{"id":250260,"date":"2020-03-27T21:34:37","date_gmt":"2020-03-28T01:34:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=250260"},"modified":"2020-03-27T21:34:37","modified_gmt":"2020-03-28T01:34:37","slug":"pope-prays-for-fragile-humanity-needing-help-in-pandemic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2020\/03\/27\/pope-prays-for-fragile-humanity-needing-help-in-pandemic\/","title":{"rendered":"Pope prays for ‘fragile’ humanity needing help in pandemic"},"content":{"rendered":"
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FILE: Pope Francis greets staff and students of the Alphonsian Academy in Rome, telling them that moral theology must get its \u201chands dirty\u201d with concrete issues. (Photo<\/a>: Vatican News\/Facebook<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

VATICAN CITY \u2014 Praying in a desolately empty St. Peter’s Square, Pope Francis on Friday likened the coronavirus pandemic to a storm laying bare illusions that people can be self-sufficient and instead leaves \u201call of us fragile and disoriented\u201d and needing each other’s help and comfort.<\/p>\n

Francis stood under a canopy erected on the steps of St. Peter’s Basilica while leading a special prayer service as rain soaked the usually crowded cobblestone square. \u201cOpen our hearts to hope,\u201d he said in his opening prayer.<\/p>\n

\u201cLord, may you bless the world, give health to our bodies and comfort our hearts,\u201d he prayed<\/p>\n

At the end of the hour-long ceremony, he delivered a blessing that is traditionally reserved for the holy days of Christmas and Easter.<\/p>\n

Wearing a simple white cassock, Francis climbed the sloping steps of the square by himself until he neared a canopied platform that had been erected to shelter him from the elements, taking the arm of an aide for the last steps.<\/p>\n

Francis referred to the 17th-century colonnade that delineates St. Peter’s Square while praying, \u201cFrom this colonnade that embraces Rome and the whole world, may God’s blessing come down upon you as a consoling embrace.\u201d<\/p>\n

He compared the viral outbreak plaguing Italy a nd much of the world to an \u201cunexpected, turbulent storm.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have realized that we are on the same boat, all of us fragile and disoriented, but at the same time important and needed, all of us now called to row together, each of us in need of comforting each other,\u201d the pope said.<\/p>\n

Before the pandemic, Francis said, people were rushing through life, \u201cgreedy for profit,\u201d undisturbed by \u201cwars and injustices\u201d and not hearing the \u201ccry of the poor or of our ailing planet. We carried on regardless, thinking we would stay healthy in a world that was sick.\u201d<\/p>\n

Then, moving to a temporary altar near the basilica’s entrance, he prayed silently and listened to a series of invocations, including one that said, \u201cSave us, O Lord, from illness, epidemics and fear of one’s brother.\u201d<\/p>\n

Francis also kissed a wooden crucifix that was carried in religious processions in Rome during an early 16th-century plague.<\/p>\n

The Vatican has said that the faithful could receive what’s known as a plenary indulgence \u2014 a lifting of temporal punishment \u2014 from sin with the special blessing, providing they meet other conditions, like going to confession or receiving Communion as soon as they can.<\/p>\n

Helping the world carry on during the pandemic are those who Francis called the \u201cordinary people, often forgotten, who do not appear in newspaper and magazine headlines\u201d or in fashion shows.<\/p>\n

But these ordinary people \u201cwithout any doubt are in these very days writing the decisive events of our time: doctors, nurses, supermarket employees, cleaners, caregivers, providers of transport, law-and-order forces, volunteers\u201d as well as priests, nuns and others, the pontiff said.<\/p>\n

The prayer service was one of several scheduled over the next few weeks that will see the 83-year-old pontiff virtually solo in the square or celebrating Masses for Holy Week and Easter Sunday in the shelter of St. Peter’s Basilica instead of outdoors in the company of tens of thousands of faithful.<\/p>\n

Earlier Friday, the Vatican announced that Francis will mark Holy Week ceremonies in the confines of Vatican City, including a Good Friday Way of the Cross service on the steps of the basilica, instead of at Rome’s Colosseum as customary.<\/p>\n

Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Francis will celebrate Mass for Palm Sunday, Holy Thursday, and Easter vigil and Easter Sunday \u2014 April 12 \u2014 all at the basilica’s central altar.<\/p>\n

Before the pandemic, putting Italy and many other countries under stay-at-home orders that severely limiting people’s movements in public, tens of thousands of faithful would have crowded the square on Palm Sunday and Easter for outdoor Mass celebrated by the pontiff.<\/p>\n

Good Friday’s candlelit procession at Rome’s ancient Colosseum traditionally draws big crowds of tourists, pilgrims and Romans. But weeks ago, both tourists and pilgrims started fleeing Italy amid fears of virus contagion and as lock-downs by local and national authorities were gradually declared.<\/p>\n

Italy’s outbreak includes the world’s highest total of dead for a single nation.<\/p>\n

COVID-19 can cause mild or moderate symptoms, like fever and cough. But a small percentage of sufferers are hospitalized with pneumonia in intensive care.<\/p>\n

The Holy See has confirmed four virus cases in the tiny independent city state in the middle of Rome.<\/p>\n

It has declined to say if Francis, who a few weeks ago had a cold, has been tested for COVID-19, and if so, what the result was. Among the Vatican’s confirmed cases is an Italian prelate who lives at a Vatican hotel where Francis resides.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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