Father Christopher Zugger

Death of Saint Joseph 

I pray regularly to Saint Joseph to intercede with God to console the dying, as he died in the arms of Jesus and Mary, and that I have the grace of a good and holy death, with the Sacraments. In this pandemic, many Catholics are dying without those Sacraments, and all are dying alone. In fact, all over the world people die every day, so praying for those souls is a very important thing to do! Now though we have this unique situation of a world-wide epidemic where Catholics in particular die unattended by a priest.

This article is in reference to this story from March 21 in Italy by Sky News.  https://news.sky.com/story/coronavirus-everyone-dies-alone-heartbreak-at-the-italian-hospital-on-the-brink-of-collapse-11961130?fbclid=IwAR1L9fOeEfB8O94nRVu8XDQ5iGezSj2ydLphiw-mT7aPCJ9XiohPyrlzx1w

Those in intensive care due to the virus die alone – no one can come in and say goodbye, no one is allowed to sit and hold their hands. They die alone as their lungs give out.

An Irish priest asks that people spiritually adopt the dying, referencing an event from the life of St Faustina – worth reading the whole article just for that event – and praying for these souls.

And given the state of western society in particular, a lot of people are facing death with a minimum or religious knowledge, or have no knowledge of God’s mercy, and have no clue as to how to prepare spiritually for death. Other people are not Christian, but even so they are also definitely in need of God’s loving mercy. I have always thought that facing death with no religion whatsoever, no hope in anything beyond this life, must be especially difficult. Here is the story with the prayers: