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With the coronavirus pandemic causing growing suffering throughout the world and calling caregivers to the front lines, many are reminded of the courage of women religious of St. Vincent de Paul during the influenza epidemic of 1918.

The bishops of Mexico have designated April 3, the Friday of Passion Week, as a National Day of Penance amid the spread of the coronavirus. The day is also the commemoration of the Seven Sorrows of the Blessed Virgin Mary. ​​​​​​​

PORTLAND, Maine -- With public Masses cancelled across the United States, ahead of Palm Sunday this weekend, some Maine Catholics are being encouraged to adopt a substitute devotional practice: pine branches. 

ACCRA, Ghana -- Caritas Ghana has put in place a nine-month emergency response plan with the Ghana Catholic Bishops' Conference to ensure that the poor and vulnerable receive critical and basic services in the two archdioceses most affected by the COVID-19 outbreak.

ST. PAUL, Minn. -- Archbishop Bernard A. 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. He blessed and prayed for the sick and suffering, those who care for them, lawmakers and others as the coronavirus hits Minnesota hard.

MEXICO CITY -- The Mexican bishops' conference has urged employers to avoid laying off workers as the coronavirus crisis escalates in a country with an already stagnating economy and a weak social safety net.

MEXICO CITY -- The soup kitchen at Father Nicolas Angelotti's parish in the rough outskirts of Buenos Aires, Argentina, was feeding 1,500 residents daily in recent months, with demand driven by a weak economy and unemployment.

VATICAN CITY -- Seeing and growing closer to God require purifying one's heart from the sins and prejudices that distort reality and blind people to God's active and real presence, Pope Francis said.

​​​​​​​The pandemic might be a chance to come as together as "one human family" and forgive individual and national debts," Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle wondered out loud during a Mass livestreamed from the Pontifical Philippine College in Rome.

Within 24 hours of receiving notice on March 10 all Catholic schools in the Archdiocese of San Francisco would have to switch to distance learning , St. Matthew School’s digital campus was up and ready to continue educating students.

Bishops across the United States have suspended public liturgies and closed church buildings in response to state-issued public safety policies, and Catholic leaders have warned of an immediate revenue shortfall.

Parish priests in Jerusalem are invited to provide the faithful with blessed olive branches and holy water. Families are urged to make time to pray together at home and to participate in the liturgies with leaflets prepared by the diocese that contain the Mass readings.

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has praised the commitment shown by health workers and reassured Filipinos of his government’s determination to help them and defeat COVID-19.

BROOKLYN, N.Y. -- Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio of Brooklyn March 28 announced the death of 49-year-old Father Jorge Ortiz-Garay, a 49 year old pastor, who died the evening before from COVID-19.

ROME -- Cardinal Angelo De Donatis, the papal vicar for Rome, was hospitalized after testing positive for the COVID-19 virus, the Diocese of Rome announced.

​​​​​​Pope Francis offered his morning Mass March 31 for those who are homeless "at a time when people are asked to stay at home."

The highly contagious coronavirus is forcing priests, cemetery professionals and the grieving to quickly adjust to new realities.

Although volunteers are wearing masks and gloves and staying a meter apart from others, “a physical distance does not mean a human distance. We should continue to communicate the fact that they are our friends," a spokesperson for the Sant’Egidio community said.

The coronavirus has claimed the lives of 12 doctors in the Philippines, while at least seven are quarantined in hospitals after testing positive, according to the Philippine Medical Association.

ROME -- In addition to expanding shelters for the homeless during Italy's COVID-19 lockdown, Catholic dioceses and parishes are offering rooms to medical personnel exhausted by long hours at work or who will not go home to avoid the danger of spreading the virus to their loved ones.