Cardinal Pell Covid-19 hits Yemen’s hospitals hard
CAFOD and other humanitarian agencies warn that Yemen’s health care system, already ravaged by five years of civil war, is collapsing, while its people risk famine as the Arabian Peninsula’s poorest country struggles with the coronavirus pandemic.
“Yemen is desperate for peace,” Lise Grande, the UN humanitarian coordinator for Yemen, said of the world’s worst humanitarian crisis in which 24 million people have no choice but to depend on international aid.
A June 2 donors’ pledging conference raised only a little over half of the $2.41 billion needed to cover essential aid until the year end, leaving a gap of more than $1 billion.
Bishop criticises relaxing Sunday trading laws
A bishop has urged Christians to speak out against plans to relax Sunday trading laws in the UK as the economy reels from the effects of the coronavirus pandemic.
In a June 21 homily at Shrewsbury Cathedral, Bishop Mark Davies criticized the government’s intention to lift the current six-hour limit on Sunday trading.
“As we emerge from lockdown, it is regrettable that the government is considering removing the remaining legal protections of Sunday in order to make it a full trading day,” the bishop of Shrewbury said.
Covid-19 solidarity should extend to refugees – Caritas
People around the world have practiced solidarity during the pandemic, and they should do the same for refugees, Catholic humanitarian leaders said on World Refugee Day.
“COVID-19 has taught us an important lesson, the need for global solidarity to fight against any thing that affects humanity,” said Aloysius John, the secretary general for Caritas International, in advance of World Refugee Day on June 20. “This year, 2020, must lead us to a new way of responding to the refugees and their plight,” he said.
Polish Church celebrates Pope St John Paul II’s baptism
The Church in Poland will celebrate the centenary of the baptism of St John Paul II Saturday.
The future Pope was baptised on June 20, 1920, in the Chapel of the Holy Family of the Basilica of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Wadowice, southern Poland.
When he returned to the basilica in 1999, Pope John Paul II said: “With profound veneration I…embrace the threshold of the house of God, the parish church of Wadowice, and in it the baptistery, in which I was joined to Christ and received into the community of his Church.”
Cardinal George Pell’s prison diary to be published
The publisher of the prison diary of Cardinal George Pell said the text reveals the courage, conviction and Christian charity of the cardinal.
“This journal reveals the Cardinal Pell I know and that every Faithful Catholic should get to know,” Fr. Joseph Fessio, SJ, of Ignatius Press said over the weekend.
Pell “proclaimed Christ and the Church’s moral teachings without fear and with full knowledge of what the cost would be. And he paid the price with good humor and, like Christ, a love of his enemies,” Fessio added.
The publisher expects to publish in spring 2021 either an abridged version of Pell’s prison journal or the first volume of the full text.