The Catholic Weekly 24 May 2020

14 24, May, 2020 W orld catholicweekly.com.au ‘Green’ encyclical turns five St Peter’s opens again High quality Ukrainian babies on hold in lockdown A year of events will mark this groundbreaking papal document ALMOST 10 weeks after St Pe- ter’s Basilica was closed to the public in cooperation with Italy’s COVID-19 lockdown measures, the faithful and tourists were allowed back in 18 May. Pope Francis celebrated Mass at 7am at the tomb of St John Paul II to mark the 100th anniversary of the Polish pope’s birth.Then, at 8am, the general public was admitted. The basilica was sanitised on 15 May in preparation for the reopening. It had been closed to the public since 10 March. On the edge of St Peter’s Square, a sign advises visi- tors they must wear a mask and stay 2 metres away from others in order to enter the basilica. The Vatican sanitation ser- vice placed hand-sanitiser dispensers at the end of the colonnade surrounding St Pe- ter’s Square. From there, the public finds “keep your dis- BORDER CLOSURES to pre- vent the spread of COVID-19 have highlighted another “pa- thology” in modern Ukraine: the practice of commercial surrogacy, said the country’s Catholic bishops. The head of the Eastern-rite Ukrainian Catholic Church, and the president of the country’s Latin-rite bishops’ conference, appealed to the Ukrainian government on 14 May to put an end to the prac- THE VATICAN announced that it will commemorate the fifth anniversary of Pope Fran- cis’ encyclical on the environ- ment with a year long series of initiatives dedicated to the safeguarding and care for the Earth. In a 16 May statement the Dicastery for Promoting In- tegral Human Development announced a “Special Lauda- to Si’ Anniversary Year” from 24 May 2020 to 24 May 2021, which will emphasise “ecolog- ical conversion in action.” As the world continues to deal with the coronavirus pandemic, the dicastery said, the encyclical’s message is “just as prophetic today as it was in 2015.” “Truly, COVID-19 has made clear how deeply we are all interconnected and in- terdependent” the statement said. “As we begin to envision a post-COVID world, we need above all an integral approach as everything is closely inter- related and today’s problems call for a vision capable of tak- ing into account every aspect of the global crisis.” Among the events set to take place throughout the year are prayer services and we- binars dedicated to environ- mental care, education and the economy. The dicastery also detailed the rollout of a “seven-year journey toward integral ecol- ogy” for families, dioceses, ¾ ¾ Cindy Wooden ¾ ¾ Junno Arocho Esteves Religious sisters in St Peter’s Square after visiting the Basilica on its 18 May reopening. PHOTO: CNS/REMO CASILLI, REUTERS A woman has her temperature checked before entering St Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican on 18 May. PHOTO: CNS/REMO CASILLI, REUTERS The Vatican announced that it will commemorate Laudato Si with a year-long series of initiatives. PHOTO: CNS/SAM LUCERO,THE COMPASS tance” labels and tape on the cobblestone path leading to the health and security checks before entering the basilica. At the end of the path, two members of the Knights of Malta dressed in white, light- tice of allowing foreigners to hire Ukrainian women to bear children for them. They asked the government to enact family-support pol- icies that would “ensure that Ukrainian mothers do not have to trade their bodies and their children for their own and their families’ survival.” Their statement came after Bi- oTexCom, one of the country’s largest surrogacy agencies, posted a video on YouTube schools, universities, hospi- tals, businesses, farms and re- ligious orders. The dicastery said that amid the current pandemic, Lauda- to Si’ can “indeed provide the moral and spiritual compass for the journey to create a more caring, fraternal, peace- ful and sustainable world.” “We have, in fact, a unique opportunity to transform the present groaning and travail into the birth pangs of a new way of living together, bonded together in love, compassion and solidarity and a more har- monious relationship with the natural world, our common home,” the dicastery’s state- ment said. “As Pope Francis reminds us,” it said, “all of us can co- operate as instruments of God for the care of creation, each according to his or her own culture, experience, involve- ments and talents.” Recalling the fifth anni- versary of his encyclical af- ter reciting the Regina Coeli prayer May 17, Pope Francis expressed his hope that the message of Laudato Si’ will encourage people to take upon themselves the shared responsibility of caring for the Earth. “In these times of pandem- ic, inwhichwe aremore aware of the importance of caring for our common home, I hope that all our common reflection and commitment will help to create and strengthen con- structive behaviors for the care of creation,” the pope said. weight hazmat suits point a small thermoscanner at the visitor’s forehead. If the per- son does not have a fever, he or she can proceed to the line for the metal detectors. After the security check and before entering the church, visitors find another hand-sanitiser dispenser. While many of the people attending the Mass celebrat- ed by Pope Francis were not wearing masks, once the cel- ebration was over, Vatican security began enforcing the face-mask requirement and breaking up any situation where it looked like people were standing close to each other to talk, including jour- nalists trying to interview some of the first people in- side. VaticanMedia didnot show people receiving Communion at the pope’s Mass. For the Masses celebrated later that morning, Communion was distributed only in the hand. Vatican workers with large spray bottles resanitised the altars and pews where Mass- es were celebrated with the public. Except for the expand- ed space needed for the line for security checks, St Peter’s Square remained closed. - CNS on 30 April showing 46 infants being cared for in a Kyiv hotel suite. The text and narration sought to assure the people who contracted for the chil- dren that they are safe and healthy. Lyudmyla Denisova, Ukraine’s human rights com- missioner, told reporters that with international travel banned, more than 100 babies in Ukraine are awaiting their new parents; it demonstrates that the country has a “mas- sive and systemic” surrogacy industry where babies are advertised as a “high quality product,” she said. Although the video showed women holding, feeding, changing and caressing the babies, the Catholic bishops also said it showed “46 crying babies, deprived of maternal touch, parental warmth, self- less care, much-needed love.”