pastor of a Catholic church who urged people not to "cower in fear" is sick with coronavirus

[Demovictory9]

WASHINGTON — The pastor of a Catholic church who urged people not to “cower in fear” of the novel coronavirus has contracted the disease that it causes, prompting District of Columbia health officials to tell about 250 staff members and parishioners to self-quarantine for two weeks.

Msgr. Charles Pope, of Holy Comforter St. Cyprian Catholic Church, was hospitalized Monday while experiencing a high fever. He tested positive for the coronavirus after a rapid diagnostic test that afternoon.

On Friday, the D.C. Health Department issued a letter saying that “additional individuals have been identified as having been exposed to the virus.” Parishioners who last weekend participated in Communion at the church — the Catholic ritual of sharing wafers and wine or juice — were told to stay at home for 14 days and monitor themselves for symptoms.

City health officials did not respond to questions Sunday about whether they had contacted told parishioners and told them to quarantine before Friday, or whether other members of the church have tested positive for the virus.

The virus has surged in D.C., Maryland and Virginia in recent weeks, after declining sharply in June. Officials attribute the spike to the increase in gatherings after a prolonged shutdown this spring, and have expanded mask restrictions and urged people to maintain their distance from others, especially while indoors.

https://www.wvgazettemail.com/washington_post/national/d-c-priest-tests-positive-for-coronavirus-as-health-officials-struggle-to-stop-its-spread/article_7ae10116-689e-55fb-b53c-92b66150bbdf.html

[2naSalit]

1. I'm sorry but...

Holy Comforter?

[ret5hd]

2. They tried Holy Sham, but changed it.

[Squinch]

7. Their CYO girls' basketball team lost to Our Lady of the Sacred Duvet last year.

[Crunchy Frog]

3. May he serve as a lesson for others.

[JI7]

6. THey haven't learn from the others and they keep acting like liberals are doing this to them

[lostnfound]

5. No better vector than a crowd of unmasked priests with no masks

Each returning to their Own churches.

[tanyev]

8. Hey, if Churchill stayed away from his family to avoid the flu, then we can all stay home, too.

One prominent leader who managed to escape from the flu Winston Churchill, Roosevelt’s future coalition partner in the next world war. Influenza was all around Churchill. As Minister of Munitions in the British government, he was close to the stricken Lloyd George. And Churchill had attended the Roosevelt dinner in London, where they met for the first time.

The illness veered closer in February 1919 when it struck Air Marshal Sir Hugh Trenchard, whom Churchill had selected to serve as the Royal Air Force’s chief of staff. Then came the turn of Churchill’s family. In March 1919, while he was at the Paris peace negotiations, his wife wrote: “I’m afraid I am in for influenza. My temperature this morning is 102.” Poor Clementine could not find a doctor to attend the family because physicians and nurses were treating so many ill people. Soon the children’s Scottish nanny Isabelle was infected, delirious with fever. She attempted to take baby Marigold, then only a few months old, into her bed. Clementine rescued the infant and nursed Isabelle, who nevertheless passed away. She desperately fretted that Marigold might have caught the disease. When Churchill returned from France, he stayed away from the stricken household to avoid exposure to the contagion.

Marigold Churchill survived the flu, but not septicemia, which took her life in August 1921. The flu however was not done with the Churchills. Clementine and their three remaining children came down with it in December. Winston was in Cannes, working on The World Crisis. “It is providential you went away as it would have been most annoying if you had caught it,” Clementine wrote. “I do hope you are having a delicious time.” Sick at home, she could only dream of the south of France.

https://winstonchurchill.hillsdale.edu/maurer-flu-pandemic/