{"id":12702,"date":"2020-03-26T11:40:01","date_gmt":"2020-03-26T16:40:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/?p=12702"},"modified":"2020-04-07T09:11:19","modified_gmt":"2020-04-07T14:11:19","slug":"from-the-trenches-pt-2-an-italian-perspective-on-the-fight-to-contain-covid-19-continued","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/from-the-trenches-pt-2-an-italian-perspective-on-the-fight-to-contain-covid-19-continued","title":{"rendered":"From the Trenches, Pt. 2: An Italian Perspective on the Fight to Contain COVID-19, Continued"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last updated on April 7th, 2020 at 09:11 am<\/p>\n

Hollywood stars are sharing\nthe video of John Lennon\u2019s song Imagine<\/a><\/em>, but now is\nnot the time to double down on the silly songs, degenerate culture, egoism and\nmadness that have brought the Covid-19 crisis upon us. They put their hope in an\nimagined invincibility or immortality, in globalism\u2026 in nothing. But this is\nnot real hope, and it doesn\u2019t encourage us. This tragedy is not \u201cimagined,\u201d but\nreal: the numbers prove it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here in Lombardy\u2014the\nplace where St. Ambrose and St. Charles Borromeo lived\u2014we are people full of\npragmatism and real<\/em> hope. We don\u2019t go in for silly songs like Imagine<\/em>,\nbut instead sing the Salve\nRegina<\/a><\/em> and other prayers to God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They aren\u2019t just\nnumbers: each number is a face, a story, an experience\u2014a real person who was\nliving and whom the virus has killed. Every one, mostly elderly people, had a\nfamily, was part of a network of people: friends, parents, children,\ngrandchildren, work colleagues. None of them lived in John Lennon\u2019s imaginary\nworld, but the real world. Nonetheless, numbers are still important to\nunderstand this tragedy: nearly 4,500 deaths in Lombary alone (over 7,000 in\nItaly total), and over the whole country over 70,000 people infected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The US, apart from\nHollywood, has given help in these last days. In this dark period a light has\nturned on: not only have the Chinese, Russian, and Cuban governments sent\ndoctors and medical equipment, but aid also came from the Christian charity run\nby Rev. Franklin Graham, Samaritan’s\nPurse<\/a>. They airlifted in an Emergency Field Hospital and provided\nlife-saving medical assistance and equipment to the city of Cremona, not far\nfrom Milan in the soutern part of Lombardy. A medical staff of 60 people and a\n60-bed hospital with 8 intensive care units comprise this field hospital.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is an unexpected ray\nof sun, but welcome and needed. We thank America, thank Samaritan\u2019s Purse. What\nelse can Christians do in this time but try to help others? This is happy news,\nan important sign of real ecumenism and fraternity. It is also distinct from\nthe globalist solidarity excercised by the world\u2019s NGOs. They press for support\nand donations to help all manner of poor people, but here in Lombardy and in\nItaly in general they are totally absent during this tragedy. ‘Emergency’,\n‘Doctors Without Borders’, Amnesty International, Oxfam, CARE, and so many\nothers: these haven\u2019t provided medical staff or equipment\u2014and the list of\norganizations could be much longer. Their \u201csolidarity\u201d may be strong with those\nwho suffer far away, but it is weak in their own back yards. Do they\ndiscriminate? Is it because we are mostly white Europeans, Italian Catholics,\nthat we don\u2019t merit their help?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The major international\nphilanthropists have done exactly the same as the NGOs: they support \u201chumanity\u201d\nand the \u201copen society\u201d but not a cent to help the emergency here in Italy. It\nleaves us speechless. The number of deaths take the breath away. The deaths are\nno less tragic beause of the fact that they are mostly old people: their loss impoverishes\nour families and communities, as we lose their venerable wisdom and experience.\nYet even here in Lombardy the tragedy doesn\u2019t seem to fully sink in: supermarkets\nare full of people in mad rushes to hoard, not from any real necessity but from\na spirit of consumerism and selfishness. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

On March 18 and during\nthe subsequent days, the Italian army was\ncalled in<\/a> to the province of Bergamo. A long line of military trucks\ntransported coffins to the cemeteries and crematoriums of other cities. This is\nyet another compounding factor in this tragedy. People die alone, and then cannot\neven have a funeral, and then are buried far off from their home because local\ncemeteries are full. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our faith strengthens\nus. On March 19, Pope Francis invited<\/a>\neveryone to invoke the intercession of St. Joseph and pray the Rosary for the\ncountry and all the sick around the world. On March 25, he extended the invitation\nto all Christians to pray together the Lord\u2019s Prayer at noon all around the\nworld. And on Friday, March 27th<\/sup>, he is inviting<\/a>\nall believers to tune in and pray together to receive a blessing for the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is consoling as restrictions\nto movement in the country become more and more strict, making it nearly\nimpossible to go to a Church and pray. On March 20th, I asked to a police\nofficer who was patrolling the streets if I could go to the Church to pray the\nStations of the Cross. \u201cIt is not necessary!\u201d was his quick answer. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yes, the common idea is\nthat it isn\u2019t \u201cessential\u201d to address our needs to God, our Savior. But for some\nof us it is. It was honorable of President Trump in America to declare Sunday,\nMarch 15 a National Day of Prayer, for example. It reminds us how important\nprayers are, to ask help from God just as our forebears did, in the US just as\nin Lombardy. This virus acts by taking one\u2019s breath, suffocating and isolating\nthe person: but this just reminds us that we take our breath for granted, when\nreally every breath comes from God.  But this\nonly This virus takes breath away, suffocates and leaves you alone. It has been\nquestioned by this tragedy; we are more and more aware that every breath\ndepends on someone else, God. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I share with you in\nclosing this\nancient, short hymn<\/a> from the time of the Black Death. This isn\u2019t a song of \u201cimagining\u201d\u2014it\na real<\/em>, a prayer for help to drive plague away. These\nsongs from our ancestors are what we need, even if Hollywood finds no use for\nthem.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Imagine “no God above us?” No, we should instead be seeking his help. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":54,"featured_media":12703,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"mc4wp_mailchimp_campaign":[],"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"subtitle":"Should we imagine a world without God? No, we should instead be seeking his help. ","format":"standard","video":"","gallery":"","source_name":"","source_url":"","via_name":"","via_url":"","override":[{"single_blog_custom":"","sidebar":"","second_sidebar":"","share_position":"","share_float_style":"","post_date_format":"","post_date_format_custom":"","post_reading_time_wpm":"","zoom_button_out_step":"1","zoom_button_in_step":"1","number_popup_post":"1"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"","single_post_gallery_size":""}],"trending_post_position":"","trending_post_label":""},"jnews_primary_category":{"id":"511"},"jnews_social_meta":{"fb_title":"","fb_description":"","fb_image":"","twitter_title":"","twitter_description":"","twitter_image":""},"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[804,511,805],"tags":[2688,2218,2230,1608],"class_list":["post-12702","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-breaking-news","category-culture","category-foreground","tag-from-the-trenches","tag-coronavirus-2","tag-covid-19-2","tag-italy"],"yoast_head":"\nFrom the Trenches, Pt. 2: An Italian Perspective on the Fight to Contain COVID-19, Continued - IFN<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/from-the-trenches-pt-2-an-italian-perspective-on-the-fight-to-contain-covid-19-continued\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"From the Trenches, Pt. 2: An Italian Perspective on the Fight to Contain COVID-19, Continued\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Imagine "no God above us?" 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Publicly engaged for decades in the promotion of life, family and religious and educational freedom, Luca\u00a0 has served as a board member for various international organizations promoting Christian values and human rights, including his current role as a board member of the International Organization for the Family. He has authored books and essays for the Novae Terrae series by the publisher Rubbettino; he has been a correspondent for several Italian newspapers, and currently collaborates with La nuova Bussola Quotidiana, an online newspaper. He is a also a great bicycle enthusiast.","sameAs":["https:\/\/facebook.com\/lvolonte1","https:\/\/x.com\/https:\/\/twitter.com\/l_volonte"],"url":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/author\/lvolonte"}]}},"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12702","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/54"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12702"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12702\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12709,"href":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12702\/revisions\/12709"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12703"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12702"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12702"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12702"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}