VATICAN CITY — The fear, sickness, death, mourning and economic impacts of COVID-19 should make people who are relatively well off and have access to health care think about “what it means to be vulnerable and live in precariousness on a daily basis,” Pope Francis told members of the Pontifical Academy for Life.
Acknowledging how people are “worn down” and tired of hearing or thinking about the coronavirus, the pope insisted the challenges and suffering of the past 18 months would make sense only if people learned from them.
Meeting members of the Pontifical Academy for Life Sept. 27, Pope Francis urged them to find new ways to collaborate with other physicians, researchers, scholars and theologians in defending human life at every stage of its development and in every condition of health or frailty.
The Catholic Church cannot “water down” the truth that the defense of life includes opposition to abortion and euthanasia – the clearest signs today of a “throwaway culture,” he said. But it also includes continuing the traditional Catholic advocacy for the right to health care for all people.
While disease is a natural occurrence, it often also is the result of human action or inaction, and responses to it are the result of social and political choices, Pope Francis said. “Moreover, it is not enough for a problem to be serious for it to attract attention and be addressed” with the same kind of global commitment that is being seen in response to COVID, he said. In fact, “very serious problems are ignored because of a lack of adequate commitment.”
And while global measures to stop the spread of COVID and to get people vaccinated are good, he said, one cannot ignore the fact that millions of people do not have access to clean water or adequate food.
Stay Connected With Us