Catholics in Africa fight dual battles

Catholics in Africa fight dual battles: COVID-19 vaccine scarcity, skepticism

As access to coronavirus vaccines continues to be limited across Africa, Catholic officials across the continent are struggling to maintain prevention measures. At the same time, they are also trying to fight misinformation about the inoculations and convince those who have the chance to get themselves vaccinated.

Local parishes are leading these awareness efforts. Fr. Bennet Umeh, an associate priest at St. Kevin Catholic Church in Nigeria's capital city of Abuja, said making constant reminders from the pulpit has been a good strategy to convince parishioners to get vaccinated.

"I have made it part of our weekly announcements to remind people that COVID-19 is real and they should observe the relevant hygienic practices like washing hands with water and soap, wearing facemasks and social distancing," said Umeh.

You can read more of the story here.

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In adapting to climate change, technology will not save us

"Strap yourself in for a ride," writes Jon Magnuson in his review of anthropologist Josh Berson's new book, The Human Scaffold: How Not to Design Your Way Out of a Climate Crisis, adding that the book invites readers into a world that turns upside down conventional arguments about how we should best meet the challenges of climate change in the 21st century.

Berson's thesis takes time to unfold in five complex, interwoven chapters, but the final message is clear: Technology will not save us, Magnuson says. The environments we find ourselves living in are, Berson writes, changing our very physiology, our intellectual, and our emotional lives. That is where, he argues forcefully, we need to better place our attention and our commitments.

You can read more of the review at EarthBeat.

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More headlines

• NCR political columnist Michael Sean Winters looks at the recent speech by Pope Francis in which he spoke about "post-truth" plots that obfuscate the need to overcome the inequalities and "throwaway culture" of globalized capitalism.

• ICYMI: In more than 12,000 columns by U.S. bishops between 2014 and 2019 — the period directly before and after the publication of Pope Francis' social encyclical on the environment — only 93 mentioned climate change, global warming or their equivalent at all.

• ICYMI: Officials from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security said in a court filing they were ready to begin implementing once again a Trump-era immigration policy with which they disagree — the Migrant Protection Protocols, also called "Remain in Mexico" or MPP policy.