Coronavirus

ROME -- Of the more than 76,000 people known to have died of COVID-19 in Italy the past 11 months, more than 200 were priests, according to the Catholic newspaper, Avvenire.

Four women religious died on the same day, adding to the sum of eight nuns who succumbed in a little more than a week in mid-December in Wisconsin after complications from COVID-19 as the virus spread in the facility that cared for them.

In a time of uncertainty, one thing U.S. women religious and others who have been providing food during the COVID-19 pandemic know for sure is that the number of those who need food assistance has risen dramatically and continues to rise.

Given the consistent direction of these court decisions in Diocese of Brooklyn and since, we are interpreting the Governor’s order together with the court decisions to mean that under the Constitution, houses of worship have to be treated at least as well as retail, which for us in California means 20% indoor capacity at this time.

WASHINGTON -- District of Columbia Mayor Muriel Bowser, in response to a lawsuit filed by the Archdiocese of Washington, has modified the current pandemic limits on gatherings at houses of worship in the District to 25% of capacity and no more than 250 people.

Although the Guadalupana pilgrimage that usually draws thousands was virtual this year, Francisco Hernández, 55, who suffers from prostate and bone cancer, walked the 12-mile route to pray for Our Lady of Guadalupe's intercession in the pandemic.

WASHINGTON -- The "gravity" of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and "the lack of availability of alternative vaccines," are "sufficiently serious" reasons to accept the Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna vaccines, the chairmen of the U.S. bishops' doctrine and pro-life committees said Dec. 14.

VATICAN CITY -- No pandemic and no kind of crisis can extinguish the light of Christ, Pope Francis said.

The California Catholic Conference affirms that the imminent Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines are morally acceptable and commits to working closely with Catholic health care ministries and Catholic Charities ensure safe and adequate delivery.

After caring for Bay Area seniors including dozens of priests of the Archdiocese of San Francisco for almost 60 years, the Sisters of Nazareth are closing the doors of Nazareth House in San Rafael.