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ITALY CORONAVIRUS (CNS graphic/Lucy Barco, The Catholic Register)
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SOCIAL DISTANCE SIGNAGE CNS photo/Reuters
A combination picture shows a variety of markers used to set out social distancing in multiple cities around the world during the 2020 coronavirus pandemic.
HISTORIC PHOTO WORLD WAR II RUSSIA
A priest distributes Communion to soldiers during World War II in Russia. In a joint ecumenical service May 8, 2020, marking the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II, Christian churches in Germany issued a call for a commitment to work for peace. (CNS photo/KNA)
The Berlin cathedral is the largest Protestant church in Germany and the burial site for many Prussian rulers and monarchs. Besides church services, it is also the venue for state occasions. Due to the coronavirus crisis, the service took place without a congregation in attendance, but it was broadcast live on national television.
Bishop Batzing recalled the 50 million dead just in Europe alone, above all the “millions of people who were murdered in the National Socialists’ concentration camps and extermination camps: Jews, Sinti and Roma, political opponents.” This had been “a complete moral bankruptcy of Germany,” he said.
German church leaders recall end of WWII, urge commitment to peace By Catholic News Service
BERLIN (CNS) -- In a joint service marking the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II, Christian churches in Germany issued a call for a commitment to work for peace, reported the German Catholic news agency, KNA.
At the May 8 service in the Berlin cathedral, Limburg Bishop Georg Batzing, president of the German bishops’ conference, and Bishop Heinrich Bedford-Strohm, council president of the Protestant Church in Germany, spoke against demands made for ending commemorations of Germany’s past.
During the service, Avitall Gerstetter, a female cantor from the Jewish community, read passages from the Bible and sang a song Yes, we became guilty. We plunged all of Europe and large parts of the world into misery.”
But the guilt has not resulted in eternal rejection, Bishop Bedford-Strohm noted. “Our erstwhile enemies approached us again. They have become friends,” he said, and so he was thankful “that many of our Jewish brethren remained, that many returned to the country which had inflicted such incomprehensible things on them and reached out their hands in reconciliation.”
Bishop Batzing stressed that peace was not something that just simply gets organized. It needs people “who carry a hope inside because they are convinced they are not alone but rather that God himself, his spirit, is with them.” Today, he added, people were challenged by the wars in Syria and other nations in the Middle East and in Ukraine and by migrants losing their lives while crossing the Mediterranean.
In a declaration at the end of April,
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Germany’s Catholic bishops admitted to the transgressions of their predecessors during World War II.
“By not opposing the war with a clear-cut ‘no’ and instead with most of them boosting the will to hold out longer, they made themselves complicit in the war,” the 23-page statement said.
World War II in Europe ended on May 7, 1945, with the unconditional surrender of the German Reich. The official celebration is normally marked May 8.
POPE MORNING MASS
Pope Francis gives his homily at Mass May 8, 2020, in the chapel of his Vatican residence, the Domus Sanctae Marthae. The pope focused on how the Lord is close to people and wants to console them in times of trouble. (CNS photo/Vatican Media)
Let yourself be consoled by the Lord, Pope says By Cindy Wooden Catholic News Service
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Jesus continues to console his followers, and it is important to learn to recognize the consolation he offers, Pope Francis said.
“When we must pass through moments of sadness, we need to learn to perceive what is the true consolation of the Lord,” he said May 8 during Mass in the Domus Sanctae Marthae.
On World Red Cross and Red Crescent Day, the pope began the Mass praying for the men and women who work for and volunteer with the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, “doing so much good.”
In his homily, he focused on the day’s Gospel reading from St. John, when Jesus consoles his disciples at the Last Supper.
“One of the ‘jobs’ of the Lord is to console,” the pope said.
“We have many ways of consoling -- from the most authentic, closest way, to the most formal, like those telegrams of condolence, ‘Deeply saddened for,’” he said, citing how such messages often begin. “It doesn’t console anyone. It’s fake. It’s a formality consolation.”
But the Gospel shows how the Lord consoles, he said. “The Lord always consoles close up, with the truth and with hope. Those are the three traits of the Lord’s consolation.”
Jesus says, “’I am here. I am here with you.’ And often he says it silently. But we know he is here. He is always here. That kind of closeness is God’s style,” which is why Jesus became incarnate -- “to be close to us,” the pope said.
Jesus does not tell the disciples that nothing bad will happen, the pope continued. In fact, he makes it clear that one of them will betray him and that he will die.
But, still, Jesus offers hope, the pope said. He tells the disciples, “Do not let your hearts be troubled,” and assures them that he would prepare a place for them “so that where I am you also may be.”
Paradoxically, he said, “it is not easy to let ourselves be consoled by the Lord. Often, in bad times, we get angry with the Lord and do not let him come and speak to use that way, with that sweetness, closeness, meekness, truth and hope.”
“Let us ask for the grace to learn how to be consoled by the Lord,” he said. “It isn’t anesthesia, no. But it is closeness, it’s truth and it opens the doors of hope for us.”
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RACISM COVID-19 CONCERN Philadelphia Archbishop Nelson J. Perez, chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee for Cultural Diversity in the Church; Salt Lake City Bishop Oscar A. Solis, chairman of the USCCB’s Subcommittee on Asian and Pacific Island Affairs; and Bishop Shelton J. Fabre of Houma-Thibodaux, La., chairman of
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the Ad Hoc Committee Against Racism, are seen in this composite photo. The three chairmen released a joint statement May 5, 2020, expressing their deep concern about incidents of racism and xenophobia against Americans of Asian and Pacific Island heritage amid the coronavirus outbreak. (CNS composite photo; Sarah Webb, CatholicPhilly.com; J.D. Long-Garcia, The Tidings; Bob Roller)
SOUTH AFRICA CHILDREN FOOD COVID-19
Children wait in line for food at a school near Cape Town, South Africa, May 4, 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic. (CNS photo/ Mike Hutchings, Reuters)
Divided court reexamines insurance coverage of contraceptives By Carol Zimmermann Catholic News Service
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- The justices of the U.S. Supreme Court seemed divided May 6 over Trump administration rules that give employers more ability to opt out of providing contraceptive coverage in their health plans.
The argument, part of a handful that will take place by teleconference during the coronavirus restrictions, took another look at an issue that has come before the court already and again, as in previous terms, it highlighted the Little Sisters of the Poor, the order of women religious who care for the elderly poor.
“There are very strong interests on both sides here, which is what makes the case difficult, obviously,” Justice Brett Kavanaugh said in the May 6 arguments, which lasted 40 minutes longer than usual-allotted hour.
He said the interests include religious liberty for the Little Sisters of the Poor and others and ensuring women’s access to health care and preventive services.
“So the question becomes: Who decides how to balance those interests?” he asked.
The Little Sisters of the Poor, who have been down this road before, were represented by Becket, a religious liberty law firm.
To recap their journey: In 2013, religious groups and houses of worship were granted a religious exemption by the Supreme Court from the government’s mandate in the Affordable Care Act to include coverage of contraceptives in their employee health plan. Three years later, religious nonprofit groups challenged the requirement that they comply with the mandate and the court sent the cases back to the lower courts with instructions for the federal government and the challengers to try to work out a solution agreeable to both sides.
Then in 2017, religious groups were given further protection from the contraceptive mandate through an executive order issued by President Donald Trump requiring the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to write a comprehensive exemption to benefit religious ministries, including the Little Sisters of the Poor, from the contraceptive mandate.
HHS provided this exemption in 2018, but several states challenged it, including California, Pennsylvania and New Jersey, saying HHS didn’t have the power to give this exemption.
Pennsylvania and New Jersey obtained a nationwide injunction against the rules protecting religious objectors from the contraceptive mandate; that injunction was then upheld by the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, based in Philadelphia.
This is where the Little Sisters come back because they appealed the circuit court’s ruling and asked the Supreme Court to step in.
In one of the two consolidated cases, Trump v. Pennsylvania, the administration has argued that the exceptions to the contraceptive mandate for religious groups were authorized by the health care law and required by the 1993 Religious Freedom Restoration Act, known as RFRA.
Lawyers for Pennsylvania and New Jersey said the administration lacked statutory authority to issue such regulations and said the government did not follow proper administrative procedures.
The second case examines whether the Little Sisters of the Poor had the standing to appeal the 3rd Circuit ruling since a separate court order had already allowed them to refuse to provide contraceptive coverage in their employee health plans.
In the May 6 oral arguments, Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor expressed concerns that if the Trump administration rules remained in place, many women would be left without access to contraceptives covered by insurance plans.
“You have just tossed entirely to the wind what Congress thought was essential,” Ginsburg said, calling in from a hospital room in Baltimore, where she was recovering from gallbladder treatment.
She also said that in the area of religious freedom, “the major trend is not to give everything to one side and nothing to the other side. We have had a history of accommodation, of tolerance.”
