Lent, the spiritual season of prayer and sacrifice, has an extra pull to it this year because once again -- and now for the third time -- it will be under the cloud of the coronavirus pandemic.
While many businesses and organizations were hamstrung by the near-immediate shutdown wrought last year by the coronavirus pandemic, the Catholic Mobilization Network flourished in ways like never before, according to its executive director, Krisanne Vaillancourt Murphy.
As news events made headlines across the United States for months last year -- particularly the 2020 election, the coronavirus pandemic and racism in America -- priests' homilies did not mention these events nearly as much as did sermons by Protestant preachers, according to a report issued July 8 by the Pew Research Center.
The global Catholic Church coming together to pray for an end to the coronavirus pandemic represents the hope and faith of the people of God and how they find solace and strength together with Mary, said a theological expert in Mariology.
The coronavirus pandemic has exposed how unprepared the world is -- even wealthy, technologically advanced nations -- to work together to stop an urgent crisis, Sister Carol Keehan said.
The risen Christ on Easter offers hope to people experiencing sorrows in their everyday lives and in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, Washington Cardinal Wilton D. Gregory said at an Easter Mass April 4 at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception.
The coronavirus pandemic, as declared last March by the World Health Organization, was not even two weeks old when then-President Donald Trump famously said he wanted to see "packed churches" on Easter. That didn't happen.
History was made March 18, 2020, the day Archbishop Bernard Hebda of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis announced the suspension of public Masses due to the emerging coronavirus pandemic.
As the coronavirus pandemic swept the nation this past year, hospital chaplains -- already accustomed to helping people cope with sickness and death -- found their ministries took on added significance.
Two religious leaders, including the chairman of a U.S. bishops' committee, urged the Biden administration to support the release of $3 trillion in global reserve funds to help developing countries respond to the coronavirus pandemic.
The coronavirus pandemic has created the conditions for a spiritual crisis, but a traditional retreat at a house run by women religious isn't necessarily COVID-19 friendly.
As the coronavirus pandemic upended normal activities and routines across the United States, Catholic parishes, schools and organizations had to quickly, and continuously, find ways to adapt.
