ROME – Pope Francis urged governments on Monday to use the coronavirus crisis as a revolutionary opportunity to create a world that is more economically and environmentally just – and where basic health care is guaranteed for everyone.
Francisco made the appeal in his annual foreign policy speech to ambassadors accredited to the Holy See, an appointment that was postponed for two weeks after he suffered an outbreak of sciatica nerve pain that made it difficult to stand and walk.
Francis urged the governments represented in the Apostolic Palace to contribute to global initiatives to provide vaccines to the poor and to use the pandemic to redefine what he said was a sick economic model that exploits the poor and the Earth.
Pope Francis gives his blessing from his studio window overlooking St. Peter’s Square in the Vatican, Sunday, February 7, 2021. (AP Photo / Gregorio Borgia)
“There is a need for a kind of new Copernican revolution that puts the economy at the service of men and women, and not vice versa,” he said, referring to the 16th century paradigm shift that said the sun was at the center of the universe, not the Earth.
He said that this new revolutionary economy is “one that brings life and not death, that is inclusive and not exclusive, human and non-dehumanizing, that takes care of the environment and does not deprive it”.
Francisco has often called on the world to use the pandemic as a chance to rethink a global economy that values people and the planet above profits, and where fraternity and solidarity guide human relations rather than conflict and division.
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The 84-year-old Francisco addressed these issues in his long speech, which was delivered in a larger than normal reception room to provide greater social distance for the 88 ambassadors present. In the end, Francisco invited everyone to come up, but said he didn’t shake their hand and asked them to keep their distance. Francis was vaccinated against the virus.
In his speech, he called for basic health care to be provided to all. He noted that those on the margins of society and working in the informal economy are among those hardest hit by the pandemic, with the fewest social networks to survive.
“Driven by despair, many sought other forms of income and are at risk of being exploited through illegal or forced labor, prostitution and various criminal activities, including trafficking in persons,” warned Francis.
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He said that children suffered an “educational catastrophe” with schools closed, women were victims of domestic violence, the faithful were deprived of community worship and that all of humanity was prevented from having close human contact.
“Along with vaccines, brotherhood and hope are, so to speak, the remedies we need in today’s world,” he said.
In addition to the pandemic, Francisco listed other areas of particular concern, beginning with the coup in Myanmar, which Francisco visited in 2017. He called for political leaders to be “promptly released as a sign of encouragement for sincere dialogue aimed at the good of the country. . “
He called for the war in Syria to finally end, noting that 2021 marks its 10th anniversary, and urged the international community to “address the causes of the conflict honestly and courageously and seek solutions.” He praised the UN treaty that prohibits nuclear weapons and the extension of the START treaty between the US and Russia.
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He also called for disarmament efforts to extend to conventional and chemical weapons.