Pope Francis urged people of every religion to fast and pray on May 14 for an end to the coronavirus pandemic and “other pandemics” of hunger and war.

“Today all of us, brothers and sisters of all religious traditions, pray in a day of prayer and fasting, of penance, called by the Higher Committee of Human Fraternity. Each of us prays… united in the brotherhood that unites us in this moment of pain and tragedy,” Pope Francis said in his homily on May 14.

The Pope said that this interfaith day of prayer, fasting, and charity is not an expression of “religious relativism,” but “a day of fraternity” and prayer.

“Perhaps there will be someone who will say: ‘This is religious relativism and it cannot be done.’ But how can we not pray to the Father of all?” Pope Francis said in the Santa Marta chapel.

He continued: “Everyone prays as he knows, how he can, as he has received from his own culture. We are not praying against each other, this religious tradition against this, no. We are all united as human beings, as brothers, praying to God, according to our culture, according to our own tradition, according to our beliefs, but brothers praying to God. This is the important thing.”

God willing, Father Edward Inyanwachi will soon again celebrate Mass for the members of his rural southeastern Nigerian parish. Until then he’s trying to keep them from starving.

The pastor of St Patrick Parish and two mission churches in the Diocese of Abakaliki in Nigeria’s impoverished Ebonyi State.

Over the last two months, he has travelled in a truck over dirt roads outside the village to buy food staples that are out of reach — physically and financially — for some parish families amid the coronavirus pandemic.

“The cost of food items, especially the staple foods, is rising each day,” he shared in an April 24 email to longtime Holy Name of Jesus parishioner Angela Testani from the village of Uburu-Amachi.

Father Inyanwachi and Testani, a retired San Francisco nurse, met at the parish when the priest visited during his studies at the University of San Francisco. In 2016 they co-founded Mother of Mercy Charitable Foundation out of a mutual desire to improve the lives of the rural poor in Ebonyi, the third-poorest State in Nigeria.

Unlike most countries, Sweden has chosen a more relaxed approach to preventing the spread of the coronavirus, sparking a debate on how governments should confront the deadly pandemic.

Sweden’s high death rate among elderly men and women living in retirement homes have many, including the nation’s only cardinal, questioning whether measures meant to protect the most vulnerable have worked.

“Not being an expert, it’s difficult to judge, but I would say that many people here in Sweden are very worried and, also, the authorities have recognized that we have not been able to give elderly people the protection they needed,” Card. Anders Arborelius of Stockholm told Catholic News Service on May 7.

Although Swedish authorities called for people to work remotely and restricted gatherings of more than 50 people at the start of the crisis, restaurants and bars, as well as schools for children under the age of 16, remained open.

Anders Tegnell, the country’s chief epidemiologist, told CNBC on May 7 that cases in Stockholm, the epicentre of the outbreak, have peaked and that the numbers of those in hospitals “is clearly falling.”

In his book,  Disruptive Power: Catholic Women, Miracles, and Politics in Modern Germany, 1918-1965, Marist College professor Michael O’Sullivan explores the revival of Catholic faith in Germany from 1920-1960, fueled in large part by Marian devotion. Yet ironically, this new sense of devotion, primarily from traditionalist Catholics, unintentionally weakened the institutional Church, O’Sullivan argues.

His book, which won the Waterloo Centre for German Studies Book Prize, explores this turbulent period in German Catholicism, and in an interview with Crux, O’Sullivan offers his thoughts on what it means for one of the most influential Catholic nations in the world today.

“I have trouble thinking of an era in European history where popular religion and sainthood was not politicized. In an example from the medieval period, my colleague at Marist College, Janine Larmon Peterson, just wrote a book that shows how the political situation on the Italian peninsula during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries shaped the reception of local and unsanctioned saints’ cults” Michael O’Sullivan said.

Former United Reformed Church Youth Moderator, Katie Henderson, voluntarily switched from working on a paediatric ICU ward to an adult ICU coronavirus ward after she felt led by God to help battle the disease.

“I very much feel like this was a calling for me to do,” she told Premier. “It’s not something I never would have imagined I would have done. And I’ve always said I’m very much a paediatric nurse. I love children. I never thought I could work with adults.

“God’s nudged me to do this and to test me. But I think he’s put me there as well to be there for these patients when literally no one else can because the families can’t come in and there’s not enough nurses.”

Henderson said although she felt by God to join the frontline, it’s been a big emotional challenge.

“There has been some deaths from workers from my hospital. It’s challenging and every day we go in and we’re not sure what the situation with PPE is. [I think] ‘am I going to be protected enough?’ We crack on because that’s what we have to do.”

She added: “Every day I go into work unsure what personal protective equipment we will have. Right now, we are having to wear white boiler suits imported from Turkey that come in one size, that doesn’t fit all. Why? Because there are no gowns left. They are so hot that people are sweating through the scrubs underneath. We are living in scary times and now more than ever I find myself reliant on my faith.”

Henderson said regularly talking to her Christians friends on Zoom and worshipping together has been vital for her during the corona virus pandemic. She said throughout all the challenges God’s presence has been evident.