Viața bisericească și cea religioasă a creștinilor în vremea pandemiilor

Abstract

Often, in times of trial, many Christians either weaken in faith or lose all confidence in God’s care, succumbing to fears of unbelief. Others, on the contrary, in such moments are strengthened in the faith and put in God their whole hope of redemption from the diseases or dangers with which they are investigated, following, with full confidence, the recommendations and exhortations addressed by the Church. There are also some Christians who see in such a time of trial of faith through sickness, suffering, and even the deathofmanyof their fellow men the arrivalofapocalyptic times, with all the procession of persecutions against Christians. For the latter, any measure taken by the authorities to limit the effects of pandemic diseases or calamities, which affects the freedom of public and communion of faith, is evidence of the persecution of Christians. And if the Church, understanding the necessity and effectiveness of such measures for all citizens, and therefore for the Christians she pastors and cares for, accepts to respect them, she is accused either of apostasy, or of ecumenism, or of others such “sins” of death. On the other hand, on a position antagonistic to them, are those who have renounced the faith in God, atheists and free thinkers, who militate, not so much out of concern for the good of their fellow citizens, but out of hatred for God and the Church, for the complete closure of churches and the prohibition of any religious manifestations. In such a situation, in which the attitude of the Church is challenged by a minor but very vocal part of its members and by its few but also more vocal opponents, for those who want to understand the actions of the Church beyond the preconceived ideas, the truncated scriptural texts they invoke, the scenarios of the conspiracies that I believe the world anti-Christian occult sets up, a foray into history and a search for documents on state action and the Church’s response and attitude during past pandemic episodes would be enlightening.