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Host Rick Howick welcomes our own Auxiliary Bishop Timothy Freyer back to the studios of OC Catholic Radio.
In this lively conversation, we’ll be talking about having hope in this time of great crisis all over the world. You will no doubt feel better after listening to this podcast.
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Originally broadcast on 4/4/20
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During the rapidly progressing COVID-19 pandemic – in the midst of the holy Lenten season – the Diocese of Orange is embracing technology to minister to Catholics hit hard by the crisis.
Bishop Kevin Vann led the diocese and its parishes in closing churches in the days prior to Gov. Gavin Newsom on March 19 issuing a stay-at-home order to protect the health and well-being of all Californians and to establish consistency across the state in order to slow the spread of COVID-19.
While many local churches suspended live Masses, a significant number are offering livestreamed and online Masses in a variety of languages. Some pastors – such as Our Lady Queen of Angels’ Father Steve Sallot – are calling parishioners to offer support and prayers.
Bishop Vann announced on March 17 that in response to the pandemic all Masses throughout the diocese were temporarily suspended, and dispensed all Catholics in the diocese from the obligation of attending Mass. He also noted the importance of continuing to support ones parish financially.
“It’s critical during this health crisis that Orange County Catholics continue to give generously to their parishes,” Bishop Vann said. “Almsgiving is an important part of worship at all times but particularly during Lent. I urge Catholics to prayerfully send their donations by mailing a check to their church or delivering a financial gift to the rectory in person.” Some parishes offer online giving as well.
Orange County Catholics are urged to check the Diocese of Orange website at rcbo.org, their parish websites and parish Facebook feeds for the latest information. Most churches remain open for individual prayer and confession, and many offer online daily prayers.
“I think of the many times that the Lord said, ‘Do not be afraid,’ and ‘do not fear;’ the same words that Our Lady of Guadalupe said to St. Juan Diego,” said Bishop Vann in his March 15 homily at Christ Cathedral. “And I remember within my lifetime, my grandparents speaking of having lived through the Spanish flu, right after they were married. And I remember the effects of the polio epidemics and later the Salk vaccine.
“All of these moments, as cures were searched for and precautions were taken, also called forth the best of the human spirit of generosity, care, love and fearlessness, AND Faith,” he added.
Bishop Timothy Freyer appears often on Facebook Live to encourage and soothe those who are isolated and anxious in light of the growing financial and health crises. “Pass the time productively,” he urged recently, “keeping yourself rooted in Christ’s love.”
Bishop Freyer recommended consulting the websites of the World Health Organization (https://www.who.int/) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (https://www.cdc.gov/) for the most factual information and to refrain from undue worry.
“Studies say that when we pray repetitive prayers like the Rosary, our blood pressure drops and we stay in peace,” he adds. “We are called to remain in peace even in the midst of difficult situations. The Lord tells us over and over again ‘be not afraid.’”
People want to be assured that the Catholic Church remains even as they are forced to stay away from their parishes, Fr. Sallot agrees. “What we’re really trying to do is push people to use the technology so that they can access the many resources available online for daily meditations and Masses.
“Nothing says you can’t go outside and walk, pray the Rosary, read a book, watch a family movie together,” Fr. Sallot adds. “When you do these things, it allows you to get out of your own head. Together we will figure this out as a community and as a Church. The main thing is that the power of prayer brings us together.”
Indeed, livestreamed Masses, the Zoom and GotoMeeting software programs, and tools like YouTube and Vimeo, among others, offer unique resources to isolated Catholics, notes Greg Walbenbach, director of the Office of Life, Justice and Peace.
Still, Walgenbach notes, “Those who have must be ready to share with those who do not. We need to look out for those most in need.”
Walgenbach and Armando Cervantes, director of the Youth and Young Adult Ministry, have compiled a list of ways to help others: “50 Creative Ideas for Parishes During COVID-19” which available by request from them at rcbo.org or via email; contact gwalgenbach@rcbo or [email protected].
On one hand, the coronavirus crisis can be overwhelming, notes Katie Dawson, director of Parish Evangelization and Faith Formation. “Yet there is a great sense of solidarity that we are all in this together.
“The Church teaches us that God is always with us,” Dawson observes. “The challenge we have is cultivating the awareness of God’s presence that supports us in seeing what it is unseen.”
With the coronavirus outbreak, these are very trying times. We’re going to talk about it today on Orange County Catholic Radio. On this week’s program, host Rick Howick welcomes the Vicar-General for the Diocese of Orange, Msgr. Stephen Doktorczyk.
Together they discuss how we can go about navigating through this crisis that has impacted all of us – in ways few could have anticipated. We’ll also talk about how we can best use this time to build ourselves up spiritually, and grow closer to Our Lord.
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Originally broadcast on 3/28/20
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CLEVELAND (CNS) — With kids at home because schools are closed and online education on tap for at least several weeks, parents are wondering how to ensure that learning continues.
For Catholic home-schooling families though, having kids learn at home is the norm.
Longtime home-schoolers told Catholic News Service the current moment gives parents the chance to spend more one-on-one time with their children while teaching skills and creating memories to cherish for a lifetime.
“You have to look at this as a blessing of the gift of time and opportunity for (parents) to reclaim the responsibility as primary educators of their children,” said Aimee Murphy of Holy Family Catholic Homeschoolers in Orange County, California. She began teaching her children at home 11 years ago. Two daughters are in college while sons, 6, 12 and 16 years old, are home-schooled.
Murphy and other parents in the Orange County group acknowledged that as rewarding as home schooling is, it still requires “petitioning for the grace from God you need to carry on,” as well as patience and perseverance.
Murphy, Tomi Carroll, of the VERITAS Homeschool Support Association in Bedford, Indiana, and Patrice Fagnant-MacArthur of Western Massachusetts Catholic Homeschoolers in Springfield, Massachusetts, recommended that parents step back and realize that there is no need to recreate the classroom at home.
And while teaching kids at home can be challenging, Fagnant-MacArthur said, “it’s an enjoyable challenge.”
Kids of all ages can learn through everyday activities, said Fagnant-MacArthur, who writes the Today’s Catholic Homeschooling blog. It’s important to recognize, she added, that even though a student’s school may have set requirements to complete certain assignments, learning is not limited to a computer screen.
Creativity is important, the parents also stressed. For example, younger children especially can learn by joining in just about any home activity; they can learn about fractions by following a recipe or can better understand biology by observing wildlife in a backyard or a park.
The three mothers offered a series of suggestions to make learning enjoyable for the entire family:
— Prayer and faith formation. For students in public school, there is no chance to pray during the day. Murphy’s family starts each day with prayer. Short breaks are built in for the Angelus prayer, Chaplet of Divine Mercy or to read about a saint whose feast day is being observed.
— Establish a routine. “Don’t let it be ad hoc” without specific guidance for a child, Murphy said. “But also be flexible. It’s a learning curve for you and for them.”
— Reading. Reading is an important part of schooling at home. The families read aloud with children by their side and silently. Any reading time can then be followed by a discussion that reviews what was read, the message an author was trying to convey, or to build anticipation for the next part of a book. It’s also a good time to explore a new genre that might not be part of the regular school curriculum.
— Experiences. Some kids learn best through experiences, observing or creating art. Murphy encouraged parents to provide plenty of new experiences outside of book or screen learning to their children. “You cannot put them into a mold,” she said.
— Writing. Children can compose a story or a play. For young children just learning to write, have them dictate a story a parent writes it down. Kids can illustrate the story or act out a play. Costumes can be made from old clothing and materials.
For older children, lengthier reports can stem from a child’s own topic of interest that he or she researches, illustrates and presents. A report can be written or oral, allowing for the development of public speaking skills as well.
— Virtual museum tours. Although museums and other public buildings are closed, many continue to offer virtual tours highlighting displays and exhibits. Carroll encouraged parents to take advantage of such offerings because they are rich in information and are free.
— Nature study. As warmer weather approaches, plants are budding, insects are emerging and birds are building nests. Fagnant-MacArthur suggested a simple biology project that involves describing what is being seen or simply drawing an insect or a plant and identifying it in a handbook.
— Build in breaks. Children are active and keeping them tied to a desk for hours on end is unproductive. Allow children to move around, especially outside.
— Routine skills. Carroll suggested involving children in household tasks such as cooking, doing the laundry, cleaning and even light yardwork once the schoolwork is finished. It’s all a part of daily life that kids will have to navigate, she said.
— Take up a new hobby. Sewing, knitting, crocheting, woodworking, gardening, creating art or other activities can be educational and rewarding.
— Outdoor activities. Fortunately, outdoor activities have not been curtailed. Family walks in a park or on a nature trail can help build deeper bonds and an appreciation for life, Murphy said. “That’s about all we can do right now.”
Each of the parents said their choice to home-school was life changing for their families, but one from which they would not step back.
“I remember when I first started home schooling, I felt like I was jumping off a bridge. It can be very intimidating,” Fagnant-MacArthur said.
“It’s not such a bad thing. I encourage everyone to take a collective deep breath. You’re going to be OK.”
VATICAN CITY (CNS) — While conferences and meetings can be postponed for months because of the coronavirus pandemic, the liturgies of Holy Week and Easter cannot, with the exception of the chrism Mass, said the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments.
“By the mandate of the supreme pontiff for the year 2020 only,” the congregation issued guidelines March 20 for celebrating the Triduum and Easter liturgies without the presence of the faithful.
“Easter is at the heart of the entire liturgical year and is not simply one feast among others. The Easter triduum is celebrated over the arc of three days, which is preceded by Lent and crowned by Pentecost and, therefore, cannot be transferred to another time,” said the “Decree in the Time of COVID-19.”
The decree was signed by Cardinal Robert Sarah, prefect of the congregation, and by Archbishop Arthur Roche, secretary.
Because the chrism Mass is not formally part of the Triduum, they said, a bishop can decide to postpone its celebration. Usually the Mass is celebrated in the Holy Week and includes a gathering of all the priests of the diocese to renew their priestly promises. During the Mass, the oils — the chrism — used in the sacraments are blessed by bishop and distributed to the priests to take to their parishes.
Where public Masses have been canceled, the decree said, the bishops, in agreement with their bishops’ conference, should ensure that the Holy Week liturgies are celebrated in the cathedral and in parish churches. The faithful should be advised of the times for the celebrations, so that they can pray at home at the same time.
“Live — not recorded — televisual or internet broadcasts are helpful,” the decree said.
On Holy Thursday, the Mass of the Lord’s Supper should be celebrated in the cathedral and in parish churches even without the faithful present, it said. “The faculty to celebrate this Mass in a suitable place, without the people, is granted in an exceptional manner to all priests” this year.
“The washing of feet, which is already optional, is to be omitted” when there are no faithful present, it said. The traditional procession with the Blessed Sacrament at the end of the Mass also is omitted, and the Eucharist is placed directly in the tabernacle.
If there is any way to do so, the decree said, the Liturgy of the Lord’s Passion should be celebrated and, among the formal prayers of petition, there should be “a special intention for the sick, the dead, for those who feel lost or dismayed.”
For the celebration of the Easter Vigil without the faithful present, it said, the preparation and lighting of the fire is omitted, but the Easter candle is still lit and the “Exsultet” Easter proclamation is sung or recited.
Processions and other expressions of popular piety that are traditional around the world during Holy Week may be transferred to another date, the decree said. It suggested, for example, Sept. 14-15 in connection with the feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross.
VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Pope Francis prayed for families who are cooped up in their homes and for all those who are ill with COVID-19.
During a live broadcast of his daily morning Mass March 16, Pope Francis again prayed for the many people who have fallen ill and for families who, like all citizens, have been required to isolate themselves in their homes to slow the spread of the coronavirus.
“I am thinking of the families under lockdown, children who aren’t going to school, parents who cannot leave the house, some who are in quarantine,” he said at the beginning of Mass.
“May the Lord help them discover new ways, new expressions of love, of living together in this new situation,” he said.
“It is a wonderful occasion for rediscovering true affection with creativity in the family. Let us pray for families so that relationships in the family at this time always thrive for the good,” he said.
In his homily, the pope reflected on the tendency of people to think that God only acts in big, impressive ways, leading them to dismiss or even scorn the ways he manifests himself — always in simple ways.
“Our God lets us understand that he always operates in simplicity, in the simplicity of the house of Nazareth, in the simplicity of everyday work, in the simplicity of prayer,” he said.
“Instead, the worldly spirit leads us to vanity, to appearances,” and when people start to become indignant, their scorn leads to violence, the pope added.
“Disdain is an attitude of the arrogant,” who are spiritually impoverished and live with “the illusion of being more than they are,” he said.
“Even we can have this happen to us,” becoming “scandalized” by God’s simplicity, “the simplicity of the poor.”
The temptation may be to look at these simple things and say, “But no, this is not God. No. Our God is more refined, wiser, more important. God does not operate in this simplicity,” the pope said.
“And this disdain always leads to violence, both physical violence and the violence of gossip,” he said, praying that people would reflect on what they do when they do not understand the simplicity of God.
BALTIMORE (CNS) — When Msgr. Richard Woy sees Dr. William Redfield, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, on television these days flanked by medical experts issuing the latest guidance on the novel coronavirus he doesn’t just see one of the top health officials in the U.S., he sees one of the faithful.
Msgr. Woy, rector of Baltimore’s Cathedral of Mary Our Queen, said when he met Redfield and his wife, Joyce, “they had been active parishioners here for decades.”
As Redfield helps lead the federal response to the growing threat of coronavirus, which causes the disease COVID-19, his pastor and friends say his years of work studying viruses along with his deep Catholic faith will help guide the country through the crisis.
“Dr. Redfield is not shy about his Catholic faith. And I think it does not compromise in any way his work as a scientist,” Msgr. Woy told the Catholic Review, the media outlet of the Archdiocese of Baltimore. “I do not believe he sees any contradiction between the two whatsoever.”
While they are spending most of their time in Atlanta, where the CDC is based, Msgr. Woy said the Redfields have returned to Baltimore on weekends and attended Masses at the cathedral in February, serving as extraordinary ministers of Holy Communion.
Although Redfield was unavailable for an interview, he said in a statement that the faith community will play an important role as the pandemic continues.
In the Archdiocese of Baltimore, Archbishop William E. Lori has closed Catholic schools, issued a dispensation for Mass attendance and taken other measures to limit the spread of the disease. On March 14, the archbishop canceled all public Masses “until further notice.”
“I have witnessed firsthand the impact of the faith community’s work in global disease outbreaks,” Redfield said in his statement. “The same compassion, counsel and care will be just as important as we confront this new virus and as many Americans and others around the world experience disruption in their daily lives.”
He added, “The faith community has always stepped in to enhance response efforts where our public health and clinical settings lack the capacity or expertise to comfort patients, families and whole communities.”
VATICAN CITY (CNS) — As Italy entered its second week of lockdown, Pope Francis urged Christians to remember the elderly who are suffering not only loneliness but also fear due to the spread of the coronavirus.
“Today, I would like us to pray for the elderly who are suffering now in a particular way, with great interior solitude and sometimes great fear. Let us pray that the Lord would be close to our grandfathers and grandmothers — to all the elderly — and give them strength,” the pope said March 17 during a live broadcast of his morning Mass.
According to a March 13 report by the Italian National Institute of Health, the median age of men and women who have died from COVID-19 is 80. As of March 16, the Italian health ministry reported that over 2,150 people have died from the virus.
The elderly “gave us wisdom, life, history — let us also be near them in prayer,” Pope Francis said at the beginning of his Mass.
In his homily, the pope reflected on the day’s Gospel reading from St. Matthew, in which Peter asks Jesus how often must one forgive if “if my brother sins against me.”
“I say to you, not seven times but seventy-seven times,” Jesus replied.
The pope said that forgiveness never comes easy because “our self-centered hearts are always attached to hatred, revenge, resentment.”
“We’ve all seen families destroyed by hatred that is passed down from one generation to the next. Brothers and sisters, who in front of a parent’s coffin, don’t even greet each other because they’re carrying past resentments,” he said. “It seems that attachment to hatred is stronger than attachment to love and this is precisely — we may say — the devil’s treasure.”
However, the pope continued, God does not condemn, but forgives and is “able to throw a feast for a sinner who draws near to him and he forgets everything.”
“When God forgives us, he forgets all the evil we have done. Someone has said it is God’s sickness. He doesn’t have a memory. He can lose his memory in these cases. God loses his memory regarding the ugly story of so many sinners, of our sins,” Pope Francis said.
“He only asks us to do the same, to learn how to forgive,” he said.
VATICAN CITY (CNS) — The Vatican office that distributes free tickets to papal events has posted a notice on its website that “the liturgical celebrations of Holy Week will take place without the physical presence of the faithful.”
While public gatherings, including Masses, have been banned in Italy through April 3, Holy Week begins with the Palm Sunday liturgy April 5, so the notification from the Prefecture of the Papal Household was read as a sign that the ban would be extended, at least at the Vatican.
Matteo Bruni, director of the Vatican press office, told Catholic News Service early March 15 that arrangements for the pope’s Holy Week and Easter schedules were “still under study” and that the prefecture’s note was meant only to inform people seeking tickets that they would not be distributed as usual.
The prefecture’s notice said the decision was made “because of the current global public health emergency” posed by the spread of the coronavirus.
In a formal statement March 15, Bruni said Pope Francis would celebrate all of the Holy Week and Easter liturgies: Palm Sunday, the chrism Mass, the Mass of the Lord’s Supper, the liturgy of the Passion of the Lord, the Easter vigil Mass and Easter morning Mass.
However, he said, the Vatican still is studying how those liturgies will take place and with what kind of participation “that respects the security measures in place to avoid the spread of the coronavirus.”
The decisions will be communicated, “as soon as they are determined, in line with the evolving epidemiological situation,” he said, adding that whatever decisions are made about who can or cannot attend, the liturgies will be transmitted and streamed live.
The Prefecture of the Papal Household posted its notice late March 14, hours after the Italian Ministry of Health released daily figures for the COVID-19 infection, which continues to spread despite the entire country being on lockdown.
As of the evening of March 14, the ministry said, 21,157 people had tested positive for COVID-19; 1,441 people with the virus had died; and 1,966 were considered cured after testing negative twice.
VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Here is a CNS translation of the prayer Pope Francis recited by video March 11 for a special Mass and act of prayer asking Mary to protect Italy and the world during the coronavirus pandemic.
O Mary,
you always shine on our path
as a sign of salvation and of hope.
We entrust ourselves to you, Health of the Sick,
who at the cross took part in Jesus’ pain, keeping your faith firm.
You, Salvation of the Roman People,
know what we need,
and we are sure you will provide
so that, as in Cana of Galilee,
we may return to joy and to feasting
after this time of trial.
Help us, Mother of Divine Love,
to conform to the will of the Father
and to do as we are told by Jesus,
who has taken upon himself our sufferings
and carried our sorrows
to lead us, through the cross,
to the joy of the resurrection. Amen.
Under your protection, we seek refuge, Holy Mother of God. Do not disdain the entreaties of we who are in trial, but deliver us from every danger, O glorious and blessed Virgin.
