ABOUT THE POPE AND COVID-19 PROJECT

The COVID-19 pandemic has been striking massive people creating gigantic and terrifying adversity around the world. At the time of this writing, the outbreak confirmed more than one hundred million cases (as of 10 February 2021) of coronavirus worldwide (with the United States of America hitting the highest number of cases comprising 27 million infected individuals). Tragically, more than two million people have died (WHO, 2021).

The Novel Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) is an infectious disease caused by Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2). Its first outbreak reported to World Health Organization (WHO) was connected to Pneumonia cases at a wildlife market in Wuhan, China on December 31, 2020. COVID-19 struck the Chinese nation in few weeks before it invaded the world by storm. Coronavirus outbreak was declared by WHO as a pandemic on March 11, 2020. COVID-19 can be zoonotic that transfer from bats to humans. Scientists reported that COVID-19 may be circulating in bats from Japan, China, and Thailand (Briggs, 2020).

COVID-19 is a respiratory disease that multiplies through droplets of saliva or mucus when an infected person sneeze, cough, or talk. The virus can also spread via the consumption of fecal matter or aerosols. Sneezing could produce 40,000 droplets while coughing 3,000 droplets and talking 600 droplets. The virus can travel from three to six feet and infect from four to forty-eight hours depending on the environmental conditions. Distancing six feet away from others and washing hands for more than 20 seconds are good rules to protect yourself from COVID-19. The virus lives longer on surfaces- 4 hours on coppers, 24 hours on cardboard, and 72 hours on plastic and stainless steel. Alcohol with at least 60% solution can kill the virus. COVID-19 like other coronavirus looks like a sphere with a corona or crown in a form of the spike protein. The spiky structure helps the coronavirus fasten the cells that it will invade. It invades the cells through the eyes, mouth, and nose until it finds compatible receptors-for SARS-COV-2, the lung and gut cells. Once inside, the RNA virus infected the cells and these infected cells create a copy of the virus. New copies were brought outside of the cells. Then, infect other host cells. The common diagnostic symptoms of the infected individual are fever (87.9%), dry cough (67.7%), fatigue (38.1%), phlegm production (33.4%), shortness of breath (18.6%), and joint and muscle pain (14.8%). COVID-19 constitutes a threat to people with an existing illness or health issues: Cardiovascular disease (10.5%), Diabetes (7.3%), chronic lung disease (6.3%), High blood pressure (6%), Cancer (5.6%), and 0.9% No condition. A swab test is done to diagnose the presence of coronavirus. To develop immunity to COVID-19, vaccines may contain “killed or weakened virus, viral proteins, or viral genetic material” (Eckert, 2020).

The COVID-19 vaccines that had made it to phase three and beyond were from Pfizer-BioNTech(US and Germany),  Moderna(US), Gamaleya(Russia), Oxford-AstraZeneca (UK and Sweden), CanSino(China), Johnson & Johnson(US and Belgium), Vector Institute(Russia), Novavax (US), Sinopharm(China), Sinovac(China), Sinopharm-Wuhan(China), Bharat Biotech(India), CureVac(Germany), AnGes(Japan), Zydus Cadila(India), Anhui Zhifei Longcom and the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences(China), Medicago(Canada), Beijing Institute of Biological Products (China), Research Institute for Biological Safety Problems(Kazakhstan), Institute of Medical Biology at the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences(China),  and Murdoch Children’s Research Institute (Australia)(Zimmer, 2020). A new threat to the public health authorities and efficacies of the vaccines after a year of the pandemic is the emergence of coronavirus Variants: B.1.1.7 (UK) 501Y.V2(South Africa), and P1(Brazil). The current vaccines are effective in preventing COVID-19 through their variants (Wei-Haas, 2020). 

Due to the public health emergency worldwide in March 2020, the National Government moved to close places of worships, commercial centers, schools, and public places—any arena where people can gather on considerable size. Diocese throughout Rome and around the world canceled all public masses, sacramental and Holy week celebrations to contain coronavirus (Mares, 2020). The Roman Catholic Church, the oldest and largest Christian church with 1.3 billion baptized members worldwide had used heuristic and innovative approaches to combat the unprecedented time of the pandemic. Last February 8, 2021, in the state-of-the-world address, Pope Francis presented a master plan at St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome to overcome the pandemic and exposed its accompanying crises with the Vatican ambassadors, all maintaining health protocols representing 183 states that have diplomatic relations with the Holy See. He mentioned the following crises: a health crisis, an environmental crisis, an economic and social crisis, victims of isolation and closed borders, migrants and refugees, a crisis of politics, terrorism, and a crisis of relationships or what he termed ‘perhaps the most serious of all: the crisis of human relationships’” (O’Connell, 2021).

The researchers conducted a systematic literature review to

(1) identify how the pandemic is altering the Roman Catholic Church landscape in developed and developing countries applying an investigative lens at how parishes or diocese, catholic schools and seminary, catholic institutions, and individual members are responding to the social, political, and economic changes produced by COVID-19,

(2) identify the articles written by researchers or scholars about Catholic Faith and COVID-19, categorize them into analytical themes that include Epidemiology, Theodicy, Bioethics, Religious Rituals, Pastoral Mission, and Catholic Schools,

(3) synthesize the lessons learned from these approaches and develop an agenda for major themes that needs further research or discourse.

References

1. World Health Organization. World Health Data Platform – WHO. World Health Organization. https://www.who.int/data#reports.

2. Briggs, H. (2021, February 9). Coronavirus: Bat virus hunters find new evidence. BBC News. https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-55998157

3. Eckert, I. by A. (2020, May 28). What is the coronavirus? Science. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/health-and-human-body/human-diseases/coronavirus/

4. Zimmer, C., Corum, J., & Wee, S.-lee. (2020, June 10). Coronavirus Vaccine Tracker. The New York Times.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/science/coronavirus-vaccine-tracker.html.

5. Wei-Haas, M. (2021, February 5). The coronavirus is mutating-but what determines how quickly? Science. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/2021/02/the-coronavirus-is-mutating-but-what-determines-how-quickly/.

6.Mares, C. (2020, March 8). Diocese of Rome cancels all public Masses, announces day of fasting and prayer. Catholic News Agency. https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/diocese-of-rome-cancels-all-public-masses-announces-day-of-fasting-and-prayer-54167.

7.O’ Connell, G. (2021, February 9). Pope Francis offers a roadmap for overcoming the pandemic—and the 7 other crises it exposed | America Magazine. America The Jesuit Review. Retrieved March 25, 2021, from https://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2021/02/09/pope-francis-vatican-diplomats-covid-19-239954