In the midst of the pandemic, discriminatory social norms compounded by other disadvantages (e.g.
poverty, race, ethnicity, and religion) have increased the vulnerability of countless women across the
globe. Despite this, many women have shown great resilience in balancing work and family life, and
coping with the threat and reality of infection
Dear Brothers and Sisters
News of the successful development of effective vaccines against COVID-19 has brought much needed
hope, yet the pandemic is far from over. As cases rise and the virus mutates, the pandemic continues to
bring suffering, isolation, financial hardship and death, disproportionately affecting the most vulnerable
among us. Yet the crisis has also “revived the sense that we are a global community, all in the same boat,
where one person’s problems are the problems of all” (Encyclical Fratelli Tutti [FT], 32). “With our gaze
fixed on Jesus (cf. Heb 12:2) and with the certainty that His love is operative through the community of His
disciples, we must act all together, in the hope of generating something different and better” (General
Audience, 26 August 2020).
In times of coronavirus and “great human and socio-economic viruses,” the Church is called to walk with
others on a “journey of healing,” bringing “light in the midst of darkness, […] justice in the midst of so
many outrages, […] joy in the midst of so much pain, […] healing and salvation in the midst of sickness and
death, […] tenderness in the midst of hatred […] to ‘viralize’ love and to ‘globalize’ hope in the light of
faith” (General Audience, 30 September 2020). We must “rediscover once for all that we need one
another, and that in this way our human family can experience a rebirth, with all its faces, all its hands and
all its voices” (Cf. FT, 35).
A first step in our journey toward a more just, inclusive and equitable world is making COVID-19 vaccines
available and accessible to all, as outlined in the December 2019 paper, Vaccine for all: 20 points for a
fairer and healthier world, published by the Vatican COVID-19 Commission and the Pontifical Academy for
Life.
The following resources are designed to support parish priests and staff in diocesan offices and health
and social service agencies. You will find information about the COVID-19 vaccine for varied audiences,
resources to support the preparation of homilies, relevant quotes from Pope Francis, links to useful
information, and short messages for websites, parish bulletins or other media. A Family Guide to the
Coronavirus (COVID-19) is designed to help local communities and to counter misinformation.
As we look towards a better future, we are reminded “how vulnerable and interconnected everyone is”
(General Audience, 12 August 2020) and that “to build a healthy, inclusive, just and peaceful society we
must do so on the rock of the common good” (General Audience, 9 September 2020). Ensuring access to
vaccines for all should be considered an act of love of our neighbour and part of our moral responsibility.
We hope this material can be helpful for use in parishes, clinics, schools, social service agencies, and
beyond. If you have any questions or suggestions for how local churches can get involved, please contact
vcc@humandevelopment.va.
Cabina di Regia of the Vatican COVID-19 Commission
H. E. Card. Peter K. A. Turkson
Prefect
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Mons. Bruno Marie Duffé
Secretary
Rev. Fr. Augusto Zampini
Adjunct Secretary
Anglice
Prot. N. 17/21
NOTE ON ASH WEDNESDAY – Distribution of Ashes in Time of Pandemic
The Priest says the prayer for blessing the ashes. He sprinkles the ashes with holy water, without saying anything. Then he addresses all those present and only once says the formula as it appears in the Roman Missal, applying it to all in general: “Repent, and believe in the Gospel”, or “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return”. The Priest then cleanses his hands, puts on a face mask and distributes the ashes to those who come to him or, if appropriate, he goes to those who are standing in their places. The Priest takes the ashes and sprinkles them on the head of each one without saying anything.
Fromthe Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, 12 January 2021.
Robert Card. Sarah – Prefect
Arthur Roche, Archbishop – Secretary
The question of the use of vaccines, in general, is often at the center of controversy in the forum of public opinion. In recent months, this Congregation has received several requests for guidance regarding the use of vaccines against the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes Covid-19, which, in the course of research and production, employed cell lines drawn from tissue obtained from two abortions that occurred in the last century. At the same time, diverse and sometimes conflicting pronouncements in the mass media by bishops, Catholic associations, and experts have raised questions about the morality of the use of these vaccines.
There is already an important pronouncement of the Pontifical Academy for Life on this issue, entitled “Moral reflections on vaccines prepared from cells derived from aborted human fetuses” (5 June 2005). Further, this Congregation expressed itself on the matter with the Instruction Dignitas Personae (September 8, 2008, cf. nn. 34 and 35). In 2017, the Pontifical Academy for Life returned to the topic with a Note. These documents already offer some general directive criteria.
Since the first vaccines against Covid-19 are already available for distribution and administration in various countries, this Congregation desires to offer some indications for clarification of this matter. We do not intend to judge the safety and efficacy of these vaccines, although ethically relevant and necessary, as this evaluation is the responsibility of biomedical researchers and drug agencies. Here, our objective is only to consider the moral aspects of the use of the vaccines against Covid-19 that have been developed from cell lines derived from tissues obtained from two fetuses that were not spontaneously aborted.
1. As the Instruction Dignitas Personae states, in cases where cells from aborted fetuses are employed to create cell lines for use in scientific research, “there exist differing degrees of responsibility”[1] of cooperation in evil. For example,“in organizations where cell lines of illicit origin are being utilized, the responsibility of those who make the decision to use them is not the same as that of those who have no voice in such a decision”.[2]
2. In this sense, when ethically irreproachable Covid-19 vaccines are not available (e.g. in countries where vaccines without ethical problems are not made available to physicians and patients, or where their distribution is more difficult due to special storage and transport conditions, or when various types of vaccines are distributed in the same country but health authorities do not allow citizens to choose the vaccine with which to be inoculated) it is morally acceptable to receive Covid-19 vaccines that have used cell lines from aborted fetuses in their research and production process.
3. The fundamental reason for considering the use of these vaccines morally licit is that the kind of cooperation in evil (passive material cooperation) in the procured abortion from which these cell lines originate is, on the part of those making use of the resulting vaccines, remote. The moral duty to avoid such passive material cooperation is not obligatory if there is a grave danger, such as the otherwise uncontainable spread of a serious pathological agent[3]–in this case, the pandemic spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes Covid-19. It must therefore be considered that, in such a case, all vaccinations recognized as clinically safe and effective can be used in good conscience with the certain knowledge that the use of such vaccines does not constitute formal cooperation with the abortion from which the cells used in production of the vaccines derive. It should be emphasized, however, that the morally licit use of these types of vaccines, in the particular conditions that make it so, does not in itself constitute a legitimation, even indirect, of the practice of abortion, and necessarily assumes the opposition to this practice by those who make use of these vaccines.
4. In fact, the licit use of such vaccines does not and should not in any way imply that there is a moral endorsement of the use of cell lines proceeding from aborted fetuses.[4] Both pharmaceutical companies and governmental health agencies are therefore encouraged to produce, approve, distribute and offer ethically acceptable vaccines that do not create problems of conscience for either health care providers or the people to be vaccinated.
5. At the same time, practical reason makes evident that vaccination is not, as a rule, a moral obligation and that, therefore, it must be voluntary. In any case, from the ethical point of view, the morality of vaccination depends not only on the duty to protect one’s own health, but also on the duty to pursue the common good. In the absence of other means to stop or even prevent the epidemic, the common good may recommend vaccination, especially to protect the weakest and most exposed. Those who, however, for reasons of conscience, refuse vaccines produced with cell lines from aborted fetuses, must do their utmost to avoid, by other prophylactic means and appropriate behavior, becoming vehicles for the transmission of the infectious agent. In particular, they must avoid any risk to the health of those who cannot be vaccinated for medical or other reasons, and who are the most vulnerable.
6. Finally, there is also a moral imperative for the pharmaceutical industry, governments and international organizations to ensure that vaccines, which are effective and safe from a medical point of view, as well as ethically acceptable, are also accessible to the poorest countries in a manner that is not costly for them. The lack of access to vaccines, otherwise, would become another sign of discrimination and injustice that condemns poor countries to continue living in health, economic and social poverty.[5]
The Sovereign Pontiff Francis, at the Audience granted to the undersigned Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, on 17 December 2020, examined the present Note and ordered its publication.
Rome, from the Offices of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, on 21 December 2020, Liturgical Memorial of Saint Peter Canisius.
Luis F. Card. Ladaria, S.I. – Prefect
+ S.E. Mons. Giacomo Morandi – Titular Archbishop of Cerveteri, Secretary
[1] Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Instruction Dignitas Personae (8th December 2008), n. 35; AAS (100), 884.
[3] Cfr. Pontifical Academy for Life, “Moral reflections on vaccines prepared from cells derived from aborted human foetuses”, 5th June 2005.
[4] Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Instruct. Dignitas Personae, n. 35: “When the illicit action is endorsed by the laws which regulate healthcare and scientific research, it is necessary to distance oneself from the evil aspects of that system in order not to give the impression of a certain toleration or tacit acceptance of actions which are gravely unjust. Any appearance of acceptance would in fact contribute to the growing indifference to, if not the approval of, such actions in certain medical and political circles”.
[5] Cfr. Francis, Address to the members of the “Banco Farmaceutico” foundation, 19 September 2020.
The Holy See Makes Seven Points and One Reservation
By H. E. Archbishop Gabriele Giordano CacciaApostolic Nuncio and Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the United Nations
Mr. President,
At the outset, I want to express thanks to the co-coordinators, the Permanent Representative of Afghanistan, H. E. Adela Raz, and the Permanent Representative of Croatia, H.E. Ivan Šimonović, for their work.
Pope Francis recently underscored that the “current pandemic has highlighted our interdependence: we are all connected to each other, for better or for worse. Therefore, to emerge from this crisis better than before, we have to do so together.”[1] Because of the international community needs to stand together in the face of the pandemic, the Holy See supported the idea of this “omnibus resolution” from the beginning and during the negotiations emphasized the need for a common and consensus-based approach.
It is unfortunate that this omnibus resolution, launched as a means of showing the world that the General Assembly stands as one and of bringing together many COVID-related initiatives, is adopted lacking consensus. Like many other delegations, the Holy See would have preferred to see much more time given to discussions on the difficult issues.
As for the specific content of the resolution, my Delegation would like to make the following points and one reservation:
Finally, the Holy See considers it most unfortunate that the adopted resolution includes the deeply concerning and divisive reference to “sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights” (OP7). In line with its reservations expressed at the international conferences held in Beijing and Cairo, the Holy See reiterates that it considers the phrase “reproductive health” and related terms as applying to a holistic concept of health, which embraces the person in the entirety of his or her personality, mind and body. In particular, the Holy See rejects the interpretation that considers abortion or access to abortion, sex-selective abortion, abortion of fetuses diagnosed with health challenges, maternal surrogacy, and sterilization as dimensions of “reproductive health,” or as part of universal health coverage.
Thank you.
[1] Pope Francis, Catechesis at the General Audience, 6 September 2020.
[2] Cf. Pope Francis, Catechesis at the General Audience, 19 August 2020.
Source: https://holyseemission.org/contents//statements/5f69500dc1acb.php
Scarica la guida al seguente link:
Maggio 2020 – Guida Pratica: Misure di contenimento e prevenzione del contagio da SARS-COV-2 in tutte le attività lavorative
April 17 2020, Santa Marta Mass, Pope Francis
From 21:53
In data 20 marzo 2020, Papa Francesco ha chiesto al Dicastero per il Servizio dello Sviluppo Umano Integrale (DSSUI) di creare una Commissione, in collaborazione con altri Dicasteri della Curia Romana, per esprimere la sollecitudine e l’amore della Chiesa per l’intera famiglia umana di fronte alla pandemia di Covid-19, soprattutto mediante l’analisi e la riflessione sulle sfide socio-economiche e culturali del futuro e la proposta di linee guida per affrontarle.
Il DSSUI ha dunque istituito una Commissione che prevede cinque Gruppi di lavoro:
Il Gruppo di lavoro 1, coordinato dal DSSUI, è dedicato all’ascolto e al sostegno delle Chiese locali, in un servizio che le renda protagoniste delle situazioni che vivono, in cooperazione con Caritas Internationalis. Il gruppo ha il compito di collaborare positivamente con le iniziative di carità promosse da altre realtà della Santa Sede, quali l’Elemosineria Apostolica, la Congregazione per l’Evangelizzazione dei Popoli e la Farmacia Vaticana.
Il Gruppo di lavoro 2, coordinato dal DSSUI, si occuperà della ricerca e dello studio della pandemia, di riflettere sulla società e sul mondo post Covid-19, particolarmente nei settori dell’ambiente, dell’economia, del lavoro, della sanità, della politica, della comunicazione e della sicurezza. I partner del Gruppo saranno le Pontificie Accademie per la Vita e delle Scienze, insieme a varie Organizzazioni che già collaborano con il DSSUI.
Il Gruppo di lavoro 3, coordinato dal Dicastero per la Comunicazione, si occuperà di informare circa l’operato dei Gruppi e promuoverà la comunicazione con le Chiese locali, aiutandole a rispondere in maniera autentica e credibile al mondo postCovid-19.
Il Gruppo di lavoro 4, coordinato dalla Sezione per i Rapporti con gli Stati della Segreteria di Stato, sosterrà la Santa Sede nelle sue attività e nei suoi rapporti con i Paesi e gli Organismi internazionali, comunicando ad essi i frutti della ricerca, del dialogo e delle riflessioni prodotte.
Il Gruppo di lavoro 5, coordinato dal DSSUI, è responsabile del finanziamento per sostenere l’assistenza della Commissione per il Covid-19 alle Chiese locali e alle organizzazioni cattoliche, e la sua attività di ricerca, analisi e comunicazione.
Gli obiettivi dei cinque Gruppi di lavoro, presentati al Papa il 27 marzo 2020, saranno coordinate da una Direzione, che riferirà direttamente al Santo Padre, composta dall’Em.mo Prefetto del DSSUI, Cardinale Peter K. A. Turkson, dal Rev.mo Segretario, Mons. Bruno-Marie Duffé, e dal Rev.mo Segretario Aggiunto, Don Augusto Zampini.
Pope Francis leads a prayer service in St Peter’s Square, empty because of the coronavirus
Photo: CNS/Vatican Media
In an exclusive interview recorded for The Tablet – his first for a UK publication – Pope Francis says that this extraordinary Lent and Eastertide could be a moment of creativity and conversion for the Church, for the world, and for the whole of creation.
• Towards the end of March I suggested to Pope Francis that this might be a good moment to address the English-speaking world: the pandemic that had so affected Italy and Spain was now reaching the United Kingdom, the United States and Australia. Without promising anything, he asked me to send some questions. I picked six themes, each one with a series of questions he could answer or not as he saw fit. A week later, I received a communication that he had recorded some reflections in response to the questions. The interview was conducted in Spanish; the translation is my own.
The first question was about how he was experiencing the pandemic and lockdown, both in the Santa Marta residence and the Vatican administration (“the curia”) more widely, both practically and spiritually.
Pope Francis: The Curia is trying to carry on its work, and to live normally, organising in shifts so that not everyone is present at the same time. It’s been well thought out. We are sticking to the measures ordered by the health authorities. Here in the Santa Marta residence we now have two shifts for meals, which helps a lot to alleviate the impact. Everyone works in his office or from his room, using technology. Everyone is working; there are no idlers here.
How am I living this spiritually? I’m praying more, because I feel I should. And I think of people. That’s what concerns me: people. Thinking of people anoints me, it does me good, it takes me out of my self-preoccupation. Of course I have my areas of selfishness. On Tuesdays, my confessor comes, and I take care of things there.
I’m thinking of my responsibilities now, and what will come afterwards. What will be my service as Bishop of Rome, as head of the Church, in the aftermath? That aftermath has already begun to be revealed as tragic and painful, which is why we must be thinking about it now. The Vatican’s Dicastery for the Promotion of Integral Human Development has been working on this, and meeting with me.
My major concern – at least what comes through my prayer – is how to accompany and be closer to the people of God. Hence the livestreaming of the 7 a.m. Mass [I celebrate each morning] which many people follow and appreciate, as well as the addresses I’ve given, and the 27 March event in St Peter’s Square. Hence, too, the step-up in activities of the office of papal charities, attending to the sick and hungry.
I’m living this as a time of great uncertainty. It’s a time for inventing, for creativity.
In my second question, I referred to a nineteenth-century novel very dear to Pope Francis, which he has mentioned recently: Alessandro Manzoni’s I Promessi Sposi (The Betrothed). The novel’s drama centres on the Milan plague of 1630. There are various priestly characters: the cowardly curé Don Abbondio, the holy cardinal archbishop Borromeo, and the Capuchin friars who serve the lazzaretto, a kind of field hospital where the infected are rigorously separated from the healthy. In the light of the novel, how did Pope Francis see the mission of the Church in the context of Covid-19?
Pope Francis: Cardinal Federigo [Borromeo] really is a hero of the Milan plague. Yet in one of the chapters he goes to greet a village but with the window of his carriage closed to protect himself. This did not go down well with the people. The people of God need their pastor to be close to them, not to over-protect himself. The people of God need their pastors to be self-sacrificing, like the Capuchins, who stayed close.
The creativity of the Christian needs to show forth in opening up new horizons, opening windows, opening transcendence towards God and towards people, and in creating new ways of being at home. It’s not easy to be confined to your house. What comes to my mind is a verse from the Aeneid in the midst of defeat: the counsel is not to give up, but save yourself for better times, for in those times remembering what has happened will help us. Take care of yourselves for a future that will come. And remembering in that future what has happened will do you good.
Take care of the now, for the sake of tomorrow. Always creatively, with a simple creativity, capable of inventing something new each day. Inside the home that’s not hard to discover, but don’t run away, don’t take refuge in escapism, which in this time is of no use to you.
My third question was about government policies in response to the crisis. While the quarantining of the population is a sign that some governments are willing to sacrifice economic wellbeing for the sake of vulnerable people, I suggested it was also exposing levels of exclusion that have been considered normal and acceptable before now.
Pope Francis: It’s true, a number of governments have taken exemplary measures to defend the population on the basis of clear priorities. But we’re realising that all our thinking, like it or not, has been shaped around the economy. In the world of finance it has seemed normal to sacrifice [people], to practise a politics of the throwaway culture, from the beginning to the end of life. I’m thinking, for example, of pre-natal selection. It’s very unusual these days to meet Down’s Syndrome people on the street; when the tomograph [scan] detects them, they are binned. It’s a culture of euthanasia, either legal or covert, in which the elderly are given medication but only up to a point.
What comes to mind is Pope Paul VI’s encyclical Humanae Vitae. The great controversy at the time was over the [contraceptive] pill, but what people didn’t realise was the prophetic force of the encyclical, which foresaw the neo-Malthusianism which was then just getting underway across the world. Paul VI sounded the alarm over that wave of neo-Malthusianism. We see it in the way people are selected according to their utility or productivity: the throwaway culture.
Right now, the homeless continue to be homeless. A photo appeared the other day of a parking lot in Las Vegas where they had been put in quarantine. And the hotels were empty. But the homeless cannot go to a hotel. That is the throwaway culture in practice.
I was curious to know if the Pope saw the crisis and the economic devastation it is wreaking as a chance for an ecological conversion, for reassessing priorities and lifestyles. I asked him concretely whether it was possible that we might see in the future an economy that – to use his words – was more “human” and less “liquid”.
Pope Francis: There is an expression in Spanish: “God always forgives, we forgive sometimes, but nature never forgives.” We did not respond to the partial catastrophes. Who now speaks of the fires in Australia, or remembers that 18 months ago a boat could cross the North Pole because the glaciers had all melted? Who speaks now of the floods? I don’t know if these are the revenge of nature, but they are certainly nature’s responses.
We have a selective memory. I want to dwell on this point. I was amazed at the seventieth anniversary commemoration of the Normandy landings, which was attended by people at the highest levels of culture and politics. It was one big celebration. It’s true that it marked the beginning of the end of dictatorship, but no one seemed to recall the 10,000 boys who remained on that beach.
When I went to Redipuglia for the centenary of the First World War I saw a lovely monument and names on a stone, but that was it. I cried, thinking of Benedict XV’s phrase inutile strage (“senseless massacre”), and the same happened to me at Anzio on All Souls’ Day, thinking of all the North American soldiers buried there, each of whom had a family, and how any of them might have been me.
At this time in Europe when we are beginning to hear populist speeches and witness political decisions of this selective kind it’s all too easy to remember Hitler’s speeches in 1933, which were not so different from some of the speeches of a few European politicians now.
What comes to mind is another verse of Virgil’s: [forsan et haec olim] meminisse iubavit[“perhaps one day it will be good to remember these things too”]. We need to recover our memory because memory will come to our aid. This is not humanity’s first plague; the others have become mere anecdotes. We need to remember our roots, our tradition which is packed full of memories. In the Spiritual Exercises of St Ignatius, the First Week, as well as the “Contemplation to Attain Love” in the Fourth Week, are completely taken up with remembering. It’s a conversion through remembrance.
This crisis is affecting us all, rich and poor alike, and putting a spotlight on hypocrisy. I am worried by the hypocrisy of certain political personalities who speak of facing up to the crisis, of the problem of hunger in the world, but who in the meantime manufacture weapons. This is a time to be converted from this kind of functional hypocrisy. It’s a time for integrity. Either we are coherent with our beliefs or we lose everything.
You ask me about conversion. Every crisis contains both danger and opportunity: the opportunity to move out from the danger. Today I believe we have to slow down our rate of production and consumption (Laudato Si’, 191) and to learn to understand and contemplate the natural world. We need to reconnect with our real surroundings. This is the opportunity for conversion.
Yes, I see early signs of an economy that is less liquid, more human. But let us not lose our memory once all this is past, let us not file it away and go back to where we were. This is the time to take the decisive step, to move from using and misusing nature to contemplating it. We have lost the contemplative dimension; we have to get it back at this time.
And speaking of contemplation, I’d like to dwell on one point. This is the moment to see the poor. Jesus says we will have the poor with us always, and it’s true. They are a reality we cannot deny. But the poor are hidden, because poverty is bashful. In Rome recently, in the midst of the quarantine, a policeman said to a man: “You can’t be on the street, go home.” The response was: “I have no home. I live in the street.” To discover such a large number of people who are on the margins … And we don’t see them, because poverty is bashful. They are there but we don’t see them: they have become part of the landscape; they are things.
St Teresa of Calcutta saw them, and had the courage to embark on a journey of conversion. To “see” the poor means to restore their humanity. They are not things, not garbage; they are people. We can’t settle for a welfare policy such as we have for rescued animals. We often treat the poor like rescued animals. We can’t settle for a partial welfare policy.
I’m going to dare to offer some advice. This is the time to go to the underground. I’m thinking of Dostoyevsky’s short novel, Notes from the Underground. The employees of that prison hospital had become so inured they treated their poor prisoners like things. And seeing the way they treated one who had just died, the one on the bed alongside tells them: “Enough! He too had a mother!” We need to tell ourselves this often: that poor person had a mother who raised him lovingly. Later in life we don’t know what happened. But it helps to think of that love he once received through his mother’s hope.
We disempower the poor. We don’t give them the right to dream of their mothers. They don’t know what affection is; many live on drugs. And to see them can help us to discover the piety, the pietas, which points towards God and towards our neighbour.
Go down into the underground, and pass from the hyper-virtual, fleshless world to the suffering flesh of the poor. This is the conversion we have to undergo. And if we don’t start there, there will be no conversion.
I’m thinking at this time of the saints who live next door. They are heroes: doctors, volunteers, religious sisters, priests, shop workers – all performing their duty so that society can continue functioning. How many doctors and nurses have died! How many religious sisters have died! All serving … What comes to my mind is something said by the tailor, in my view one of the characters with greatest integrity in The Betrothed. He says: “The Lord does not leave his miracles half-finished.” If we become aware of this miracle of the next-door saints, if we can follow their tracks, the miracle will end well, for the good of all. God doesn’t leave things halfway. We are the ones who do that.
What we are living now is a place of metanoia (conversion), and we have the chance to begin. So let’s not let it slip from us, and let’s move ahead.
My fifth question centred on the effects on the Church of the crisis, and the need to rethink our ways of operating. Does he see emerging from this a Church that is more missionary, more creative, less attached to institutions? Are we seeing a new kind of “home Church”?
Pope Francis: Less attached to institutions? I’d say less attached to certain ways of thinking. Because the Church is institution. The temptation is to dream of a de-institutionalised Church, a gnostic Church without institutions, or one that is subject to fixed institutions, which would be a Pelagian Church. The one who makes the Church is the Holy Spirit, who is neither gnostic nor Pelagian. It is the Holy Spirit who institutionalises the Church, in an alternative, complementary way, because the Holy Spirit provokes disorder through the charisms, but then out of that disorder creates harmony.
A Church that is free is not an anarchic Church, because freedom is God’s gift. An institutional Church means a Church institutionalised by the Holy Spirit.
A tension between disorder and harmony: this is the Church that must come out of the crisis. We have to learn to live in a Church that exists in the tension between harmony and disorder provoked by the Holy Spirit. If you ask me which book of theology can best help you understand this, it would be the Acts of the Apostles. There you will see how the Holy Spirit de-institutionalises what is no longer of use, and institutionalises the future of the Church. That is the Church that needs to come out of the crisis.
About a week ago an Italian bishop, somewhat flustered, called me. He had been going round the hospitals wanting to give absolution to those inside the wards from the hallway of the hospital. But he had spoken to canon lawyers who had told him he couldn’t, that absolution could only be given in direct contact. “What do you think, Father?” he had asked me. I told him: “Bishop, fulfil your priestly duty.” And the bishop said Grazie, ho capito (“Thank you, I understand”). I found out later that he was giving absolution all around the place.
This is the freedom of the Spirit in the midst of a crisis, not a Church closed off in institutions. That doesn’t mean that canon law is not important: it is, it helps, and please let’s make good use of it, it is for our good. But the final canon says that the whole of canon law is for the salvation of souls, and that’s what opens the door for us to go out in times of difficulty to bring the consolation of God.
You ask me about a “home Church”. We have to respond to our confinement with all our creativity. We can either get depressed and alienated – through media that can take us out of our reality – or we can get creative. At home we need an apostolic creativity, a creativity shorn of so many useless things, but with a yearning to express our faith in community, as the people of God. So: to be in lockdown, but yearning, with that memory that yearns and begets hope – this is what will help us escape our confinement.
Finally, I asked Pope Francis how we are being called to live this extraordinary Lent and Eastertide. I asked him if he had a particular message for the elderly who were self-isolating, for confined young people, and for those facing poverty as result of the crisis.
Pope Francis: You speak of the isolated elderly: solitude and distance. How many elderly there are whose children do not go and visit them in normal times! I remember in Buenos Aires when I visited old people’s homes, I would ask them: And how’s your family? Fine, fine! Do they come? Yes, always! Then the nurse would take me aside and say the children hadn’t been to see them in six months. Solitude and abandonment … distance.
Yet the elderly continue to be our roots. And they must speak to the young. This tension between young and old must always be resolved in the encounter with each other. Because the young person is bud and foliage, but without roots they cannot bear fruit. The elderly are the roots. I would say to them, today: I know you feel death is close, and you are afraid, but look elsewhere, remember your children, and do not stop dreaming. This is what God asks of you: to dream (Joel 3:1).
What would I say to the young people? Have the courage to look ahead, and to be prophetic. May the dreams of the old correspond to your prophecies – also Joel 3:1.
Those who have been impoverished by the crisis are today’s deprived, who are added to the numbers of deprived of all times, men and women whose status is “deprived”. They have lost everything, or they are going to lose everything. What meaning does deprivation have for me, in the light of the Gospel? It means to enter into the world of the deprived, to understand that he who had, no longer has. What I ask of people is that they take the elderly and the young under their wing, that they take history under the wing, take the deprived under their wing.
What comes now to mind is another verse of Virgil’s, at the end of Book 2 of the Aeneid, when Aeneas, following defeat in Troy, has lost everything. Two paths lie before him: to remain there to weep and end his life, or to follow what was in his heart, to go up to the mountain and leave the war behind. It’s a beautiful verse. Cessi, et sublato montem genitore petivi (“I gave way to fate and, bearing my father on my shoulders, made for the mountain”).
This is what we all have to do now, today: to take with us the roots of our traditions, and make for the mountain.
Austen Ivereigh is a fellow in contemporary church history at Campion Hall, at the University of Oxford. His latest book is Wounded Shepherd: Pope Francis’s Struggle to Convert the Catholic Church, published by Henry Holt.
Link: https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2020-04/pope-francis-holy-week-2020-message-coronavirus.html
Pope Francis sends a video message as Christians around the world prepare to celebrate Holy Week in an unusual manner due to the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic.
By Devin Watkins
“This evening I have the chance to enter your homes in a different way than usual.”
That was how Pope Francis opened his video message sent on Friday ahead of Holy Week 2020.
He noted how difficult and full of suffering these weeks have been for the many people whose lives have been affected by Covid-19. “I can imagine you in your families, living an unusual life to avoid contagion.”
The Pope said he was thinking about children and young people stuck at home, those who have to face these difficult moments alone, and the elderly.
“I have in my heart all the families,” he said, “especially those who have a loved one who is sick or who have unfortunately experienced mourning due to the coronavirus or other causes.”
Pope Francis expressed his appreciation for the “generosity of those who put themselves at risk for the treatment of this pandemic or to guarantee the essential services to society.”
He called them “heroes.”
The Pope said he is also thinking about those facing financial difficulties, those in prison worried about themselves and their families, and the homeless, who have no home to protect them.
“It is a difficult time for everyone. For many, very difficult.”
The Pope said he is aware of all the suffering in the world right now. He sought to tell everyone of his closeness and affection, and offered a word of advice.
“Let us try, if we can, to make the best use of this time: let us be generous. Let us help those in need in our neighborhood. Let us look out for the loneliest people, perhaps by telephone or social networks. Let us pray to the Lord for those who are in difficulty in Italy and in the world.”
Despite the isolation imposed by social distancing measures, “thought and spirit can go far with the creativity of love,” said Pope Francis.
He acknowledged that Christians will celebrate Holy Week “in a truly unusual way” and added that this week sums of the message of the Gospel: “God’s boundless love.”
“And in the silence of our cities, the Easter Gospel will resound,” he said. “In the risen Jesus, life conquered death.”
Hope, said the Pope, is nourished by our Paschal faith.
“It is the hope of a better time, in which we can be better, finally freed from evil and from this pandemic,” he said. “It is a hope: hope does not disappoint. It is not an illusion, it is a hope.”
He urged everyone to prepare a better time “in love and patience” with the extra time alone that has been given us.
Closing his message, the Pope asked everyone watching to make “a gesture of tenderness towards those who suffer, towards children, and towards the elderly.”
“Tell them that the Pope is close,” he said, “and pray that the Lord will soon deliver us all from evil.”
The official translation of the Pope’s video message is below:
Dear friends, good evening!
This evening I have the chance to enter your homes in a different way than usual. If you allow me, I would like to have a conversation with you for a few moments, in this time of difficulty and of suffering. I can imagine you in your families, living an unusual life to avoid contagion. I am thinking of the liveliness of children and young people, who cannot go out, attend school, live their lives. I have in my heart all the families, especially those who have a loved one who is sick or who have unfortunately experienced mourning due to the coronavirus or other causes. These days I often think about people who are alone, and for whom it is more difficult to face these moments. Above all I think of the elderly, who are very dear to me.
I cannot forget those who are sick with coronavirus, people who are in hospital. I am aware of the generosity of those who put themselves at risk for the treatment of this pandemic or to guarantee the essential services to society. So many heroes, every day, at every hour! I also remember how many are in financial straits and are worried about work and the future. A thought also goes out to prison inmates, whose pain is compounded by fear of the epidemic, for themselves and their loved ones; I think ofthe homeless, who do not have a home to protect them.
It is a difficult time for everyone. For many, very difficult. The Pope knows this and, with these words, he wants to tell everyone of his closeness and affection. Let us try, if we can, to make the best use of this time: let us be generous; let us help those in need in our neighbourhood; let us look out for the loneliest people, perhaps by telephone or social networks; let us pray to the Lord for those who are in difficulty in Italy and in the world. Even if we are isolated, thought and spirit can go far with the creativity of love. This is what we need today: the creativity of love. This is what is needed today: the creativity of love.
We will celebrate Holy Week in a truly unusual way, which manifests and sums up the message of the Gospel, that of God’s boundless love. And in the silence of our cities, the Easter Gospel will resound. The Apostle Paul says: “And He died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves, but for Him Who died for them and was raised again” (2 Cor 5:15). In the risen Jesus, life conquered death. This Paschal faith nourishes our hope. I would like to share it with you this evening. It is the hope of a better time, in which we can be better, finally freed from evil and from this pandemic. It is a hope: hope does not disappoint; it is not an illusion, it is a hope.
Beside each other, in love and patience, we can prepare a better time in these days. Thank you for allowing me into your homes. Make a gesture of tenderness towards those who suffer, towards children, and towards the elderly. Tell them that the Pope is close and pray, that the Lord will soon deliver us all from evil. And you, pray for me. Have a good dinner. See you soon!