The Catholic Weekly 12 April 2020

19 12, April, 2020 catholicweekly.com.au WORLD ON THE Friday before Holy Week, Pope Francis asked people to keep a long tradi- tion of Catholic piety by focus- ing on “the suffering and sor- rows of Our Lady.” “Honour Our Lady and say, ‘This is my mother,’ because she is mother. This is the title that she received from Jesus precisely there, at thecross,” the pope said at Mass on 3 April. Jesus “did not make her prime minister or giveher ‘functional’ titles. Only ‘mother.’” Mary did not ask for any honor or special titles, the pope said. “She didn’t ask to be a quasi-redemptrix or a co-redemptrix, no. There is only one redeemer and this title cannot be duplicated.” For decades, some Catho- lics have been petitioning the popes to recognise Mary as “co-redemptrix” to highlight the essential role she played in redemption. “Just disciple and mother – and in that way, as mother, we must think about her, seek her out, pray to her,” Pope Francis said. “She is the mother in the church that is mother. In the maternity of Our Lady, we see the maternity of the church, which receives everyone, good and bad, everyone.” The Friday before Palm Sunday is observed in many places as the “Friday of Sor- rows,” a special day of Marian devotion. Pope Francis asked Catho- lics to spend time considering the “seven sorrows” of Mary: Simeon’s prophecy that a sword would pierce her heart; the flight into Egypt; the wor- ry when the child Jesus could not be found because he was in the temple; meeting Jesus on the way to Calvary; seeing Jesus on the cross; witness- ing Jesus, lifeless, being tak- en down from the cross; and seeing Jesus being buried in CARDINAL CHARLESMaung Bo, president of the Federa- tion of Asian Bishops’ Con- ferences, called the Chinese Communist Party “morally culpable” for initially cover- ing up the full dangers of the COVID-19 virus, which origi- nated in Wuhan, China. The cardinal, who made it clear he was not criticising the Chinese people, said the par- ty’s “failure has unleashed a global contagion killing thou- sands.” “As we survey the dam- age done to lives around the world, we must ask who is responsible?” Cardinal Bo said in a statement released to journalists on 1 April. One government has “pri- mary responsibility for what it has done and what it has failed to do, and that is the CCP regime in Beijing. “Let me be clear – it is the CCP that has been responsi- ble, not the people of China.” “It is the repression, the lies and the corruption of the CCP that are responsible,” he said, before warning against any racial vilification of Chinese people. He also criticised the par- ty’s human rights record that has deteriorated significantly since Xi Jinping took over as supreme leader in late 2012. “Lies and propaganda have put millions of lives around the world in danger,” Cardinal Bo said. “The CCP’s conduct is IN THE atmosphere of calm at Weija Leprosarium, near Ghana’s capital Accra, the caretaker sees an opportunity to educate Ghanaians about Hansen’s disease while every- one is learning precautionary measures for the coronavirus threat. Residents at the leprosari- um, who suffer fromHansen’s disease (leprosy) or the ef- fects of the disease, are stay- ing home in compliance with Accra’s lockdown in response to COVID-19, said George Quansah. “With the help of Francis urges Catholics to rediscover a major spiritual devotion ¾ ¾ Cindy Wooden ¾ ¾ Damian Avevor Pray Mary’s sorrows: pope the tomb. Mary bore those sufferings “with strength, with tears - it wasn’t a fake cry, hers was truly a heart destroyed by pain,” the pope said. Pope Francis said that late in the evening, when he prays the Angelus prayer, he contemplates the seven sor- rows and recalls “how the mother of the church, with Mary and St John are depicted standing at the foot of the cross in this depiction of Christ’s crucifixion. PHOTO: CNS PHOTO/DEBBIE HILL Cardinal Charles Maung Bo of Yangon, Myanmar, attends an inter- faith prayer service in 2017. PHOTO: CNS PHOTO/SOE ZEYA TUN, REUTERS so much pain, gave birth to all of us.” With the morning Masses from the chapel of the Domus SanctaeMarthae livestreamed during the coronavirus cri- sis, Pope Francis begins the liturgy with a special thought and prayer intention each day. “There are people who already are thinking about the ‘after,’ what happens after the pandemic,” the pope said on 3 April. They already are strate- gising ways to alleviate “all the problems that will come - problems of poverty, jobs, hunger. Let us pray for all the people who are helping today, but also thinking of tomorrow to help all of us.” - CNS As we survey the damage done to lives around the world, we must ask who is responsible? ... It is the repression, the lies and the corrup- tion of the CCP that are responsible Cardinal Charles Maung Bo, president of the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences Priest advocates for Ghana’s lepers for decades my staff, we have talked to them at length and advised them to adhere to the precau- tionary measures seriously,” he said. Ghana’s ministry of health – in collaboration with the Lepers Aid Committee, head- ed by Divine Word Father Andrew Campbell – “should intensify their education on leprosy nationwide,” Quansah said. Weija Leprosarium was set up in 1993 by Irish-born Father Campbell, pastor of Christ the King Church, Ac- cra, who came by boat to Ghana as a missionary in Cardinal slams China symptomatic of its increasing- ly repressive nature. In recent years, we have seen an intense crackdown on freedom of ex- pression in China. Lawyers, bloggers, dissi- dents and civil society activ- ists have been rounded up and have disappeared. “In particular, the regime has launched a campaign against religion, resulting in the destruction of thousands of churches and crosses and the incarceration of at least 1 million Uighur Muslims in concentration camps,” he said. Cardinal Bo has also been a critic of China’s dam-building project on Myanmar’s rivers, where almost all the electrici- ty generated by hydroelectric- ity is sent into China. - CNS Father Andrew Campbell with a woman suffering from Hansen’s disease in Ghana. PHOTO: CNS/COURTESY SOUP KITCHEN TEAM 1971. He is “a very good man” who “treats us with dignity,” said Gladys Adobea, who has five adult children and has been at the leprosarium from the start. Father Campbell “has made life a little easier for me,” she said, noting that it was through his efforts that people with Hansen’s disease now benefit from the govern- ment’s national program for poverty relief. The 74-year-old priest campaigns for Ghanaians, particularly families, to accept and integrate people affected by the disease into their com- munities. Hansen’s disease is a chronic infectious disease that attacks skin, peripheral nerves and mucous mem- branes. While it is one of theworld’s most stigmatised infectious diseases, more than 95 per- cent of people have a natural immunity to leprosy. The stigma attached to leprosy is “a terrible thing,” Father Campbell said, noting that those affected must “be treated with dignity.” With multi-drug treatment, “the notion that once a leper always a leper is not true,” he said. - CNS