Looking For Mass And Adoration During Virus Outbreak? EWTN Is There For You

PRESS RELEASE March 19, 2020

For More Information, Please Contact: Michelle Johnson Director of Communications EWTN Global Catholic Network 5817 Old Leeds Road Irondale, Alabama 35210-2198 USA (205) 795-5769 - Office (205) 441-6248 - Cell (205) 795-5781 - Fax mjohnson@ewtn.com

Looking For Mass And Adoration? EWTN Is There For You

Irondale, AL (EWTN) – As the coronavirus outbreak affects an increasing number of people around the world, many dioceses and parishes have taken the extraordinary measure of cancelling the celebration of public Masses. In other cases, they have dispensed the elderly and those with health issues from their Sunday obligation. "During this extraordinary time in which people around the world are experiencing so much fear and anxiety, I invite Catholics and people around the world to tune into EWTN for live broadcasts of the Mass at 8 a.m. ET every day from Our Lady of the Angels Chapel in Irondale, Alabama," said EWTN Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Michael P. Warsaw. [Encores air at noon ET, 7 p.m. ET, and midnight ET]. "The mission of EWTN is to bring the light of Christ to a world starved for Truth. My prayer is that, during these dark days, people will be able to find hope through our programming." Watch on TV or streaming live here. Missed the live stream? Get today's daily readings and homily at this link. The Mass can also be heard via EWTN's radio affiliates, on SIRIUS/XM Channel #130, online at this link, and live on EWTN's Facebook page at 8 a.m. ET here. Click here to quickly discover the channel on which to find EWTN on your local cable or satellite provider, and here to find the television schedule. Note: While on the aforementioned television schedule link, viewers outside the U.S. should click on "United States" to see a drop down menu of EWTN's TV schedules via satellites around the world. Click here to find the EWTN Radio schedule. In addition to the Mass, EWTN has begun offering viewers the opportunity for Adoration of Our Lord, both on-air and on social media, via a live feed from Our Lady of the Angels Chapel in Irondale. In the U.S., adoration will immediately follow the Chaplet of Divine Mercy at approximately 3:20 p.m. ET and remain on-air for about 10 minutes. However, viewers can adore Our Lord from 8 a.m. ET (just after daily Mass) to 5 p.m. ET, Monday through Friday, via EWTN’s Facebook page at www.facebook.com/ewtnonline For all of the myriad ways to access EWTN, please go to EWTN Everywhere. Our family of news and social media sites includes EWTN's Facebook page, which frequently broadcasts various programs, including the Mass and other devotionals, as well as links to other helpful resources. Editor's Note: Dioceses or parishes who would like to share EWTN’s daily Mass on their Facebook page are welcome to send an email with this request to dcowden@ewtn.com. We will be happy to set up a crossposting relationship. Diocesan Communications Directors who would like to embed an EWTN player on their websites in order to stream Daily Mass should contact their respective EWTN Marketing Manager or twenzel@ewtn.com.

EWTN Global Catholic Network, in its 38th year, is the largest religious media network in the world. EWTN’s 11 global TV channels are broadcast in multiple languages 24 hours a day, seven days a week to over 300 million television households in more than 145 countries and territories. EWTN platforms also include radio services transmitted through SIRIUS/XM, iHeart Radio, and over 500 domestic and international AM & FM radio affiliates; a worldwide shortwave radio service; one of the largest Catholic websites in the U.S.; electronic and print news services, including Catholic News Agency, “The National Catholic Register” newspaper, and several global news wire services; as well as EWTN Publishing, its book publishing division.

ACN-USA News - Burkina Faso - 'Our country runs the risk of disappearing’

MORE AND MORE, Christians in Burkina Faso are becoming victims of Islamist persecution. In a gesture of solidarity, a small delegation from Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) visited the West African country at the beginning of Lent. ACN spoke with Father Pierre Claver Belemsigri, the secretary general of the episcopal conference of Burkina and Niger.

Burkina Faso has always been proud of the harmonious coexistence of Christians and Muslims. Nonetheless, many people are complaining that the Islam of today now has little in common with the Islam of their childhood. Do you agree?

We have been seeing changes for around 20 or 30 years now. This is due to the fact that for some years now certain Islamic ideologies originating on the Arabian Peninsula have been imported here. Young people are going there to work or study and returning with a particular vision of Islam that potentially has repercussions for our society and the coexistence between the different religions.

How is change evident?

In the past, it was always the custom for those of both communities to gather together for all each other’s major events, both the happy and the sad ones. For example, Christians would congratulate the Muslim members among their relatives on their religious feasts, and vice versa.

To clarify, it should be noted that there frequently are members of different faiths within a single family. Nonetheless, or perhaps precisely because of this, we have always celebrated these feasts together. Among the older generation this is still the case to this day. But among some of the younger people it is already by no means so self-evident as it once was, on account of the influence of certain radical Islamic tendencies.

Some say the jihadists are simply using Islam as a weapon and that they are in fact motivated by something other than religion. What do you think about this?

There are those terrorists—whether from Burkina or from outside—who with guns in their hand really want to force the whole of Africa to become Islamic. They want to introduce sharia law to Burkina Faso.

But there are also others who are using Islam as a pretext to advance their financial or criminal interests. It is enough to know that they are killing Muslims too. Often the violence in our country is also linked to ancient ethnic rivalries or land disputes. In such cases Islam is no more than a pretext to enable people to advance their material and economic interests by means of violence.

Dozens of Christians have been killed in the last few years. Who exactly is attacking them? Are they jihadists or simply criminals?

Often, we don’t even know who it is who is attacking us. We don’t know our enemy. In most cases, no one claims responsibility for the attacks.

Is the faith growing in your country? Already a quarter of the population belongs to the Catholic Church.

The faith is growing. And not simply on account of demographic growth, but also because of genuine conversions to Christianity.

Does this not have consequences for them? After all, in many Muslim countries conversion is punishable by death.

Not to my knowledge, not here. In some circles there may be threats and social sanctions. But that depends greatly on the particular social environment. I have personally witnessed the baptism of an entire Muslim family. The daughter, who had attended a Catholic school run by nuns, was the first to convert, but then she brought her entire family to the faith.

Besides, the recent terrorist attacks against Christians have actually strengthened the faith of the people. Despite the danger, the people are proud to be Catholics.

Nevertheless, this terrorism represents a very great challenge for the Church. How is she responding to it?

We are thinking hard about the best way to respond to this challenge. We are planning to organize a large forum this year, devoted to questions around pastoral care and security. It will be an opportunity to reflect on what it means to be a Christian and how to live our life in the new context of insecurity and attacks on places of worship. It will undoubtedly be necessary to find new ways of expressing our Catholic faith. All these questions will no doubt be addressed at the forum.

Faced by this terrorism, what are you hoping for your country?

The Lord is in control, Christ is alive. Our country has been witness to this on many occasions in its recent history. I hope that the same thing will happen now, in the face of this terrorism. There needs to be a national awakening and a popular resistance. Weapons alone are not enough.

Sadly, the rest of the world doesn’t seem to have understood that our country runs the risk of disappearing if we do not all unite against the terrorists, in prayer, unity and solidarity. These are the challenges we must face in order to put an end to terrorism.

—Oliver Maksan

With picture of Father Belemsigri (© ACN)   

Editor’s Notes:

Directly under the Holy Father, Aid to the Church in Need supports the faithful wherever they are persecuted, oppressed or in pastoral need.  ACN is a Catholic charity - helping to bring Christ to the world through prayer, information and action.

Founded in 1947 by Father Werenfried van Straaten, whom Pope John Paul II named “An Outstanding Apostle of Charity,” the organization is now at work in over 145 countries throughout the world.

The charity undertakes thousands of projects every year including providing transport for clergy and lay Church workers, construction of church buildings, funding for priests and nuns and help to train seminarians. Since the initiative’s launch in 1979, 43 million Aid to the Church in Need Child’s Bibles have been distributed worldwide.

For more information contact Michael Varenne at michael@churchinneed.org or call 718-609-0939 or fax 718-609-0938. Aid to the Church in Need, 725 Leonard Street, PO Box 220384, Brooklyn, NY 11222-0384.  www.churchinneed.org