Catholism and plagues through the centuries

You are Peter and, on this rock, I will build my Church.! (Mt 16:18) It is incontestable that the Catholic Church is the oldest and largest continuously functioning international institution in the world. It has played a prominent role in the history and development of western civilization. Experts in church history cannot exhaust any century in terms of indebt analysis, one can only take some aspects and specific areas for analysis.  As we all watch the tsunami of COVID 19 ravage through towns and cities across the globe, one cannot but step back to reflect deeper on how humanity has pulled through such moments. And how specific figures have written their names in gold as a result of their heroic leadership. One institution that we can all draw experience; lessons and expertise of dealing with plagues like the COVID 19 is the Catholic Church.

In the late 240AD, a serious pandemic struck, in the entire Roman empire, which cuts across the commercial hub of the empire: Alexandria, Carthage, Rome. Christianity was an insignificant minority at this time.  St. Cyprian, who was bishop of Carthage in modern-day Tunisia when the disease hit the city around AD 250. He speaks, for instance, of “the attack of fevers.” Severe gastrointestinal symptoms such as diarrhea and vomiting, which afflict a significant number of coronavirus sufferers, were also a major hallmark: “The bowels, relaxed into a constant flux, discharge the bodily strength. The intestines are shaken with a continual vomiting. (Stephen B; 2020).  This am sure can provide some insight for medical experts into the mutation of human sickness. Another North African bishop, St. Dionysius of Alexandria, noted that “now, indeed, everything is tears and everyone is mourning, and wailings resound daily through the city because of the multitude of the dead and dying.” These harrowing words, written almost eighteen hundred years ago, have a ring about them at once timeless and yet painfully relatable. (Stephen B; 2020) St. Pontius, who served as a deacon of Cyprian’s during the period in question, describes the “numberless” inhabitants in Carthage succumbing to the “dreadful plague”. To many historians, what was important to them was the response of the minority Christians in the time of this plague. A response born out of the compassion instilled in their hearts by the values of the Gospel of Jesus. Early the next century, as a new plague ravaged parts of the Empire, Christians again came to the help of those in need. According to Eusebius of Caesarea: In the midst of such illness, they alone [the Christians] showed their sympathy and humanity through their deeds. Every day some continued caring for and burying the dead, for there were multitudes who had no one to care for them; others collected those who were afflicted by the famine throughout the entire city into one place, and gave bread to them all.

In the fourteenth-century Black Death, large numbers of clergy were reportedly seen to have abandoned “their responsibilities, to have run away in fear or in search of gain, to have put their own skins first and the souls of their parishioners a bad second.” ( (Stephen B; 2020) This bad attitudes plays out in (Jer 23:1, Zech 11:17, Jer 10: 21). This will perfectly ring a bell in Nigeria. For years; many of us have accused other “church” owners and some priests as simply staying in business without recourse for the eternal values of tending for their souls. Perhaps the ministry has not stayed long enough to experience any pandemic, the usual gospel has been a gospel of prosperity; now the best time to preach it. Then you see for yourself if ever, it was a gospel worth preaching in the first place.

In 1575, plague descended on Milan. The city’s bishop, St. Charles Borromeo, hastened both to action and to prayer. Indeed, he exemplified the maxim, beloved of Dorothy Day and others, to “work as though everything depended on ourselves, and pray as though everything depended on God.”

Borromeo sold his own possessions to fund the relief effort and persuaded many wealthy citizens to contribute generously. He organized his clergy to care, materially and spiritually, for all in need. Living the gospel of Jesus in (John 10:10) He created and staffed hospitals and quarantine houses. Concerned by the growing ranks of the unemployed (sound familiar?) he created jobs for, or otherwise supported, large numbers of laid-off workers. Though he instilled strict social- distancing policies, he was nevertheless desperate not to forego his own personal contact with the suffering. Accordingly, St. Charles made everyone, including his own household, treat him as though he had the plague; he went so far as carrying a long pole to keep healthy-looking people at bay when going about his business. He also made a special point of ensuring that the most vulnerable—that is, the orphaned infants whom he took “particular pleasure in rescuing”—received adequate love and attention.

Mindful above all of his flock’s spiritual needs, Borromeo went to great lengths to ensure people, despite everything, received proper religious care: “While he did not neglect their bodies, his principal solicitude was for the salvation of souls.” Most strikingly, at the peak of the epidemic, with churches closed and people confined to their homes, he had outdoor altars erected all around the town, “where Mass was said daily, so that all could assist from their homes.” He also instituted door-to-door confessions—“the confessor sitting on the doorstep outside, and the penitent kneeling within”—and home-delivery of the Eucharist on Sundays, administering the sacrament at the doorstep “as if they had been cloistered religious.”

All through the ages, the Catholic Church has distinguished herself by the quality of the health care services, she offers. In Nigeria the Catholic church has distinguished herself via the services of our Religious Women in health care. For example, Sacred Heart Hospital Lantoro Abeokuta, one of the best and the oldest established in 1895, by the Society of African Missions poised to provide an array of qualitative health services that enhances the dignity of the human person has been made history in its early days by taking care of leprosy cases. In making her COVID 19 contributions I personally, never knew the Church possessed over 425 Hospitals and Clinics across the country. Times have changed and the factors are certainly different, I feel proud and happy that the leadership of the CBCN has opened all of our Hospital facilities to the Federal government of Nigeria for use in this period of COVID 19. This is what we do, and this is who we are.

There are several Catholic Bishops in Nigeria, that have shown great leadership in this time of pandemic, they will be remembered like St Cyprian of Carthage, St Dionysius of Alexandria, St Charles Borromeo. Permit me to single out the leadership provided by the Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Most Rev Dr Mathew Hassan Kukah who opened up the 30 room Pastoral Center in Sokoto to be used as an Isolation center for COVID 19 patience. Sokoto Diocesan Christians are a tiny minority in an overwhelmingly Muslim population. We are happy and proud to share our Christian values with all.

The most visible image that will remain clear in the hearts and the minds of the people when all this is over, God willing, is the image of Pope Francis, delivering his Urbi et Orbi blessing to the City of Rome and the world at large in an empty St Peter’s Square: This gives a perfect image of the good shepherd (John 10: 11). Plagues for the church has always served as a true test of our faith and the values we always preach when there is no plague. For more insights please read the recent book published by Stephen Bullivant. Titled: CATHOLICISM IN THE TIME OF CORONAVIRUS.

Fr Stephen Ojapah is a Missionary of St Paul. He is equally the director for Interreligious Dialogue and Ecumenism for the Catholic Diocese of Sokoto. He is also a KAICIID Fellow. ([email protected])