ARCHBISHOP GOMEZ CALLS FAITHFUL TO STAND IN SOLIDARITY AS ONE FAMILY IN WEEKLY COLUMN IN COVID-19 SPECIAL ISSUE OF ANGELUS MAGAZINE
March 18, 2020  |  By:   |  Press Releases  |  

This week’s Angelus (angelusnews.com), print and online magazine of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles published weekly, offers a special issue on the COVID-19 (coronavirus) global pandemic featuring a column by Archbishop José H. Gomez encouraging faithful to “intensify prayers and sacrifices for the love of God and the love of our neighbor.”

“With the worldwide outbreak of the coronavirus, we see how the forces of ‘globalization’ have made us one family, and that what afflicts our brothers and sisters in one country can no longer be isolated,” wrote Archbishop Gomez in his latest column for Angelus available in English and Spanish. “We are confronted, not only with the reality of our common humanity, but also with our responsibility for one another.”

In the column, Archbishop Gomez also addressed the suspension of Masses throughout the Archdiocese through the end of March. 

“What we do in the Church, we do out of love for God and love for our brothers and sisters. We have taken this extraordinary step of suspending Masses out of love for those in our families and communities who are most vulnerable to this deadly virus,” wrote the Archbishop.

Included in Angelus’ special coverage of the pandemic is a short article by contributing editor Mike Aquilina citing research that shows how throughout the history of Catholic Church, “epidemics were a testing ground of Christian principles and a time when specifically, Christian virtues were publicly displayed.”

“Now is the time to intensify our prayers and sacrifices for the love of God and the love of our neighbor. Let us draw closer to one another in our love for him,” added Archbishop Gomez. “We are called to bear one another’s burdens and we need to stand in solidarity with our brothers and sisters, as one family. We need to reflect on the fragility of our lives, and rediscover what truly matters.”

Also featured in the special issue, Angelus contributors and husband and wife who live in Rome – Elizabeth Lev, art historian, and Thomas D. Williams, PhD, professor of philosophical ethics at the University of Saint Thomas – wrote a special piece titled “What the Catholic Church knows about charity in the time of pandemic.”

“God is not indifferent to the ordeals his children suffer and neither is the Church. Now is the time to assist the sick and suffering, to reach out to the lonely and confused, to tend to the needs of the least of our brethren,” wrote Lev and Williams. “Yet along with the care of the body, the Church has a preeminent vocation to care for the good of souls and to remind the faithful which is ultimately more important. Like St. Mary, hers is the better part, and it shall not be taken from her.”

Mass from the Cathedral of Our Lady of Angels will be livestreamed on the LA Catholics Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/lacatholics/) or https://lacatholics.org/emergency/. Daily Mass is English is celebrated at 12:10 p.m., and Sunday Mass is celebrated at 10 a.m. in English and 12:30 p.m. in Spanish. For list of parishes offering Mass via livestream please visit https://lacatholics.org/mass-for-the-homebound/.

###