COVID-19 takes heavy toll on Latin American Church
It has been over year since COVID-19 spread around the world. One of the regions hit hardest by the pandemic is Latin America. The Catholic clergy have been hit particularly hard by the virus. ACN has been offering support to the Church in Latin America throughout the pandemic.
By ACN Staff
A procession in Brazil during COVID-19. (Credit: Aid to the Church in Need)
Priests are always at the forefront of ministering to the faithful. During times of pandemic, like we find ourselves in, the mission of the clergy is to be with their congregations. This means that priests often put themselves in risk and danger. This is no where so evident as in Latin America. The Venezuelan Conference of Bishops passed on some shocking statistics to Aid to the Church in Need (ACN). From March 2020, when COVID-19 first appeared in the country, 201 out of the 2002 Catholic priests in Venezuela have caught COVID-19. The bishops said:
Friars bring food to poor communities in Brazil. (Credit: Aid to the Church in Need)
“10% of all priests in Venezuela have become infected with COVID-19. The figures show that 11.9% of infected persons and 1.2% of all priests in the country have died of the virus.”
The bishops’ conference continued:
“those who serve the Church cannot avoid exposure to the COVID-19 virus. The priests who fulfilled their vocation of service to the community, who fulfilled their mission as ‘Doctors of the Soul’ did so knowing that, even after taking all precautions in the churches and complying with all the hygiene rules, they ran the risk of infecting themselves and, therefore, also ran the risk of dying.”
The situation is even worse in Mexico. ACN received the following data off the Catholic Multimedia Centre (CMC). Since March 2020, 245 priests and religious in Mexico have died from complications related to COVID-19. The dead include 5 bishops.
Easter at the Cathedral of San Cristóbal in Venezuela. (Credit: Diocese of San Cristobal)
Both Peru and Colombia have lost a bishop each to COVID-19. On the 2nd of April, the Colombian Church lost the Franciscan Gabriel Gutiérrez Ramírez. He had been well known for his outreach to homeless people and was known as the “Angel of the Outcast”. He had set up a foundation called “Callejeros de la Misericordia” (“Street workers of Mercy”), which will hopefully continue on the work that he started in Colombia.
ACN’s Head of Projects, Regina Lynch, expressed her sorrow at this news. She also expressed great thanks to the priest and clergy who have continued to minister to the faithful during the pandemic:
“In spite of the many fatalities, priests and religious continue to pursue their mission, standing by those who have fallen ill with COVID-19 and giving solace to the faithful who are suffering so severely both in the countries mentioned above and in others all over the world…the priests and religious sisters often contracted the disease while pursuing their heroic work of dedication and service to those most in need or while caring for the health of the soul. This is extremely important work, because we Christians are not only concerned about the health of the physical body.”
In 2020, ACN donated more than €1.5 million to support 146 projects related to COVID-19 in Latin America. ACN has also increased the number of Mass stipends being offered to priests. Presently ACN is supporting 7,200 priests. If you would like to help ACN in our mission, please consider making a donation.