In Limburg, the chairman of the Catholic German Bishops’ Conference, Bishop Georg Bätzing, recalled the fate of the deceased and their relatives. He also praised the self-sacrificing service of doctors and nurses.
“Behind the” barely comprehensible numbers of the dead are individual fates “, emphasized Bätzing. And further:” In prayer we are close to our deceased. ” Cross and on Easter, on the feast of the resurrection of Christ, may “comfort and give strength”.
“Sign of Solidarity”
Bätzing sees the church services in many European countries as a good sign. “Every country in Europe has experienced the full impact of the pandemic,” he said. Many will remember the pictures from Bergamo unforgettable “A challenge” – As a pastor on deathbeds in times of Corona. “I perceive this cross-border commemoration and prayer as an impressive sign of solidarity and fraternal solidarity.”
The Kunigunden Festival in Bamberg Cathedral was also dedicated to commemoration. Archbishop Ludwig Schick recalled that the diocese patroness had a heart for the needy, worried, sick and dead as well as those in mourning. In his sermon he said that everyone can contribute something to overcoming the crisis and its consequences.
The Archbishop of Bamberg, Ludwig Schick (archive picture)
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“These numbers are beyond our imagination”
Münster’s Bishop Felix Genn also recalled the around two and a half million COVID-19 deaths so far, including around 70,000 in Germany. “These numbers are beyond our imagination,” he said. Behind every number are people who mourned the dead, “who did not imagine the earthly farewell to their loved ones”.
In other dioceses, bishops also commemorated the corona dead in church services and remembered the relatives, the currently sick and the many people who took care of them.
The nationwide services with the Catholic German bishops go back to an initiative of the Council of European Bishops’ Conferences. He had called for the victims of the corona pandemic to be remembered in a European country every day of Lent. After starting in Albania on February 17, Germany followed the initiative on Saturday.
hf / kle (kna, epd, dpa)
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