Pope: Seafarers need our prayers during pandemic

After praying the Angelus with visitors to St. Peter’s Square, the pope greeted with affection, “all those who work on the sea, especially those who are far from their loved ones and their country.”
    

Sea Sunday is a day meant to remember and pray in a special way for the people who depend on the sea for their way of life, and, in general, it is celebrated the second Sunday of July.
    

However, because of the COVID-19 pandemic, some national associations of “Stella Maris” that work in the maritime apostolate have postponed the celebration.
    

The entire month of August still will be dedicated to “the maritime world” as part of Pope Francis’ monthly intentions for 2020. The pope is asking that people pray for all those whose livelihoods depend on the sea, among them sailors, seafarers, fishers and their families.
    

The annual message for Sea Sunday and an accompanying prayer were released July 12 by the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development.
    

In the message, Cardinal Peter Turkson, the dicastery’s prefect, invited Catholics around the world to promise some form of solidarity and exercise a “preferential option” for poor seafarers.
    

An “unfailing commitment” to the well-being of seafarers “should be our attitude,” he said in the written message.
    

Many of seafarers are poor, constantly exposed to danger or work in very difficult conditions to ensure the transport of essential and needed goods “for a healthy global economy,” the cardinal said. And as such, they “really deserve our esteem and gratitude.”
    

Echoing the words of the secretary-general of the International Maritime Organization, Kitack Lim, the cardinal told the world’s seafarers, “You are not alone. You are not forgotten.”
    

Stella Maris” chaplains and volunteers are there, if not in person, then through its “virtual chaplaincy” on social media, “always ready to answer your call, to lend you a compassionate ear and praying for your wellbeing and the safety of your families,” he wrote.
    

Chaplains and volunteers also will be continuing to work on their behalf, seeking to respond to their material and spiritual needs, giving voice to their concerns, upholding their labor and human rights and preventing discrimination, he added.
    

Cardinal Turkson dedicated much of the message to highlighting the many challenges, difficulties and injustices seafarers around the world already face and the added burdens caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
    

For example, the shipping industry never shut down and was an essential service in providing emergency, medical and other needed goods across the world.
    

The needed labor coupled with nationwide lockdowns meant some seafarers, “who had already spent between six to ten months on board, had to suffer the great inconvenience of having their employment period extended, with the consequent increase of personal fatigue and prolonged absence from loved ones and the comfort of homes.”
    

Stella Maris in the Archdiocese of New Orleans can be reached at (985) 307-0601.