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Month: March 2020

Saturday of the Fourth Week of Lent

Posted by | Mar 28, 2020 | |

Reading 1 Jer 11:18-20

I knew their plot because the LORD informed me;
at that time you, O LORD, showed me their doings.

Yet I, like a trusting lamb led to slaughter,
had not realized that they were hatching plots against me:
“Let us destroy the tr…

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Daily Gospel reflections: Learning to patiently trust God

Posted by | Mar 28, 2020 | , , , , , , , |

Like a trusting lamb led to slaughter. (Jeremiah 11:19) Unfortunately, I have known some people who have had their trust in others shaken to its core: a married woman with an infant is left by her spouse and left with no income; a child is physically a…

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Catholic aid worker calls on leaders to be ‘factual, accurate’ after chloroquine overdose in Nigeria

Posted by | Mar 28, 2020 | , , , , , , , , |

An official for a Catholic aid agency in Nigeria says international leaders “have a moral obligation to ensure that information they pass out to the public is factual, accurate and evidence-based,” after three Nigerians overdosed on chloroquine after President Donald Trump endorsed it as a treatment for COVID-19.

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Doing the Calculus: A Love Story

Posted by | Mar 28, 2020 | , , , , , , , , , , , , , |

Stacy Trasancos: Leading each other to God is our most important job in life, and to do that we must get to know the ones we love.

The post Doing the Calculus: A Love Story appeared first on The Catholic Thing.

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Mar. 28 Saturday of the Fourth Week of Lent, Weekday

Posted by | Mar 28, 2020 | |

“There were many lepers in Israel at the time of Eliseus the prophet, and none of them was cleansed but Naaman the Syrian.” Naaman’s cure, an anticipatory figure of baptism, also declares in advance the universality of salvation. Naaman was the Syrian …

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St. Guntramnus (Contran)

Posted by | Mar 28, 2020 | , |

Saint Guntramnus, also known as Contran or sometimes Gontran, was the son of King Clotaire and the grandson of Clovis I. In 561 he was became king of Orleans and Burgundy. He married a woman named Mercatrude, but later divorced her. However, when she became ill, he sent a physician to her. She was dying […]

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Mass. bishop ‘suspends’ sacramental anointing while rescinding controversial policy

Posted by | Mar 28, 2020 | , |

Washington D.C., Mar 27, 2020 / 08:51 pm (CNA).- After rescinding a controversial policy concerning sacramental anointing of the sick, the bishop of Springfield, Massachusetts told priests Friday afternoon that anointing of the sick is “suspended” within the Diocese of Springfield.

Earlier this week, Bishop Mitchell Rozanski authorized a change to norms for the sacrament of the anointing of the sick, permitting a nurse, rather than a priest, to conduct the physical anointing, which is an essential part of the sacrament.

“I am allowing the assigned Catholic hospital chaplains, standing outside a patient’s room or away from their bedside, to dab a cotton swab with Holy Oil and then allow a nurse to enter the patient’s room and administer the oil,” Rozanski told priests in an email March 25.

On Friday afternoon the diocese told CNA it had rescinded that policy.

In fact, Rozanski emailed Springfield priests Friday afternoon explaining that “After further discussion and review, I am rescinding my previous directive and temporarily suspending the Anointing of the Sick in all instances.” 

The sacramental anointing of the sick is conferred upon those Catholics who are in danger of death.
 
“The first grace of this sacrament is one of strengthening, peace and courage to overcome the difficulties that go with the condition of serious illness or the frailty of old age. This grace is a gift of the Holy Spirit, who renews trust and faith in God and strengthens against the temptations of the evil one, the temptation to discouragement and anguish in the face of death,” according to the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

“This assistance from the Lord by the power of his Spirit is meant to lead the sick person to healing of the soul, but also of the body if such is God’s will. Furthermore, ‘if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven,’” the catechism adds.

The catechism explains that “as soon as anyone of the faithful begins to be in danger of death from sickness or old age, the fitting time for him to receive this sacrament has certainly already arrived.”

According to the Church’s canon law, parish pastors “have the duty and right of administering the anointing of the sick for the faithful entrusted to their pastoral office. For a reasonable cause, any other priest can administer this sacrament with at least the presumed consent of the priest mentioned above.”

Canon law specifies certain circumstances under which the sacrament is expected to be administered, among them are cases “of doubt whether the sick person has attained the use of reason, is dangerously ill, or is dead,” and when a sick person has “at least implicitly requested it when they were in control of their faculties.”

In his Friday email to priests, Rozanski noted that the diocesan Chrism Mass would be postponed, and told priests that “Should you run out of either the Oil of the Sick or Oil of the Catechumen, you may bless these oils to replenish your stock.”

The Church’s canon law says that bishops and their equivalents in law can bless the oil to be used in anointing of the sick, while other priests may do so “in a case of necessity, but only in the actual celebration of the sacrament.”

The Diocese of Springfield did not respond to questions regarding the intended length of Rozanski’s temporary suspension.

The bishop’s Friday announcement came as the chairman of the U.S. bishops’ conference liturgy committee issued a memo to U.S. bishops, informing them that “with regard to the Anointing of the Sick, it is not possible for the anointing with oil to be delegated to someone else, such as a nurse or doctor.” That memo seemed to refute the liceity of Rozanski’s March 25 policy.

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Archbishop Hebda blesses city of St. Paul, archdiocese at Cathedral of St. Paul

Posted by | Mar 28, 2020 | , , , , , , |

Archbishop Bernard Hebda held the Eucharist high over the City of St. Paul March 27 on the steps of the Cathedral of St. Paul overlooking the State Capitol, praying for the sick and suffering, those who care for them, lawmakers and others as the coronavirus hits Minnesota hard.

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