Pope urges vaccines for poor in Easter message

Pope Francis urged Catholics to remain hopeful in his Easter Sunday address, calling vaccines an “essential tool” in ending the pandemic and urging their swift rollout to poor countries.

On the holiest holiday for the world’s 1.3 billion Catholics and the second under the shadow of the coronavirus crisis, the pope focused his message on the world’s most vulnerable — the sick, migrants, people facing economic hardship and those living in war zones like Syria, Yemen and Libya.

“The pandemic is still spreading, while the social and economic crisis remains severe, especially for the poor,” he said, speaking to a congregation of about 100 people inside the vast St Peter’s Basilica.

Francis had warned rich nations against vaccine hoarding in an address to the United Nations General Assembly in September.

The pope said it was “scandalous” that armed conflicts around the world had not ceased.

He called for an end to the war in Syria, “where millions of people are living in inhumane conditions”, and in Yemen “whose situation has met with a deafening and scandalous silence”.

He expressed his closeness to Myanmar’s youth — “committed to supporting democracy” — called for dialogue between Israelis and Palestinians, and urged an end to violence in Africa, citing Nigeria, the Sahel, Northern Ethiopia’s Tigray region and Cabo Delgado in Mozambique.

“There are still too many wars and too much violence in the world,” Francis said.