Days before trip, Pope's envoy in Iraq tests positive for COVID
- Feb 28, 2021
After urging compliance the day before, it did not escape attention that Pope Francis didn’t quite follow suit in his public Mass Monday, held in St. Peter’s Basilica before the tomb of St. John Paul II to mark the centenary of his predecessor’s birth.
One hundred years after the birth of Saint John Paul II, Pope Francis called the Polish Pope a gift to the church and a model example of a pastor who prays, is close to his people and who exercises both justice and mercy.
On Tuesday, the Vatican announced that with public Masses set to resume in Italy this weekend as coronavirus restrictions ease, Pope Francis’s daily Masses at the Vatican’s Casa Santa Marta will no longer be livestreamed.
As the number of global COVID-19 coronavirus infections continues to rise, notably among healthcare workers, Pope Francis in his daily Mass Tuesday offered special prayers for nurses on International Nurses Day.
Valencia’s government authorities have had a divided reaction to a Spanish cardinal’s decision to open a church to allow the faithful to see an image of the Virgin Mary on Sunday, despite restrictions imposed due to the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic.
Although when public liturgies may resume in the Vatican remains unclear, the church in Italy, anyway, is going back to business – but it’s likely to be far from business as usual.