SW News: Archbishop José H. Gomez of Los Angeles, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has issued a statement for Holy Week.

In his statement, the archbishop said that these are times almost without precedent in the long history of the Church.

“As we enter into Holy Week, these most sacred days of the year, Catholics across the United States and the world are living under quarantine, our societies shut down by the coronavirus pandemic,” he said.

“We ache with our people and we long for the day when we can be reunited around the altar of the Lord to celebrate the sacred mysteries,” Archbishop Gomez added.

He stressed that in this difficult moment, we need to ask God for his grace that we might bear this burden together with patience and charity, united as one family of God in his universal Church.

“This Holy Week will be different. Our churches may be closed, but Christ is not quarantined and his Gospel is not in chains. Our Lord’s heart remains open to every man and woman. Even though we cannot worship together, each of us can seek him in the tabernacles of our own hearts,” the archbishop said.

On Good Friday on behalf of the bishops in the United States, Archbishop José H. Gomez will pray the Litany of the Sacred Heart of Jesus for an end to the coronavirus pandemic.