Saints Next Door

Dr. Richard Paat is accustomed to serving marginalized communities in his community and to traveling overseas on medical missions he organizes from his home in Toledo, Ohio.

Fr. Humberto Zúñiga Rodríguez brings a special insight to his work on the front lines of the coronavirus crisis in Mexico: He contracted COVID-19 in June and recovered after spending 38 days in isolation.

1.4 million refugees in Uganda are facing hunger because of aid disruption, loss of income and rising food prices linked to the COVID-19 crisis. The U.N. Refugee Agency warns that unless urgent action is taken to address the situation, levels of acute malnutrition, stunting and anemia are expected to rise, especially among children.

In the position of steering the city's health policy for less than two years, Dr. Jennifer Avegno became the face, with Mayor LaToya Cantrell, of the coronavirus response in New Orleans.

Retired Archbishop Oscar Cruz of Lingayen-Dagupan, former president of the Philippine bishops' conference, died in a Manila hospital Aug. 26 after complications from COVID-19, the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines announced.

People started lining up shortly after noon outside the 16th-century Our Lady of the Assumption Parish in southern Mexico City. Most practiced social distancing as best they could on a bustling sidewalk; all were clutching empty food containers.

A network of textile mills has produced over 400,000 units of personal protective equipment during the pandemic. Now, a growing number of Catholic organizations are ordering masks through a collective buying opportunity for parishes and schools. 

In sub-Saharan Africa, Catholic relief agencies, priests and mental health experts are having to double up their efforts as a result of the increased number of people living with mental health conditions because of COVID-19 stressors.

Catholic Charities agencies across the country have met the increased demand for their services brought about by the pandemic, even as they deal with their own internal challenges — everything from canceled fundraisers to staff members who have tested positive for the virus.

A small group of deacon formation classmates, parishioners and family members stood across the road from Tyson Foods pork processing plant in Columbus Junction July 24 and prayed Morning Prayer (Lauds). "We did so remembering those who have been affected by COVID-19, those who have died and now those who return to work," said Kent Ferris, diocesan director of Social Action and of Catholic Charities. "While we prayed, a gentleman approached us. One from our group shared why we gathered. The gentleman responded, 'I assumed you were Catholic.'"

Bishop Eugenio Scarpellini of El Alto, Bolivia, died July 15 after contracting COVID-19. He was remembered by colleagues as a tireless promoter of missions.

Catholics in Bangladesh are mourning the death of Chittagong Archbishop Moses Costa, whose pastoral ministry and leadership gifts made him a beloved and revered figure throughout the country.

Atlantic hurricane season is expected to be busier than usual this year, raising a range of concerns about how to respond to weather-related disasters amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Many Catholic Workers across the United States are reacting to the pandemic with curiosity, hope and a commitment to living according to principles of the founders, Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin.

Perspective: I sit here holding out my bottle of hand sanitizer, and our guests in the food line shuffle past me to receive cleansing: dirty hands, clean pink hands, open hands as if begging to be sanitized.

Jesuit Father Raul Vazquez always wanted to better include the marginalized barrios alongside a sewage canal, which, centuries earlier, had been named "Canal de la Compania" after the Society of Jesus.

From his kitchen in a suburb of North Mumbai, 50-year-old Catholic priest Warner D'Souza preaches across a kitchen counter laden with garden-fresh vegetables and finely ground spices for a one-pot meal. The mini homily is a prelude to an episode of his YouTube program, "Food for the Soul," a series of lockdown lessons about food and spirituality.

So many people in Central Florida work in the tourism industry that the stay-at-home orders due to coronavirus created exponential need. St. Rose of Lima Church's food pantry used to help 170 families a week. The new normal is still emerging, but the average over five weeks is an increase of 230%.

When Mary Symes, 75, died after testing positive for COVID-19, her family had to find a way to adapt her funeral. Livestreaming the service was one creative way that helped provide comfort.

Fr. Joseph Dutan estimated that dozens of St. Brigid's parishioners have been infected and said that at least three have died from COVID-19 complications since the death of Fr. Jorge Ortiz, his mentor and the first Catholic priest in the United States to die from the novel coronavirus.

NCR talks to three Catholics who have gone through the coronavirus journey and who had some advice for the hundreds of thousands more who will be taking the same trip. 

One is a Roman Catholic church in Queens; the other, a Lutheran church in Manhattan. But the COVID-19 pandemic has united the two Hispanic congregations in grief.

Carol Raymond's mask helps prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus at Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital. But it doesn't block her from listening, a skill critical in spiritual care, especially now.

Saints Next Door: When Clida Ellison died of complications of COVID-19 at age 82, the pandemic prevented a funeral at the parish where she "was so beloved. She could have easily packed Gesu Church under normal circumstances."

The coronavirus pandemic has exacerbated food insecurity as historic unemployment rates overwhelm people in need. "The demand is in places it's never been before," says one Catholic leader in California.

Systemic inequalities that cause poverty, health issues and problems with access to care put African Americans at much higher risk of COVID-19. NCR talks to parishes and other Catholic organizations in Baton Rouge, Detroit and Chicago about outreach, finances and outlook.

Grace on the Margins: This pandemic has laid bare the inferiorities of many U.S. systems: our fragile social safety net, gutted public health system, and stark economic inequalities, often the result of systemic racism and xenophobia.

Msgr. Raymond Roden knows the sorrows in Queens' Corona neighborhood. The pastor of Our Lady of Sorrows Church counts some 10,000 parishioners; right now, he can't count everyone who has died from the coronavirus.

Ellis Marsalis Jr. began his teaching career in the 1960s at Xavier University, the nation's only historically black Roman Catholic college. The news on April 1 that he had died of COVID-19-related pneumonia opened a river of national tributes for New Orleans' premier jazz pianist, professor and the patriarch of a musical family with remarkable aesthetic reach.