Tagle grateful for prayers for fast Covid-19 recovery

Tagle aside from being sick, another burden for Covid-19 patients, is the feeling of being alone and the feeling of spreading the virus to other people including his/her family. (File Photo by Lorenzo Atienza via The Manila Cathedral/Facebook)

MANILA – Former Manila Archbishop Luis Antonio Cardinal Tagle on Saturday thanked those who offered prayers for his immediate recovery from coronavirus disease (Covid-19).

In his message during the just concluded 2020 Catholic Educational Association in the Philippines (CEAP) online congress, the Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples said the messages of support and prayers have helped him a lot to recover fast.

He added that it is important for people to communicate with those who are infected by the deadly virus, as they are making them strong and encouraging them to fight.

“In my case I am very grateful to the many, many people who pray, assuring you that you are not alone, that’s why I could say for the survival either mentally of those who go through this crisis this connectedness what we call dialogue is important, your existence depends on a rediscovery of the reality that you are not alone,” he said in an article posted on the Radio Veritas website.

Tagle aside from being sick, another burden for Covid-19 patients, is the feeling of being alone and the feeling of spreading the virus to other people including his/her family.

“Getting out of the quarantine I realize that really for you to survive you need a deep deep deep sense of interconnectedness, deep sense (because) your enemy will be the feeling that you are isolated, that you are a threat now, that you don’t even trust yourself, that you are a danger to yourself and you could be a danger to others and then you feel like it is better to isolate yourself and then the isolation also bothers you but it is the sense that you are interconnected, you are connected to God, ” he added.

He was tested positive on September 10 after arriving in the country for a short vacation. He was asymptomatic during his 13-day quarantine and tested negative for the virus on Wednesday.

According to the Holy See Press Office, Tagle is the first official of the Vatican dicastery that has been tested positive for Covid-19.

In the Philippines, four bishops have been found to be positive from the deadly virus, those recovered were Manila Apostolic Administrator Bishop Broderick Pabillo and Caloocan Bishop Emeritus Deogracias Iñiguez.

The two prelates who died of Covid-19 complications were Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Emeritus Oscar Cruz and Imus Bishop Emeritus Manuel Sobreviñas.