East Asia

“Idolatry leads people towards the wrong religiosity; indeed, many times worldliness, which is a [form of] idolatry, makes people turn the celebration of a sacrament into a worldly feast.” Like a wedding. “People don’t know if it is a sacrament – where newlyweds really give their all, love each other before God, promise to be faithful before God, and receive the grace of God – or a catwalk of models” centred on “how they are dressed, one and the other”.

Between 3% and 10% of patients who had recovered in the capital of Hubei have contracted the virus again. The problem of asymptomatics. New case of infection in Wuhan. The Malaysian royals are quarantined. Singapore researchers develop a five-minute test.

The battle against COVID-10 has a geopolitical component. China is using aid to discredit the US and gain influence. The “Health Silk Road” is a tool to weaken European unity. With the EU, Xi uses the same strategy used in the South China Sea. However, Beijing's plans will fall on deaf ears unless the economy recovers in a major way.

The Patriarchate of Constantinople, the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Conference of European Churches (KEK), the ecumenical association of Christian Churches of Europe participated in the initiative, proposed by Francis.

At first radical Muslims claimed that the epidemic was a sign of Allah's anger and punishment. Now they claim the virus is a test of faith. If “such characters, such obscurantists with dark ideas, intervene and interfere in such sensitive issues with impunity it is because the state does not do its duty, that of protecting people.”

The 25th anniversary of John Paul II's encyclical Evangelium vitae was at the center of Francis' catechesis for the general audience. "he life that we are called to promote and defend is not an abstract concept, but always manifests itself in a person in the flesh: a newly conceived child, a poor outcast, a sick person who is alone and discouraged or in a terminal state, one who has lost his job or cannot find one, a rejected or ghettoized migrant...".

All new cases in China are from people coming from abroad. Hong Kong closes its borders. Without the Olympics, Japan will lose 267 billion euros in the next 10 years. Quarantine ends for 361 Taiwanese evacuated from Wuhan. New restrictive measures in South Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines and India.

The National Council of Churches in India and the Indian Evangelical Alliance have taken up the pontiff's invitation. Felix Machado: "People are terrified and anxious; the situation asks us to witness a profound faith". Rev. Vijayesh Lal, EFI secretary general: “We ask all communities to pray and take care of the elderly and unemployed people”.

Francis mentions the Daughters of Charity of St Vincent de Paul who have been running a dispensary for needy families in the Vatican for 98 years.

Francis chooses theme "The Words of Vocation" for the Day of Prayer for Vocations. "On this day in particular, but also in the ordinary pastoral life of our communities, I ask the Church to continue to promote vocations. May she touch the hearts of the faithful and enable each of them to discover with gratitude God’s call in their lives".

According to official sources, no positive cases have been recorded in recent days, but an infection prevention team reports dozens of asymptomatic cases in Wuhan every day, which are not counted in official figures. If they were, they could increase the number of infected by more than 50 per cent. At present China has 81,747 positive cases.

24 doctors and about 50 priests have died in Italy serving the sick. Almost five thousand health workers infected. In his homily, Francis speaks of sloth, "the sin of the neutral, neither white nor black". "The sin of sadness that is the seed of the devil, of that inability to make a decision about one's life, but yes, to look at the life of others to complain".