew International.

Pope Francis is scheduled to visit Iraq March 5-8, and he has events planned in churches each day.

Two days after the Iraqi government announced stringent COVID-19 precautions, including the closure of mosques and churches “until further notice,” the prime minister met with the Vatican nuncio to discuss “the preparation for the scheduled visit of His Holiness,” Pope Francis.

Choirs and vocal ensembles can return to ministry at Mass beginning on the First Sunday of Lent, Feb. 21, Bishop Donald Kettler said in a letter to priests of the diocese Feb. 11.

These different times are affecting day-to-day operations of Catholic colleges and what they might do going forward.