“In order to receive absolution in the sacrament of penance, as well as with the anointing of the sick and the viaticum,” he said, the patients must demonstrate their intention to reverse their decision to end their life and to cancel their registration with any group appointed to grant their desire for euthanasia or assisted suicide.
In the letter’s section on “Pastoral discernment toward those who request euthanasia or assisted suicide,” it said a “priest could administer the sacraments to an unconscious person ‘sub condicione’ if, on the basis of some signal given by the patient beforehand, he can presume his or her repentance”.
The Church’s ministers can still accompany patients who have made these end-of-life directives, it added, by showing “a willingness to listen and to help, together with a deeper explanation of the nature of the sacrament, in order to provide the opportunity to desire and choose the sacrament up to the last moment”.
It is important to carefully look for “adequate signs of conversion, so that the faithful can reasonably ask for the reception of the sacraments. To delay absolution is a medicinal act of the Church, intended not to condemn, but to lead the sinner to conversion,” it said.
However, it added, “those who spiritually assist these persons should avoid any gesture, such as remaining until the euthanasia is performed, that could be interpreted as approval of this action”.
Chaplains, too, must show care “in the health care systems where euthanasia is practised, for they must not give scandal by behaving in a manner that makes them complicit in the termination of human life”, the letter said.
Another warning in the letter regarded medical end-of-life protocols, such as “do not resuscitate orders” or “physician orders for life-sustaining treatment” and any of their variations.
These protocols “were initially thought of as instruments to avoid aggressive medical treatment in the terminal phases of life. Today, these protocols cause serious problems regarding the duty to protect the life of patients in the most critical stages of sickness”, it said.

On the one hand, it said, “medical staff feel increasingly bound by the self-determination expressed in patient declarations that deprive physicians of their freedom and duty to safeguard life even where they could do so”.
“On the other hand, in some health care settings, concerns have recently arisen about the widely reported abuse of such protocols viewed in a euthanistic perspective with the result that neither patients nor families are consulted in final decisions about care,” it said.
“This happens above all in the countries where, with the legalisation of euthanasia, wide margins of ambiguity are left open in end-of-life law regarding the meaning of obligations to provide care.”
The Church, however, “is obliged to intervene in order to exclude once again all ambiguity in the teaching of the magisterium concerning euthanasia and assisted suicide, even where these practices have been legalised,” it said.
Euthanasia involves “an action or an omission which of itself or by intention causes death, in order that all pain may in this way be eliminated.”
Its definition depends on “the intention of the will and in the methods used”, it added.
The letter reaffirmed that “any formal or immediate material cooperation in such an act is a grave sin against human life,” making euthanasia “an act of homicide that no end can justify and that does not tolerate any form of complicity or active or passive collaboration.”
For that reason, “those who approve laws of euthanasia and assisted suicide, therefore, become accomplices of a grave sin that others will execute. They are also guilty of scandal because by such laws they contribute to the distortion of conscience, even among the faithful.”
The letter also underlined a patient’s right to decline aggressive medical treatment and “die with the greatest possible serenity and with one’s proper human and Christian dignity intact” when approaching the natural end of life.
“The renunciation of treatments that would only provide a precarious and painful prolongation of life can also mean respect for the will of the dying person as expressed in advanced directives for treatment, excluding however every act of a euthanistic or suicidal nature,” it said.
However, it also underlined the rights of physicians as never being “a mere executor of the will of patients or their legal representatives, but retains the right and obligation to withdraw at will from any course of action contrary to the moral good discerned by conscience.”
Other aspects of end-of-life care the letter detailed included: the obligation to provide basic care of nutrition and hydration; the need for holistic palliative care; support for families and hospice care; the required accompaniment and care for unborn and newly-born children diagnosed with a terminal disease; the use of “deep palliative sedation”; obligation of care for patients in a “vegetative state” or with minimal consciousness; and conscientious objection by health care workers.

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On Holy Saturday, April 11, as Christians contemplate Jesus lying in the tomb, Archbishop Cesare Nosiglia will lead a liturgy of prayer and contemplation before the shroud at 5pm local time (3am New Zealand time, Sunday, April 12).

The prayer service will be live-streamed along with live images of the 14-foot-by-4-foot shroud, which has a full-length photonegative image of a man, front and back, bearing signs of wounds that correspond to the Gospel accounts of the torture Jesus endured in his passion and death.

As of April 5, the Archdiocese of Turin said it was finalising the plans and would publish a list of participating television stations and links to the livestream later in the week.

Announcing the special display, Archbishop Nosiglia said on April 4 that he had received “thousands and thousands” of messages “asking me if, in this time of grave difficulty we are going through, it would be possible to pray this Holy Week before the shroud” and ask God for “the grace to defeat evil as he did, trusting in the goodness and mercy of God”.

The archbishop told Vatican News that the online viewing of the shroud could be “much better” than seeing it in person because the cameras will allow viewers to see it up close and to remain at length with the image.

The image of the crucified man on the shroud, he said, “will go to the heart and the sadness of many people who will follow us. It will be like staying with the Lord on the day we await his Resurrection”.

CNS Photo

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“After showing some symptoms” on March 30, the 66-year-old cardinal was tested, the diocese said; when the test came back positive, he was hospitalised at the Church-owned Gemelli hospital.

“He has a fever, but his general condition is good, and he has begun anti-viral therapy,” the diocesan statement said.

Those who have been working in close contact with Cardinal De Donatis are in preventive self-isolation, it added.

According to Vatican News, the cardinal had very few meetings in recent days and “declared that he had not been at the Vatican” since the coronavirus outbreak began; instead, he has maintained “only telephone contact with the pontiff”.

While the Pope is the bishop of the Diocese of Rome, the papal vicar exercises most of the powers of a local bishop and presides over a vicariate with most of the usual offices found in the chancery of a large archdiocese, including a diocesan Caritas and offices for personnel, religious education and ecumenism.

“I, too, am living this trial,” Cardinal De Donatis said in a statement on March 30. “I trust the Lord and the support of the prayers of all of you, dear faithful of the church of Rome.”

“I am living this moment as an occasion providence has given me to share the suffering of many of our brothers and sisters,” he said. “I offer my prayers for you, for the entire diocesan community and for the inhabitants of the city of Rome.”

CNS Photo

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In a March 28 note, Bruni confirmed that a monsignor, who works in the Vatican Secretariat of State and lives in the Domus Sanctae Marthae, where Pope Francis lives, did test positive for the coronavirus and, “as a precaution”, was hospitalised.

The Italian newspaper Il Messaggero and the Jesuit-run America magazine published reports on March 25 about the monsignor testing positive.

Bruni said that, as of March 28, the Vatican health service had conducted more than 170 tests for the virus. No one else who lives at the Domus Sanctae Marthae tested positive, Bruni said.

As soon as the monsignor tested positive, he said, his room and office were sanitised and all the people he had come into contact with over the preceding days were contacted.

“The health authorities carried out tests on the people in closest contact with the positive individual,” Bruni said. “The results confirmed the absence of other positive cases” among the residents of the Vatican guesthouse, but another employee of the Holy See who was in “close contact with the official” did test positive.

That brings to six the number of people in the Vatican who have tested positive, he said.

The Vatican press office had confirmed the first four cases on March 24. The first, already confirmed by the Vatican on March 6, was a priest from Bergamo who had a routine pre-employment exam at the Vatican health clinic. After he was discovered with symptoms, the clinic was closed temporarily for special cleaning, and the five people with whom the priest had come into contact were put under a preventive quarantine.

There were reports at the same time that the offices of the Secretariat of State were closed temporarily for a thorough cleaning.

The Vatican did not say when the next three people tested positive, but it said one worked in the Vatican warehouse and two worked at the Vatican Museums.

All four, the Vatican said March 24, “were placed in precautionary isolation” before their test results came back. “The isolation has already lasted more than 14 days; currently they are receiving care in Italian hospitals or in their own homes.”

Both America magazine and Il Messaggero said Pope Francis was unlikely to have had contact with the monsignor from the Secretariat of State who tested positive. Both reported that Pope Francis has been eating his meals in his room rather than the dining room since coming down with a bad cold after Ash Wednesday, February 26.

While the Vatican has cancelled all group meetings, Pope Francis continues to meet with individuals each day.

News reports said the Pope and his guests use hand sanitiser before and after the meetings.

Photo: Pope Francis raises the monstrance during eucharistic adoration at the end of Mass March 26, 2020, in the chapel of his Vatican residence, the Domus Sanctae Marthae. (CNS Photo/Vatican media)

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VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Pope Francis entrusted to Jesus’ mother the suffering and anguish of millions of people affected by the coronavirus pandemic.

In a video message broadcast March 11, the pope prayed before a portrait of Our Lady of Divine Love, beseeching her to “not disdain the entreaties of we who are in trial” but to “deliver us from every danger.”

“We entrust ourselves to you, Health of the Sick, who at the cross took part in Jesus’ pain, keeping your faith firm,” the pope prayed. “You, Salvation of the Roman People, know what we need, and we are sure you will provide so that, as in Cana of Galilee, we may return to joy and to feasting after this time of trial.”

The pope’s video message was aired on TV2000, the television channel of the Italian bishops’ conference, and the Diocese of Rome’s Facebook page. Cardinal Angelo De Donatis, papal vicar of Rome, celebrated a Mass at Rome’s Shrine of Divine Love that was aired live after the pope’s message.

The Mass, according to the Diocese of Rome, capped a day of prayer and fasting for the city and for Italy, which has been under a government-mandated lockdown to contain the spread of the coronavirus.

As of March 11, more than 12,000 people in Italy have contracted the virus, known as COVID-19, and at least 827 of them have died since the outbreak began in northern Italy, the Italian health ministry said. However, an estimated 1,045 people have been cured since the outbreak began.

The image of Our Lady of Divine Love is of particular significance for Catholics in the city of Rome, especially during troubling times.

It was before the original image of Mary and the child Jesus at the shrine where Pope Pius XII prayed in 1944, imploring the Mother of God to protect the Roman people during the final battle for the city’s liberation from Nazi occupation.

Over seven decades later, his successor once again implored Mary’s protection for the city of Rome, Italy and the whole world now threatened by the pandemic.

“Help us, Mother of Divine Love, to conform to the will of the Father and to do as we are told by Jesus, who has taken upon himself our sufferings and carried our sorrows to lead us, through the cross, to the joy of the resurrection,” Pope Francis prayed.

In his homily during the Mass, Cardinal De Donatis echoed the pope’s prayer to Mary.

“We are here to cry out: ‘Save us, Lord, by your mercy,” he said. “Mary is here with us, and we pray for her powerful intercession to be freed by the evil of the virus.”

The cardinal said the faces of many Christians today, despite their faith, reflect the same anguish experienced by Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane.

Nevertheless, Christians must trust in their heavenly father, like Jesus, who “had the permanent awareness that no one had the power to tear him away from God’s hands.”

“It is an awareness that each one of us must guard in these difficult times,” Cardinal De Donatis said. “The antidote, the therapy for the anguish of the present moment is to entrust yourselves to God’s hands. We are in his hands, and no one can tear us away from him.”

Text of pope’s prayer to Mary during coronavirus pandemic

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Here is a CNS translation of the prayer Pope Francis recited by video March 11 for a special Mass and act of prayer asking Mary to protect Italy and the world during of the coronavirus pandemic.

O Mary,
you always shine on our path
as a sign of salvation and of hope.
We entrust ourselves to you, Health of the Sick,
who at the cross took part in Jesus’ pain, keeping your faith firm.
You, Salvation of the Roman People,
know what we need,
and we are sure you will provide
so that, as in Cana of Galilee,
we may return to joy and to feasting
after this time of trial.
Help us, Mother of Divine Love,
to conform to the will of the Father
and to do as we are told by Jesus,
who has taken upon himself our sufferings
and carried our sorrows
to lead us, through the cross,
to the joy of the resurrection. Amen.

Under your protection, we seek refuge, Holy Mother of God. Do not disdain the entreaties of we who are in trial, but deliver us from every danger, O glorious and blessed Virgin.

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In a letter addressed to priests around the world Aug. 4, the pope said that many priests have spoken or written to him expressing “their outrage at what happened” and the doubts and fears the sexual abuse crisis has caused.

“Without denying or dismissing the harm caused by some of our brothers, it would be unfair not to express our gratitude to all those priests who faithfully and generously spend their lives in the service of others,” he said.

Commemorating the 160th anniversary of the death of St. John Mary Vianney, patron saint of parish priests, the pope praised those priests who, like their patron, carry out their mission “often without fanfare and at personal cost, amid weariness, infirmity and sorrow.”

However, he also shared his concern that many priests “feel themselves attacked and blamed for crimes they did not commit.”

The revelations of sexual abuse and cover-up by clergy members, he explained, has “been a time of great suffering in the lives of those who experienced such abuse, but also in the lives of their families and of the entire people of God.”

The pope added that priests have not been immune to the pain felt by the faithful and “embody a spiritual fatherhood capable of weeping with those who weep.”

“Countless priests make of their lives a work of mercy in areas or situations that are often hostile, isolated or ignored, even at the risk of their lives,” he said. “I acknowledge and appreciate your courageous and steadfast example; in these times of turbulence, shame and pain, you demonstrate that you have joyfully put your lives on the line for the sake of the Gospel.”

Nevertheless, the pope said, the current crisis is a time of “ecclesial purification” that “makes us realize that without (God) we are simply dust.”

“He is rescuing us from hypocrisy, from the spirituality of appearances. He is breathing forth his spirit in order to restore the beauty of his bride, caught in adultery,” he said. “Our humble repentance, expressed in silent tears before these atrocious sins and the unfathomable grandeur of God’s forgiveness, is the beginning of a renewal of our holiness.”

Pope Francis also encouraged priests to find the strength to persevere while warning them not to succumb into the temptation of despair “amid trials, weakness and the consciousness of our limitations.”

Gratitude for all the ways God has shown love, patience and forgiveness “is always a powerful weapon” that can “renew — and not simply patch up — our life and mission,” he said.

The pope also called on priests to not be tempted by sadness which can turn into a habit and “lead us slowly to accept evil and injustice by quietly telling us: ‘It has always been like this.'”

That sadness, he said, “stifles every effort at change and conversion by sowing resentment and hostility.”

Pope Francis said that by establishing a personal relationship with Christ and the people they serve, priests will “never lose the joy of knowing that we are ‘the sheep of his flock’ and that he is our Lord and shepherd.”

The pain “of so many victims, the pain of the people of God and our own personal pain cannot be for naught,” he said. “Jesus himself has brought this heavy burden to his cross and he now asks us to be renewed in our mission of drawing near to those who suffer, of drawing near without embarrassment to human misery, and indeed to make all these experiences our own, as Eucharist.”

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All people of goodwill have a duty to help vulnerable women and other victims of human trafficking escape from forced sexual slavery, the pope wrote in a prologue of a new book on the suffering of women forced into prostitution.

“Any form of prostitution is a reduction to slavery, a criminal act, a disgusting vice that confuses making love with venting out one’s instincts by torturing a defenseless woman,” he said. “It is a sickness of humanity, a false way of thinking in society.”

The new book, titled “Crucified Women,” was released in Italian and written by Father Aldo Buonaiuto, a priest who works for the John XXIII Community, an international association that helps marginalized people.

L’Osservatore Romano, the Vatican newspaper, published the book’s prologue July 29 on the eve of the World Day Against Trafficking in Persons.

During the Jubilee Year of Mercy, the pope visited a house run by the John XXIII Community in northeast Rome that helped young women rebuild their lives after being rescued from prostitution.

The pope met with “20 women liberated from the slavery of the prostitution racket. Six of them come from Romania, four from Albania, seven from Nigeria and one each from Tunisia, Italy and Ukraine,” the Vatican said Aug. 12, 2016.

According to L’Osservatore Romano, Pope Francis had asked the women for forgiveness on behalf of all the men — especially Christians — who had used and abused them.

“Today, I ask you all for forgiveness. For all the Christians, for all the Catholics, who have abused you. And I also for forgiveness on my part, for not having sufficiently prayed for you and for this slavery,” the pope told the women during his visit.

In the book’s prologue, the pope recalled his visit to the community and said that while he spoke with the women, he “breathed in all the pain, the injustice and the effects of oppression.”

“After listening to the touching and very human stories of these poor women, some of them carrying a child in their arms, I felt a strong desire, almost the need, to ask them for forgiveness for the real tortures they had to endure because of their clients, many of whom call themselves Christians,” the pope wrote.

Praising the work of the John XXIII Community, Pope Francis said he hoped the book would bring greater awareness to the plight of women forced into prostitution. By listening to the stories of trafficking victims, people can “understand that if such a high demand from clients isn’t stopped, we will not be able to effectively combat the exploitation and humiliation of innocent lives.”

No one, especially Christians, can “look the other way or wash their hands of the innocent blood shed upon the streets of the world,” he added.

“Corruption is a disease that doesn’t stop on its own,” Pope Francis said. “We need to raise awareness on an individual and a collective level — even as a church — to truly help these unfortunate sisters of ours and prevent the iniquity of the world from falling upon the most fragile and defenseless creatures.”

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“May we be bold”, was the wish expressed by Isabella McCafferty from the Archdiocese of Wellington at a Vatican
news conference on June 18.

Miss McCafferty was one of more than 280 young people from 109 countries set to take part in a post-synod youth forum in June.

The Dicastery for Laity, the Family and Life asked bishops’ conferences around the world to identify two young adult leaders to participate in the forum, being held at a retreat centre just south of Rome.

Schonstatt Fr Alexandre Awi Mello, secretary of the dicastery, told reporters, “There is always a risk that after a
big event people lose enthusiasm, move on to the next thing”, but Pope Francis and the dicastery are serious about not letting that happen.

“The synod on young people is in its realisation phase,” he said. “There is still much to be done”, and the forum was designed to continue that conversation with young adults who are experienced in reaching out to their peers.

Miss McCafferty told the Catholic News Service: “Young people want the Church to give them room to be involved. So, yes, they want their voice heard, but they also want to be part of the things that happen after that”, actually implementing changes.

Involving young people in sharing the Gospel message in ways that are relevant and make sense to them and to their peers, for example, through the use of social media, is especially important, she said.

Young people also are deeply committed to protecting the environment, she said, and they want to be involved in the efforts of the Church to reduce its impact on the environment and to promote respect for God’s creation.

Most of all, she said, young people are looking for “an authentic Church”.

“Authenticity is about transparency, it’s about vulnerability at times, but it’s also about ground level, about being community,” Miss McCafferty said.

“Rather than always thinking of the Church as this thing that happens in Rome, it’s about what it means to be Church in our local area”, and it always involves “person-to-person contact”.

When a young adult goes to a parish church regularly for months and only one person talks to him or her — it happens, she said — it tells that young adult that an authentic, caring community does not exist there.

“Young people don’t feel particularly welcome” in many church communities, she said.

“Young people are looking for an encounter with each other, with the Church and with the sacraments, but it needs to happen in relevant ways for them”, which involves a willingness to “interlink with each other more and holding each other up”.

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Here is a selection of quotations from “Gaudete et Exsultate” (“Rejoice and Be Glad).
— “I like to contemplate the holiness present in the patience of God’s people: in those parents who raise their children with immense love, in those men and women who work hard to support their families, in the sick, in elderly religious who never lose their smile.”
— “Holiness is the most attractive face of the Church.”
— “The important thing is that each believer discern his or her own path, that they bring out the very best of themselves, the most personal gifts that God has placed in their hearts, rather than hopelessly trying to imitate something not meant for them.”
— “In times when women tended to be most ignored or overlooked, the Holy Spirit raised up saints whose attractiveness produced new spiritual vigour and important reforms in the Church.”
— “We are frequently tempted to think that holiness is only for those who can withdraw from ordinary affairs to spend much time in prayer. That is not the case.”
— “We are all called to be holy by living our lives with love and by bearing witness in everything we do, wherever we find ourselves.”
— “This holiness to which the Lord calls you will grow through small gestures.”
— “Do not be afraid of holiness. It will take away none of your energy, vitality or joy.”
— “Thanks be to God, throughout the history of the Church it has always been clear that a person’s perfection is measured not by the information or knowledge they possess, but by the depth of their charity.”
— “Jesus explained with great simplicity what it means to be holy when he gave us the Beatitudes (Mt 5:3-12; Lk 6:20-23).”
— “Giving and forgiving means reproducing in our lives some small measure of God’s perfection, which gives and forgives superabundantly.”
— “We need to think of ourselves as an army of the forgiven. All of us have been looked upon with divine compassion.”
— “The saints are not odd and aloof, unbearable because of their vanity, negativity and bitterness. The Apostles of Christ were not like that.”
— “In this call to recognise him in the poor and the suffering, we see revealed the very heart of Christ, his deepest feelings and choices, which every saint seeks to imitate.”
— “It is true that the primacy belongs to our relationship with God, but we cannot forget that the ultimate criterion on which our lives will be judged is what we have done for others.”
— “The saints do not waste energy complaining about the failings of others; they can hold their tongue before the faults of their brothers and sisters and avoid the verbal violence that demeans and mistreats others.”
— “Christian joy is usually accompanied by a sense of humour.”
— “The saints surprise us, they confound us, because by their lives they urge us to abandon a dull and dreary mediocrity.”
— “A community that cherishes the little details of love, whose members care for one another and create an open and evangelising environment, is a place where the risen Lord is present, sanctifying it in accordance with the Father’s plan.”
— “I do not believe in holiness without prayer, even though that prayer need not be lengthy or involve intense emotions.”
— “We should not think of the devil as a myth, a representation, a symbol, a figure of speech or an idea. This mistake would lead us to let down our guard, to grow careless and end up more vulnerable.”
— “The devil does not need to possess us. He poisons us with the venom of hatred, desolation, envy and vice. When we let down our guard, he takes advantage of it to destroy our lives, our families and our communities.”
— “Discernment is not about discovering what more we can get out of this life, but about recognising how we can better accomplish the mission entrusted to us at our Baptism.”
— “Let us ask the Holy Spirit to pour out upon us a fervent longing to be saints for God’s greater glory, and let us encourage one another in this effort.”

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Pope Francis hears confession of a youth April 23 in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican. (CNS photo/L’Osservatore Romano via Reuters) See POPE-JUBILEE-TEENS and SULLIVAN-TEEN-JUBILEE April 25, 2016.

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