Emanuel Marianus Tapu, 29, usually goes to church to attend Sunday Mass. However, for the last two Sundays he has been unable to do so because Mass and other church activities have been suspended due to the coronavirus pandemic. Luckily, though, churches have turned to the internet and are streaming daily and Sunday Masses.

Last Sunday, at his home in the Jakarta suburb of Parung Panjang, he placed a lit candle and a cross next to his laptop and followed a livestreamed Mass from Jakarta Cathedral.

“Although it was through YouTube, I still felt I was attending a normal Mass. I feel the need to maintain my spiritual life in the midst of this crisis,” the 29-year-old devout Catholic told UCA News.

Cardinal Joseph Zen publish-ed Saturday a blog post accusing the Vatican’s secretary of state of manipulating Pope Francis, and continuing his ongoing criticism of the Holy See’s approach to the Catholic Church in China.

“My personal impression is that [Cardinal Pietro] Parolin manipulates the Pope, at least in things regarding the Church in China,” Zen, the emeritus bishop of Hong Kong, wrote in a post published on his personal blog.

The post “Supplement to my answer to Cardinal G.B. Re,” was dated March 10, although it was actually published March 21. It seemed to be an addendum to a March 3 open letter Zen wrote to Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re.

Zen’s March 21 and March 3 letters came in response to a Feb. 26 letter from Re, dean of the Church’s College of Cardinals, to the Church’s cardinals, which claimed that that the China-Vatican deal represents the minds of St. John Paul II and of Benedict XVI, and that Zen’s opposition to the deal is misguided.

Even before it was signed, Zen has been a zealous critic of the Vatican’s 2018 provisional agreement with the People’s Republic of China. He says the agreement, which has not been publicly released, concedes a deliberative role to the Chinese government in the selection of bishops, and puts at risk of persecution many of the Catholics in China.

Zen’s more recent post claimed that while he has been critical of Re over the China deal, “The Problem is not between me and Re. The problem is with Cardinal Parolin.”

“It’s difficult to understand how this man has become so powerful to dominate the whole Roman Curia. He could dismiss the Commission for Church in China without a word and nobody stood up to protest against such impoliteness.”

Vietnam’s communist government has thanked Christians, including the Catholic hierarchy, for taking preventive steps to check the spread of the coronavirus pandemic.

Head of religious affairs Vu Chien Thang used a March 17 statement to extend Easter greeting to all Catholics, Protestants and their leaders, Vietnam News Agency reported.

“We thank the Episcopal Council and bishops of dioceses for proactively implementing the instructions of the government and all-level administrations in disease control,” Thang wrote.

The collective efforts put for-ward by religious organizations, including the Catholic and Protestant churches, have helped Vietnam effectively control the outbreak, winning kudos from the international community, he said. Although Vietnam remains geographically and culturally close to China, the epicenter of the Covid-19 outbreak, it has only 75 confirmed cases with zero deaths, according to its health ministry. Thang regretted his inability to visit Christian leaders personally and exchange Easter greetings because of the virus restrictions in place.

Indonesian Catholics have called on the Vatican to re-schedule Pope Francis’ visit to Indonesia after it was cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Though the Vatican never confirmed the pope would be visiting Indonesia, Timor-Leste, and Papua New Guinea this September, diplomatic sources had said the visit was planned. However, officials have now said that due to the Covid-19 pandemic the visit has been called off.

“The cancellation is understandable because now the whole world is fighting Covid-19 and it will remain a serious threat over the next few months,” Father Antonius Benny Susetyo, a member of a presidential unit promoting communal tolerance, told UCA News on March 15.

However, the former executive secretary of the bishops’ interfaith committee hoped the Vatican would reschedule the pope’s visit for next year “because his visit is very important for Indonesia.”

“His visit will have a positive impact on Indonesia, particularly in strengthening interreligious dialogue,” he said.

Hermawi Fransiskus Taslim, a Catholic lay leader, expressed a similar view.

A Filipina Benedictine nun has succumbed to coronavirus in Spain, her congregation reported on March 28.

Sr Maria Gratia Balagot, who was the superior of their community in India, was only visiting Spain to renew her visa when she was infected with Covid-19. “And while there, (she) contracted the virus,” the US-based Missionary Benedictine Sisters – Norfolk Priory said in a Facebook post. “Please pray for her and for her community in India and for the whole congregation during this difficult time,” the post reads. Sr Balagot, who is originally from Aringay, La Union, died at the age of 71. She has been a missionary in India since 2016.