Demand for service is not expected to recover in the coming weeks, says Marine Atlantic.

Buenos Aires, Argentina :: Miembros de la comunidad japonesa encuentran amigos en un barco de visita y escuchan el evangelio en su lengua materna.

Source: Ámbito - A dos meses de la cumbre mundial que este año tendrá lugar en Bonn, el cambio climático volvió a irrumpir con toda su fuerza y la temperatura amenaza con convertir a 2017 en el año más caluroso desde que se tiene registro. En nuestro país, la fatídica serie de inundaciones sobre la cuenca del río Salado dejó miles de hectáreas bajo las aguas en La Pampa, el sur de Córdoba y el oeste de Buenos Aires. "El cambio climático está afectando y afectará el desarrollo de los países y Argentina es una de las economías emergentes más vulnerables", alertaron especialistas del Banco Mundial.

Denver Newsroom, Apr 21, 2020 / 03:15 pm (CNA).- An Argentine archbishop has proposed 13 measures that would aim to allow churches to reopen churches during the coronavirus pandemic while reducing the risk of contagion.

The proposal is an effort to balance safety and the need for Catholics to receive the Eucharist, Archbishop Víctor Fernández of La Plata said this week.

In response to the pandemic, Argentina has been under lockdown since March 20. According to John Hopkins University, there are 3,031 confirmed cases of COVID-19 with 145 deaths in the country.

Fernández said that although the Church is providing material sustenance to those hardest hit by the pandemic “when we think about sustaining the interior life of the faithful and encouraging its growth, we find ourselves in the serious difficulty of seeing them deprived of the Eucharist for a long time, and we can also foresee that this situation could last for several months.”

In a letter dated April 19 and addressed to the conference’s executive committee, the bishop said the Second Vatican Council teaches that “no Christian community is built up if it is not rooted and centered on the celebration of the Holy Eucharist,” and that Saint John Paul II emphasized that the Mass “rather than an obligation, should be felt as a requisite deeply inscribed in Christian existence.”

Fernández said the letter he sent puts together the suggestions of several bishops and that it is understandable “that many of the faithful are calling on us to find some way to make the Eucharist accessible again.”

“We tell them that they can experience other forms of prayer, and they do, but as Saint John Chrysostom has said “’You can also pray in your home, however, you cannot pray the same way you do in church where the brethren are gathered together.’”

Fernández noted that Pope Francis “teaches that God ‘in the culmination of the mystery of the Incarnation, chose to reach our intimate depths through a fragment of matter.’ It’s good that our faithful have learned that and so it’s not the same thing for them,” he said, adding that Catholics are eager “the food of the love that is the source of supernatural life.”

“It won’t be easy to prove that this situation is lasting too long, nor can we simply wait till the pandemic is completely over,” the prelate noted.

“We know that exposing yourself to infection is irresponsible especially because it involves exposing others to infection and indirectly could lead to a public health crisis that we don’t want to see in our country,” he said.

Aiming to send “a clear message to our People of God to show that we’re truly concerned and that we intend to take some steps that would allow us to resolve this situation as soon as possible,” without neglecting “the health concerns of the authorities” Fernández proposed a series of obligatory measures to celebrate the Eucharist publicly:
1) Keep a distance of two meters between people to the side, front and back. This will require removing or closing off half the pews in the church.
2) No more than two people per pew.
3) Once the pews are occupied in that manner, no more people are to be allowed to enter the church.
4) In the churches where there is usually a lot of people in attendance, the number of Masses should be increased so the faithful can spread themselves out over Saturday and Sunday at different times. Given the prevalence and closeness of churches this will not involve using transportation.
5) Mass should not be celebrated publicly at the most frequently visited shrines due to the difficulty of establishing appropriate controls.
6) There should be no line for communion, instead the Eucharistic ministers should go to the people positioned at the ends of the pews and place the Eucharist in the hand.
7) Every Eucharistic minister should wash his hands with soap before and after and apply alcohol gel.
8) The sign of peace and any physical contact should be omitted.
9) Mass should last no more than 40 minutes.
10) People should leave the church progressively, not all at once, and avoid greeting each other.
11) No intentions should be taken at Mass time, only those previously received by phone, mail or messages.
12) Those people who because of their age are prevented from attending may receive Communion at home.
13) The dispensation from the Sunday obligation should be temporarily maintained so that people who prefer to exercise extreme caution don’t feel obliged to attend.

The archbishop also pointed out in his letter that “if the economic impact has to be foreseen, it’s also appropriate to place a value on those things that provide consolation and strength to people during hard times.”

 

A version of this story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA's Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

A supercell thunderstorm pelted a city center in Argentina a few years ago with hailstones so large scientists suggested a new category to describe them — gargantuan hail.

Argentina beat Russia 5-4 despite three Eder Lima goals in a meeting of two first-time finalists in Colombia while Portugal were pipped to bronze by Iran.

1 Seychellois Rupee = 3.8719 Argentine Peso

1 Trinidad and Tobago Dollar = 9.8368 Argentine Peso

1 Swedish Krona = 6.8024 Argentine Peso

1 Slovak Koruna = 2.9935 Argentine Peso

1 Serbian Dinar = 0.6129 Argentine Peso

1 Polish Zloty = 15.809 Argentine Peso

1 Qatari Rial = 18.2565 Argentine Peso

1 Indian Rupee = 0.8804 Argentine Peso

1 Pakistani Rupee = 0.4164 Argentine Peso

1 Sierra Leonean Leone = 0.0067 Argentine Peso

1 New Taiwan Dollar = 2.2264 Argentine Peso

1 Thai Baht = 2.076 Argentine Peso

1 Turkish Lira = 9.3768 Argentine Peso

1 Singapore Dollar = 47.0537 Argentine Peso

1 Mauritian Rupee = 1.6739 Argentine Peso

1 Nepalese Rupee = 0.5497 Argentine Peso

1 Bangladeshi Taka = 0.7821 Argentine Peso

1 Moldovan Leu = 3.7279 Argentine Peso

1 Colombian Peso = 0.0171 Argentine Peso

1 Uruguayan Peso = 1.5409 Argentine Peso

1 Uzbekistan Som = 0.0066 Argentine Peso

1 Russian Ruble = 0.9056 Argentine Peso

1 Iraqi Dinar = 0.0559 Argentine Peso

1 Cayman Islands Dollar = 79.7461 Argentine Peso

1 Swiss Franc = 68.4594 Argentine Peso

1 CFA Franc BCEAO = 0.1099 Argentine Peso

1 Vietnamese Dong = 0.0028 Argentine Peso

1 Macedonian Denar = 1.1697 Argentine Peso

1 Zambian Kwacha = 0.0128 Argentine Peso

1 South Korean Won = 0.0545 Argentine Peso

1 Jordanian Dinar = 93.6891 Argentine Peso

1 Lebanese Pound = 0.0439 Argentine Peso

1 Bahraini Dinar = 175.7707 Argentine Peso

1 Chilean Peso = 0.0805 Argentine Peso

1 Maldivian Rufiyaa = 4.2875 Argentine Peso

1 Malaysian Ringgit = 15.3374 Argentine Peso

1 Nicaraguan Cordoba Oro = 1.9321 Argentine Peso

1 Netherlands Antillean Guilder = 37.0281 Argentine Peso

1 Estonian Kroon = 4.6607 Argentine Peso

1 Danish Krone = 9.6605 Argentine Peso

1 Fiji Dollar = 29.5036 Argentine Peso

1 New Zealand Dollar = 40.8009 Argentine Peso

1 Croatian Kuna = 9.5802 Argentine Peso