Initiatives from Spain in Coronavirus’s times.

In these moments of uncertainty, pain and loneliness that we live in our country due to the Covid19 coronavirus, the Jesuits have launched various pastoral, social and cultural initiatives to accompany these weeks of quarantine. Among them is the project "You are not alone" which tries to give telephone conversations to people living in solitude these days.

The weeks of Lent are being offered under the hashtag #encasaconDios, materials and meeting proposals from the pastoral platforms, focused on three themes: the unsuccessful desert, caring for the other and this new fast of routines and habits. In Rezandovoy, in addition to the usual content, special prayers are published on Wednesdays and Saturdays. In pastoralsj the articles most focused on this theme share the hashtag #encasaconDios. Every day, from the Church of Maldonado (Madrid), the celebration of the Eucharist is broadcast online at 8:00 pm through the SJ YouTube channel and from the SJ Facebook channel. A guided prayer-concert is offered on the SerJesuita Instagram profile three days a week (Tuesday, Friday and Sunday) at 10:15 p.m. And another two days (Thursdays and Saturdays), the #vocesesejota team offers meeting and dialogue spaces through the stories on their Instagram. For nursing homes, audio prayers are offered on the Hágase website.

And, a Pastoral team is already preparing a provincial Easter to offer this special Easter. 

You are not alone, neither you nor the sanitary people

The project "You are not alone" is a meeting proposal to accompany people who live alone in this quarantine. Spend some time accompanying in the distance, either with a daily conversation or with a spiritual conversation. More than a thousand volunteers have already signed up and these conversations are beginning to be offered.

At the same time, another proposal has been launched: "Sanitarium, you are not alone", to offer support to healthcare professionals who are overwhelmed and under enormous pressure. The project is coordinated by a group of professionals from the Clinical Psychology Unit (UNINPSI) and from the Psychology Department of the Jesuit University of Comillas. In addition, UNINPSI has also offered these days a simple guide with some guidelines for the psychological care of religious communities and priestly life.

Other initiatives: online courses, free reading, social complaint

In addition, numerous online courses are offered, free reading and attention is maintained to vulnerable groups. For example, the Ignatian Spirituality portal offers the courses "Spiritual Accompaniment in Illness", aimed at health workers, doctors, nurses, or pastoral health agents and "Accompaniment of groups", aimed at catechists, leaders of Christian communities, teachers ... who work in Church institutions. All details and registration are offered on the Portal.

For its part, the Loyola Communication Group (publishers Salterrae and Mensajero) has decided to release part of its books and magazines and offer them for free online.

From the Jesuit Migrant Service they have shown through a statement their concern for the management that is being carried out in the Centers for Internment of Foreigners (CIE). And attention to vulnerable groups is maintained online, and in-person projects of flats for migrants and refugees. In Madrid they have offered a guide with information on where to go at this time according to each emergency. Direct attention is maintained in other social centers, such as in centers for vulnerable minors.

From the NGO Entreculturas and Alboan, the extension of the Covid-19 is being followed with attention to the contexts of greater exclusion and to countries where all support will be required for the most impoverished families without access to basic social rights. In addition, solidarity teaching resources are offered to work these days with children.

Finally, you can read (in Spanish) the testimony of a Jesuit already healed of the coronavirus, Severino Lázaro sj.