Pray for our medical front-liners: CBCP

FILE: DOH medical response team at the New Clark City Quarantine Facility prepares for the arrival of our kababayans repatriated from the M/V Diamond Cruise Ship. (Photo: Department of Health (Philippines)/Facebook)

MANILA – The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) on Friday called on members of the clergy and the faithful to dedicate a special day of prayer on Sunday to medical personnel who are on the front line of the battle against the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19).

“Although I am quite sure that many of us, if not all, have been remembering and keeping in our prayers, like our Oratio Imperata, those who are in the medical front line of our collective efforts to face the menace that the coronavirus disease has brought to our people, we make this call and invitation to all our bishops, clergy and religious, and to all our faithful, to be united in a special day of prayer for all our front-line medical personnel in our fight against the coronavirus disease pandemic on March 29, 2020, the 5th Sunday of Lent,” CBCP president Archbishop Romulo Valles said in Circular 20-18.

Valles said this would be done in all “our Masses, our Rosaries, during our Holy Hour, and in our moments of personal prayer.”

The prayer is as follows:

“For our doctors, nurses, medical staff, all people working in hospitals and clinics, all our medical specialists and researchers, and all those personnel in our DOH:

“Our prayer of gratitude to the Lord for their heroic service to our people in these difficult times.

“Our prayer to the Lord for their continued safety and well-being.

“Our prayer to the Lord for those among them who lost their lives, having been infected by the disease itself, the disease that they were precisely fighting against. Let us pray for their grieving families and loved ones.

“Our prayer to the Lord for those among them who are sick and those who are getting over-fatigued.

“Our prayer to the Lord that they may receive the much-needed material support and assistance to perform their duties as medical front-liners in this crisis situation.”

Valles left it to each diocese and its parishes to concretize “this general call to prayer in your liturgies and pastoral directives.”

“This may be articulated in our introduction to the Masses, homilies, prayers of the faithful, and intentions in our Rosaries and Holy Hour. Of course, we continue praying our Oratio Imperata,” he added.

Valles also asked everyone to follow the quarantine measures implemented by the government.

“Among the actions of support we can do is to remind ourselves and our people to cooperate with and obey and follow the quarantine measures that our local government directed us to follow, most especially the directive to stay at home,” he said.

Valles also urged the people and the clergy to help medical personnel by providing them with shelter.

“Another action we can do: It has come to our attention that many medical personnel, doctors, nurses, and medical staff are now in a problematic situation. They are hesitant to go back to their families, and their families and children are hesitant to receive them at home – for the simple obvious reason: they fear that the coronavirus disease might be transmitted to them. Also we heard that some landlords are now becoming hesitant to allow them to come home to their rented places for fear of the transmission of this disease,” he said.

Thousands of medical professionals are risking their lives while attending to the needs of Covid-19 patients.

As of Friday, 10 doctors have died while other medical front-liners are on quarantine after being exposed to Covid-19 cases.