Pope Francis to meet Muslim leaders, small Christian community in Bahrain

Pope Francis kisses the foot of one of the 12 women whose feet he washed at the Rebibbia Women’s Prison in Rome on Holy Thursday, March 28, 2024. / Credit: Vatican Media

CNA Staff, Mar 28, 2024 / 14:30 pm (CNA).
Pope Francis on Thursday washed … […]

Forty-five priests and four bishops in Venezuela have died from COVID-19 as of December 2021, the Venezuela bishops’ conference has reported. / Unsplash

Caracas, Venezuela, Dec 15, 2021 / 13:45 pm (CNA).

The Venezuelan bishops’ conference published new statistics showing that since the beginning of the pandemic 45 priests and four bishops have died from COVID-19.

The conference noted that “in the midst of the global crisis caused by the pandemic, priests are not exempt from the risks of contracting COVID-19,” as they carry out their ministry.

“At a time when people more earnestly seek the comfort of the spirit and closeness to the faith … priests offer their service to the Church,” the conference said.

The conference published current figures on the priests who were infected and died from the deadly virus. In the report, they noted that between March 2020 and Dec. 13, 2021, 439 priests were infected with COVID-19, a figure that represents 20.77% of the total clergy in the country.

During this period, 45 priests have died, or 10.25% of all priests infected with the virus, and 2.13% of all Venezuelan clergy.

Of those infected, 26 were bishops and of these 22 prelates recovered; the other four died in 2021.

The four bishops who died were Archbishop Cástor Oswaldo Azuaje, who served as the bishop of the Diocese of Trujillo until his death on January 8; Bishop César Ortega, who died on April 9; Archbishop Tulio Chirivella, Archbishop Emeritus of Barquisimeto, who died on April 11; and Cardinal Jorge Urosa Savino, Archbishop Emeritus of Caracas, who died on Sept. 23.

The bishops’ conference said that the Church in Venezuela currently has 2,068 priests. Siixty are bishops and of these 41 are titular bishops, three are auxiliary bishops, and 16 are bishops emeritus.

The dioceses with the greatest number of priests are San Cristóbal (208), Trujillo (154), Barquisimeto (148), Mérida (127), Caracas (121), the conference reported.

The bishops’ conference said that since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic “it has urged the entire population to comply with the guidelines and recommendations in the field of biosafety” to prevent contracting the virus.

The conference also stressed that taking proper care of oneself, the family and the community “is the best way to prevent the spread of COVID-19.”

Finally, the bishops’ conference exhorted the faithful to “increase their trust in God in times of a health emergency” and encouraged them to continue praying from the Word of God, “especially in the family, the Domestic Church,” since prayer “is an expression of the faith and hope that we need to strengthen.”

[…]

Pope Francis speaking in St. Peter’s Basilica on June 5, 2022. / Vatican Media

Rome Newsroom, Jul 21, 2022 / 07:13 am (CNA).

As Europe faces record high temperatures and summer wildfires, Pope Francis has pointed out that the poor suffer the most from heat waves, drought, and other environmental extremes.

In a message for the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation, the pope said that it is “the poorest among us who are crying out.”

“Exposed to the climate crisis, the poor feel even more gravely the impact of the drought, flooding, hurricanes, and heat waves that are becoming ever more intense and frequent,” Pope Francis said in the message published on July 21.

“Listening to these anguished cries, we must repent and modify our lifestyles and destructive systems. … The present state of decay of our common home merits the same attention as other global challenges such as grave health crises and wars,” he said.

Pope Francis signed the message urging care for creation on July 16, one day after new temperature records were set in Spain and Portugal. There were 1,063 heat-related deaths in Portugal between July 7 and July 18, according to the country’s director-general of health.

Since then, the heat wave has spread to France and the U.K., which broke its national record for the highest temperature ever recorded on July 19. 

In his message, Pope Francis explained that he authorized the Holy See on behalf of the Vatican City State to accede to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Paris Agreement “in the hope that the humanity of the 21st century will be remembered for having generously shouldered its grave responsibilities.”

He said that achieving the demanding goals of the Paris agreement of limiting temperature increase to 1.5°C and reducing net greenhouse gas emissions to zero requires cooperation between all nations.

“This means ‘converting’ models of consumption and production, as well as lifestyles, in a way more respectful of creation and the integral human development of all peoples, present and future, a  development grounded in responsibility, prudence/precaution, solidarity, concern for the poor and for future generations,” the pope added.

The pope called for economically richer countries, “who have polluted most in the last two centuries,” to provide financial and technical support for economically poorer nations that are “already experiencing the most of the burden of climate change.”

Pope Francis established Sept. 1 as the annual World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation following the publication of the encyclical Laudato si’ in 2015. The pope has also recommended that the period from Sept. 1 to Oct. 4 — the feast day of St. Francis of Assisi —  be celebrated as a “Season of Creation.”

The theme of this year’s Season of Creation will be “listen to the voice of creation.” The pope expressed hope that the season will be “a special time for all Christians to pray and work together to care for our common home.”

Pope Francis said: “Originally inspired by the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, this Season is an opportunity to cultivate our ‘ecological conversion,’ a conversion encouraged by Saint John Paul II as a response to the ‘ecological catastrophe’ predicted by Saint Paul VI back in 1970.”

“If we learn how to listen, we can hear in the voice of creation a kind of dissonance. On the one hand, we can hear a sweet song in praise of our beloved Creator; on the other, an anguished  plea, lamenting our mistreatment of this our common home.”

[…]