This post is also available in:
English 
Nederlands 
Italiano 
Deutsch 
Français 
Español
Dear comrades in Christ, dear AMI friends, and family,
As our Pope Francis mentioned in his address for the Holy Week “this is a difficult time for everyone, very very difficult” and indeed it is, now it’s the medical personal in the frontline of whom the Pope mentioned “so many heroes, every day, every hour”.
We as military applaud these heroes and support where we can with planning capacity, material, logistics, transport, surveillance, and military medical staff. At the same time military operations, exercises and missions continue. Challenged by COVID-19 measures difficult to perform in the confined military space, challenged also by not being with your families, meanwhile instinctively you want to be with them to support and protect.
The Pope continued in his address “hope is not an illusion, it’s hope” and “we can prepare in these days for a better time”.
As AMI this is what we are doing. We, your Executive Committee, were full speed ahead with preparations for the annual conference in London, working on the declaration, building and launching the AMI app, International Miltary Pilgrimage to Lourdes, reaching out to our Protestant friends, and many other actions/visits according to our action plan.
With the measures taken to fight the pandemic we took adequate mitigating actions and tried to maintain momentum. We canceled the Londen AMI conference, it will now be held in Londen next year. Instead, we are looking into a condensed Video Tele Conference meeting in the same timeframe. We continue with all the other actions in an alternative form. For example the launch of the AMI app. So we need your continued support more than ever. More details will follow and will be forwarded by the AMI Secretary-General Colonel Domenico D’Ortenzi.
Now it’s time for celebrating Easter, indeed in “an unusual way”. So we have to be creative and find ways to let our faith, hope and love triumph over darkness. In short, this is Easter: the resurrection of Jesus Christ, so we can be reborn and make a new start: Happy Easter!
Let me conclude my message with the blessing and good wishes of AMI Ecclesiastical Assistant Brig. Gen. Dolan Fr. Patrick:
“May the Lord, God, who gave great joy on Easter morning to the grieving disciples, give you that same joy this Easter as you struggle to remain faithful during this pandemic – through Christ our risen Lord! Amen.”
Matthieu J.M. Borsboom
Vice Admiral rtd
President Apostolat Militaire International
