Skip to content
The Catholic Leader
  • Home
  • News
    • QLD
    • Australia
    • Regional
    • Education
    • World
    • Vatican
  • Features
  • Opinion
  • Life
    • Family
    • Relationships
    • Faith
  • Culture
  • People
  • Subscribe
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
    • QLD
    • Australia
    • Regional
    • Education
    • World
    • Vatican
  • Features
  • Opinion
  • Life
    • Family
    • Relationships
    • Faith
  • Culture
  • People
  • Subscribe
No Result
View All Result
The Catholic Leader
No Result
View All Result
Home News

Ora Duffley had an Easter she would never forget while locked down in New York City

byJoe Higgins
15 April 2020
Reading Time: 4 mins read
AA

Ora Duffley:

Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
Ora Duffley: “Perhaps this time has helped us to realise what is really important.”

ORA Duffley, a former Brisbane Catholic teacher who now works at the United Nations with the Holy See mission, had spent the last three weeks in lockdown in New York City, where more than 10,000 people have died from coronavirus.

Ms Duffley said the streets of New York were “surreally quiet”.

“I try to walk a little in my neighbourhood each day, which is in the Centre of Manhattan, close to Grand Central Station, and it is striking to see these usually bustling streets, now eerily quiet and empty,” she said.

“The subway is empty, the coffee shops are shut.”

But the empty streets indicated people were following health advice to stay home, and that brought a sense of camaraderie, she said.

“Every so often New Yorkers, just like people living in cities throughout the world, open the windows of their apartments and cheer together to show collective appreciation for the work of nurses and doctors and all front line staff who are helping communities through this difficult period,” she said.

She said there was a sense that “we’re in this together, we’ll get through this together”.

The United States had recorded more than 600,000 infections and about 26,000 deaths at time of publication.

In New York, Governor Andrew Cuomo had said the “worst” of the virus had passed.

The state had 671 deaths on Sunday, the first time in a week that the daily death toll had dropped below 700.

Related Stories

Mask mandate to be lifted early due to lack of community transmission

India records 329,000 cases in two days as WHO warns pandemic is at ‘critical point’

Aid flight reaches disaster-struck East Timor

Eerily quiet: The empty streets of New York City.

Ms Duffley said the infection and death figures were alarming.

“I don’t think anyone quite expected it to get as bad as it is but New York is such a densely populated metropolis, so it was likely to have a significant impact,” she said.

Even with all the death and disease, people were trying to maintain a sense of normalcy.

“Perhaps this time has helped us to realise what is really important,” Ms Duffley said.

Easter was different this year but “beautiful in its own way”, she said.

“Even though each of us were isolated and quarantined at home, we were connected from our domestic chapel and with each other through the plethora of online invitations to join in the Easter liturgy and to join with each other,” she said.

“It has been quite impressive and almost a full time job keeping up with the activity online, whether praying the rosary together on Zoom with friends in Spain and Ireland, to joining the Holy Father from Rome and tuning in for Masses here at St Patrick’s Cathedral.

“I logged in for the Maronite Masses from Sydney and with the Catholic diocese of Djibouti where I was last Easter.

“Thank God for the internet, I have not felt alone.”

She said New York in springtime was beautiful, too.

“The cherry blossom trees are blooming, daffodils and tulips have sprouted, I appreciate the nature that surrounds us,” she said.

“I think the homeless have it hard, and my heart goes out to them, as the usual sources of shelter and food are now closed, so we need to take special care to check them.”

Ms Duffley said it was a complete unknown as to when the lockdown would be lifted, though it was likely to be some time yet.

She said there remained the “pervasive American sense of ‘we can beat this, we are strong and we can get through this’”.

“With the help of God, I am confident that we can,” she said.

ShareTweet
Previous Post

More than 100,000 people livestreamed Easter Masses from across Brisbane archdiocese

Next Post

Small Blessings ‘more powerful’ than any virus, new campaign shares gratitude in community

Joe Higgins

Related Posts

QLD

Mask mandate to be lifted early due to lack of community transmission

14 April 2021
Crowded: Police officers try to control the crowd, most without masks, during Lathmar Holi celebrations in Barsana, India, March 23, 2021, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Photos: CNS
World

India records 329,000 cases in two days as WHO warns pandemic is at ‘critical point’

13 April 2021 - Updated on 14 April 2021
Aid flight reaches disaster-struck East Timor
News

Aid flight reaches disaster-struck East Timor

13 April 2021
Next Post

Small Blessings ‘more powerful’ than any virus, new campaign shares gratitude in community

ACU vice-chancellor Greg Craven is to retire early next year after 13 years of leadership

Jesus ‘Christ, my hope, is risen,’ Pope Francis says, prays for coronavirus recovery at Easter Mass

Popular News

  • March for Life set to attract big crowd opposed to abortion, euthanasia

    March for Life set to attract big crowd opposed to abortion, euthanasia

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Australian Bishops urge Catholics to get vaccinated amid push for more vaccine options

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • We head for Poland as pilgrims, not tourists

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Catholic laypeople in Cologne Archdiocese demand local synod

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Was the Sudarium of Oviedo really wrapped around Jesus’ head after his death?

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
Search our job finder
No Result
View All Result

Latest News

Death penalty: Demonstrators are seen near the Federal Correctional Complex in Terre Haute, Ind., showing their opposition to the death penalty July 13, 2020. Photos: CNS
World

Global executions dropped in 2020 but fears China’s secret figures remain in the thousands

by Joe Higgins
21 April 2021
0

AMNESTY International recorded 483 executions in 18 countries during 2020, which was a decrease of 26 per...

Opportunity to help: “As a society we can’t leave them without a place to call home – not when there are urgent and economically sound solutions.”

‘They deserve our help’ – Brisbane youth homelessness on the rise with 42 per cent of homeless under 25 years old

21 April 2021

St Mark’s shows its ‘unity in diversity’ at 65th anniversary Mass

21 April 2021
Former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin is seen near a picture of George Floyd in this courtroom sketch.

Bishops urge racial healing after former US police officer found guilty of killing George Floyd

21 April 2021
Health crisis: Referencing the Vatican document, the bishops said “it is morally acceptable to receive COVID-19 vaccines that have used cell lines from aborted fetuses in their research and production process”.

Australian Bishops urge Catholics to get vaccinated amid push for more vaccine options

20 April 2021
  • About
  • Advertise
  • Contact
  • Contribute
  • Jobs
  • Subscribe

The Catholic Leader is an Australian award-winning Catholic newspaper that has been published by the Archdiocese of Brisbane since 1929. Our journalism seeks to provide a full, accurate and balanced Catholic perspective of local, national and international news while upholding the dignity of the human person.

Copyright © All Rights Reserved The Catholic Leader
Accessibility Information | Privacy Policy | Archdiocese of Brisbane

The Catholic Leader acknowledges Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as the First Peoples of this country and especially acknowledge the traditional owners on whose lands we live and work throughout the Catholic Archdiocese of Brisbane.

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
    • QLD
    • Australia
    • Regional
    • Education
    • World
    • Vatican
  • Features
  • Opinion
  • Life
    • Family
    • Relationships
    • Faith
  • Culture
  • People
  • Subscribe

Copyright © All Rights Reserved The Catholic Leader

0
    0
    Your Cart
    Your cart is emptyReturn to Shop
    Continue Shopping