Selfish indifference to poorer victims will be worse for world than virus, says Pope
POPE FRANCIS warned against excluding marginalised sectors of society from global solidarity and recovery from the pandemic yesterday, saying to do so could result in “an even worse virus”.
The pontiff travelled outside the Vatican for the first time in several weeks to celebrate Sunday mass at a nearby Rome church to mark Divine Mercy Sunday.
Just a few select priests were present in the pews due to the lockdown in Italy, the first European nation to suffer an outbreak of the pandemic and pass restrictive lockdown measures that have been in place for six weeks now.
In his homily, Francis said the global toll was a reminder that there were no frontiers or differences in nationalities between the suffering.
“We are all frail, all equal, all precious,” he said, acknowledging that the faithful have been deeply shaken. “It is time to eliminate inequalities and heal the injustices that are undermining the health of the whole human family.”
Pope Francis, who has promoted the idea of creating a universal basic wage to help those suffering from economic hardships, urged an “all-embracing vision” for a collective future.
“The risk is that we may then be struck by an even worse virus, that of selfish indifference,” he said. More than 23,000 have died from Covid-19 in Italy, but the number of new cases has been dropping daily and the strain on the country’s hospitals has largely eased with a decline in ICU patients for two consecutive weeks. A government task force is considering a number of options for “Phase II” of the emergency, pegged for May 4, when some restrictive measures may be lifted and some businesses may reopen. Among the options are dividing the country into macro areas based on infection rates, which has been contested by a number of northern governors, and voluntary use of a contact-tracing app called “immuni”.
The smartphone app, based on Bluetooth technology and developed by the Milan-based Bending Spoons SPA company, would work by regularly emitting an anonymous ID code picked up by other smartphones users also using the same app within a few metres-wide field. If one of the app users reports
‘It is time to heal the injustices that are undermining the health of the whole human family’
having tested positive for the virus, the system would allow for informing those with whom they may have come into contact in previous days. Another option allows users to store information about their health and update it – for example if they have a fever or cough – in a “clinical diary” feature.
European criteria prohibits the use of geo-tracking, hence the app would use Bluetooth and be strictly voluntary. But some 60 per cent of the population would need to download and use it for it to be effective.
Italians appear to be growing increasingly impatient with the stringent restrictions and 8,200 people have been fined for breaking the rules.