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).