July-August 2020 Issue Vol. 56 No. 4 RP PROVINCE NEWSLETTER
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RP PROVINCE NEWSLETTER July-August 2020 Issue Vol. 56 No. 4 His Holiness, Pope Francis, has just appointed our confrere FR FÉLICIEN NTAMBUE (CICM General Councilor) as Bishop of the Diocese of Kabinda, Democratic Republic of Congo. Let us thank the Lord for this appointment and pray for our confrere as he starts his new ministry in the Diocese of Kabinda. By Fr. Luke Moortgat, CICM Provincial Councillor PRELIMINARY NOTES: Privacy. To protect privacy I use fictitious names for people, sickness, etc. I also interchange gender related words like he, she, etc. I kept references for most important sources and I can give them to people who need them. Rounded Figures. While I love concrete numbers, I will often round off figures as long numbers are more difficult to remember. You also realize that data that are rounded off are not only easier to remember but in many cases also help practical understanding. As this article is not used as basis for more detailed studies but as a starting point for greater personal involvement, it is more than sufficient to have rounded figures. For many it is also easier to grasp and to use in a practical way a text stating that “worldwide one person out of 500 is infected” than “16,690,319 people out of a world population 8,099,141,505 are infected. Honest Reflection. When I ask “why” questions or others, it is often to help us to reflect. I do not worry that a reader forgets all the facts if he can just spend some time in solidly based honest reflection. 1. FACES BEHIND THE NUMBERS As the figures are so huge it is good to look at some clear examples of those large groups of people. It may help us to have a more realistic insight in the suffering, to see the faces behind the numbers. NOVA ET VETERA • JULY-AUGUST 2020 3 a. Lydia works as a guard and e. Mary cared for her elderly according to the actual rules of mother. She continued to care the company it will be one even when her mother became month before she can see her infected with the Covid-19. She 10-year daughter again. became infected also and then b. Annabelle and Victor prepared passed it on to her husband. well their wedding. The place Later they all died. for the celebration was ready. f.- Martin referred to me a picture The guests were invited. As the that had disturbed him. It wedding place was AB City they showed an old man in a wheel- had purchased their plane chair dying alone. tickets on time. Then, because g. In LX country the rules to pro- of the Covid-19 the flight was tect the people are so that it cancelled. was not allowed to visit sick c. The parents of Greg and Ann Covid-19 patients in the hospi- are a bit better off. They have a tal ABC. Marc wanted to hold laptop computer. This comes in his dying wife in his arms. It handy for online classes. But was not allowed. Greg and Ann are in different h. Trying to play safe and not to year levels with of course dif- wait until his medical problems ferent classes. How to share would become worse, Albert this one computer so that both called before going to visit his can study at basically the same doctor in the hospital. When hours? How to keep attention talking at the phone, the doctor when their little sibling Renato told him that with so many runs around their small house? Covid-19 cases in the hospital it d. Anita is a very helpful child but was not advisable for Albert to she is a bit special. In other visit him there. They could talk words, she has a low I.Q. She though over their cell phones. has no problems wearing a Was the explanation given by mask these days, but she does the patient not clear enough or not understand why she cannot did he not understand well the play with her friends even when advice of the doctor? Anyway, the weather is fine. She is diffi- less than 10 hours later Albert cult at home. The longer it was dead. lasts, the worse it becomes and i. Margareta has a long lasting the more it works on the nerves sickness. Luckily she does not of the parents. have to be hospitalized and it is sufficient to have regular 4 NOVA ET VETERA • JULY-AUGUST 2020 consultations in the out-patient 2. CONTAMINATION ISSUES department of the hospital. THROUGHOUT HISTORY However, the hospitals in her area closed their out-patient Throughout the years, there have departments. been huge contamination issues. E.g. k. Martina has four (4) little chil- dren. After being stranded, a. The Black Death of 1347- transferred to a temporary relo- 1350. (For our Church histo- cation area, etc., with the con- rians who like to put it in per- fusions that accompanied these spective: 1347 is the year St. transfers, she got separated Catherine of Siena was born. from her children. Only after She was influential in bringing three (3) weeks of deep worrying Pope Gregory XI from Avignon, about their whereabouts was France to Rome. Martina reunited with her chil- This plague killed about half dren. the population of Europe. As You may know other and clearer usual, some places were hit stories. The ones I just listed may more than other. The city of be enough for now to give us some Florence (Italy) was said to practical background so that have a population of about when we talk about data, we will 120,000. About 100,000 of see the faces behind the num- them (or 5 out of 6) died in bers. four (4) months. b. The Spanish Flu of 1918- We will realize that besides the 1920. Globally, the pandemic many infected, a huge crowd, (a) infected a third of the virtually everybody on earth is world’s population and (b) directly or indirectly affected by killed an estimated 50 million this Covid-19. people. This is more deadly than the four years of World War I which killed about 40 mil- lion people. c. Today’s Covid-19. By the end of July it is expected that one person out of 500 will be infected and one out of 12,000 will die because the Covid-19. NOVA ET VETERA • JULY-AUGUST 2020 5 Horrible as it is, this about one knowing much about transmis- dead out of 12,000 people is sion, more people passed on the extremely small in comparison virus to others. Now we know with the just mentioned that three (3) simple aspects Spanish Flu which killed 50 that have practically no propor- million people around 1918. It tionate cost are very protective: infected 1/3 of the world washing hands, keep two meter population. In proportion to distance and use mouth masks. the much smaller world popu- c. On the other hand, today lation of those days while con- people travel more and far- sidering that the medical treat- ther. You can be infected in ment was so much lower than China on one day and bring it today and preventive measure to Northern Italy the next day were not so well known, this means that about one out of d. Governments react at dif- 35 people died of the Spanish ferent speeds: some have fast Flu. strict rules, others not. Some buy fast protective equipment, Sure, our numbers still keep others not. on rising every day, but I surely do not think that the e. People react differently: in number of deaths will grow some countries people apply anywhere close to a proportion protective rules before they that is more than 300 times as become a law; in other coun- big. tries they keep on finding excuses even if there is already 3. GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS a law; in other places they go to Some data may surprise you. court to sue a government that When you see these big differ- requires the wearing of simple ences some may doubt about mouth masks in public places, the exactness of some data. etc. Among the many reasons we have: f. Perspective: Unknown prob- a. In past centuries, people had lems appear bigger than known no good understanding of ones. They are also much more hygiene. difficult to handle. We have, e.g., the chronic Hepatitis B. b. In comparison with today, the The science world knows it very medical knowledge was very well and there are not daily limited. Of those who were news items about it on TV or in infected a much larger propor- the newspapers about this “old tion died than now. Not 6 NOVA ET VETERA • JULY-AUGUST 2020 stuff”. Yet, unlike after how to count is not as easy as contraction the covid-19, people many thought. You may remain infected for life. World- remember that some countries wide one out of 30 is affected suddenly increased their data with hepatitis B (vs. one out of about the infected by the virus 500 so far for Covid-19) and and those who died from it yearly almost one out of 9,000 when they realized that a per- dies yearly (vs one out of 12,000 son could die from two (2) for the virus so far.) However, causes. It is at the same time a note that on one hand the virus little lesson for all those who do is only about half a year with us research to make sure they use but, on the other hand, it is not correct definitions and imple- expected to last for years and mentations for their data.