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The Archdiocese of Chicago will require all archdiocesan employees and clergy to receive the COVID-19 vaccine. Employees and clergy will have six weeks to receive the vaccine. The archdiocese will allow exemptions only for medical reasons. Chicago’s archbishop, Cardinal Blaze Sue-pitch, said the new directive follows the lead of Pope Francis. The pope has said getting vaccinated is an act of charity.
Religious sisters from the Missionaries of Charity, and fourteen disabled children from an orphanage in Afghanistan, have arrived safely at Rome’s international airport. They arrived on one of two evacuation flights from Kabul. Italy has welcomed more than 2,600 evacuated Afghans, about a third of them children.
Pope Francis has named a religious sister to the second-highest position in the Vatican’s social development office. The 46-year-old Salesian sister is from Italy. She is an economist and professor. She will serve as secretary of the office on an interim basis. She is now one of two women to hold a second-ranking position in an important Vatican office.
Today is the feast day of Saint Jeanne Elizabeth des Bichier. Jeanne was born in 1773 to a noble family in France. She cofounded the Daughters of the Cross. By the time of her death in 1838, the community had more than sixty houses all over France.