Priests Archives

Learn from people’s suffering, forge new ways of living, pope says

Jun 1, 2020

As pain, fear and anger fueled riots across the United States, Pope Francis wrote to the priests of the Diocese of Rome, urging them to learn from the suffering of the coronavirus and start building new communities of care for one another.

By Cindy Wooden

Forget the bagpipes: Scottish priest turns to accordion during lockdown

May 1, 2020

One priest in Scotland is livestreaming his accordion during the coronavirus lockdown.

By Charles Collins

COVID-19 takes toll on Maryknoll religious community in New York

Apr 22, 2020

The Maryknoll religious community in Ossining, New York, has been hit hard by COVID-19, the illness caused by the coronavirus.

By Dennis Sadowski

Amid a ‘Spoon River’ of dead, priests in Italy emerging as pandemic heroes

Apr 12, 2020

At least in Italy, which for a long time was ground zero of the pandemic, the early sense is that most clergy are acquitting themselves pretty well and may be remembered as among the heroes.

By John L. Allen Jr.

A sad Holy Week after virus death of 1st Catholic priest

Apr 9, 2020

In life, Father Jorge Ortiz-Garay would repeat the word in Spanish when he encouraged teenagers to stay in school, when he fed the homeless, when he consoled those who lost loved ones. The pastor of St. Brigid Church in Brooklyn was the first Catholic priest in the United States to die from the coronavirus outbreak. He was 49.

By Luis Andres Henao

Famed novel provides the priestly archetypes of Italy’s pandemic

Apr 2, 2020

Because much of the novel unfolds against the backdrop of an outbreak of the plague, it’s no surprise Alessandro Manzoni’s famous work “I Promessi Sposi” has been much-cited over the past month, as Italy has grappled with the highest coronavirus death count in the world

By John L. Allen Jr.