The Catholic Weekly 5 April 2020

catholicweekly.com.au 4 NEWS 5, April, 2020 catholicsuper.com.au We’re here to help you Ph: 4620 8822 or 9708 6972 www.KenneallysFunerals.com.au ‘ Servicing greater Sydney and the Macarthur area’ Why choose Kenneally’s  Servicing the Catholic Community  Family owned and operated  After funeral bereavement support available  Tailored options for your personal finances  Affordable pre-paid and pre-arranged funerals Prompt and Personalised Care Hospitals unite to treat virus FROM PAGE 1 “IMPORTANTLY THIS part- nership also ensures that Aus- tralia’s world-class health sys- tem will emerge intact on the other side of this pandemic. “We know that there will be a back-log of elective sur- geries and other care needs which just cannot be provided during a pandemic. “The private health sector will now be able to provide the necessary resources to ac- celerate elective surgeries and ensure that all Australians re- ceive the care they need, once the pandemic has passed.” Under the agreement, the Federal and state govern- ments will each pay 50 per cent of the costs of the servic- es provided by private hospi- tals. The Commonwealth is then offering a $1.3 billion “vi- ability guarantee” to offset the revenue private hospitals will lose from the cancellation of elective surgeries. Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt said the deal inte- grated the public and private hospital systems to “dramat- ically expand” the country’s capacity to deal with the pan- demic. THE ANCIENT tradition of Church bells ringing five times a day in time with the canon- ical hours is being revived across the Sydney metropolis during the global COVID-19 pandemic. Each of the five prayer times will be dedicated to a specific group particularly af- fected by the pandemic: 9am - Prayer for those in- fected with COVID-19 and all those who are sick; 12pm - Angelus prayer for health professionals, clergy and all those caring for the sick; 3pm - Prayer for the unem- ployed, financially stressed, isolated or lonely due to COV- ID-19; 6pm - Prayer for the people of Australia and especially our political leaders and health authorities; 9pm - Prayer for those who have died fromCOVID-19 and their families. Parishes with bells, includ- ing St Mary’s Cathedral, will start ringing their bells from Sunday 29 March. At a time Bells of prayer Parishes pray five times a day for sufferers and healthcarers in midst of lockdown Father Damon Sypher FSSP at Maternal Heart, Lewisham, rings the bells calling the faithful to prayer for the pandemic. when most churches around the world are closed due to government precautions, Archbishop Anthony Fisher OP says he hopes the ringing of the bells will remind the faithful of the importance of pausing and uniting wherev- er they are in prayer for those suffering due this pandemic. “The ringing of church bells is deeply entrenched in our Christian culture, wheth- er that be to announce the beginning of Mass, the Con- secration at the heart of the Mass, weddings, funerals, the election of a new Pope or the end of war,” Archbishop Fish- er said. “With public Masses now suspended across Austral- ia and private prayers in our churches also banned by the government, our focus has been very much on helping people find ways to pray and nurture their faith fromhome, as well as increasing the avail- ability of pastoral care, health- care and welfare services. “The ringing of church bells is a powerful reminder to the faithful that we are all unit- ed together in a prayer for all those impacted by the coro- navirus.” The Archdiocese will provide short prayer inten- tions on its COVID-19 prayer resources page The tradition of ringing bells within Christianity finds origins in the 5th Century with the Roman Bishop Saint Paulinus of Nola advocating their usage. Subsequently, in the year 604, Pope Sabinian sanc- tioned their use, which spread throughout Northern Europe. In monasteries and con- vents around the world bells still summons monks and religious to prayer five times a day. In medieval times, the ringing of bells from a church was regarded as helping the faithful to pray throughout the day as well as warding off evil spirits who might afflict the community. The Archdiocese will pro- vide short prayer intentions on its COVID-19 prayer re- sources page and social media pages, with a special intention of the day announced at dai- ly Mass livestreamed from St Mary’s Cathedral. Go to www.sydneycatholic. org.au for prayer intentions and www.stmaryscathedral. org.au for daily livestream- ing of Mass. ¾ ¾ David Ryan Bishop Richard Umbers at St Paul of the Cross, Dulwich Hill, hauls on the rope as he rings the parish bell. PHOTOS: GIOVANNI PORTELLI NEWS