Pope Francis on Monday urged governments 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 all.
Francis made the call in his annual foreign policy speech for ambassadors accredited to the Holy See, an appointment that was postponed for two weeks after he suffered an attack of sciatic nerve pain that made standing and walking difficult.
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, he said, reset a sick economic model that affects the poor and the earth. exploits.
“There is a need for some sort of new Copernican revolution that can put the economy at the service of men and women, not the other way around,” he said, referring to the 16th-century paradigm shift that put the sun at the center of the world. universe, not the earth.
He said such a revolutionary new economy “is an economy that brings life and not death, one that is inclusive and not exclusive, humane and not inhumane, one that cares about the environment and does not plunder it.”
Francis has repeatedly called on the world to use the pandemic as an opportunity to reimagine a global economy that values people and the planet over profit, and one in which brotherhood and solidarity guide human relationships rather than conflict and division.
84-year-old Francis touched on those themes in his lengthy speech, which was delivered in a larger reception hall than usual to keep more social distance for the 88 ambassadors in attendance. At the end, Francis invited everyone but said he would not shake their hands and urged them to keep their distance. Francis has been vaccinated against the virus.
In his speech he called for the provision of basic health care to everyone. He noted that those on the margins of society and those working in the informal economy are among the hardest hit by the pandemic, with the fewest social nets to survive it.
“Driven by desperation, many have sought other forms of income and are at risk of being exploited through illegal or forced labor, prostitution and various criminal activities, including human trafficking,” Francis warned.
He said that children have suffered an “educational catastrophe” with closed schools, that women have been victims of domestic violence, that the faithful are deprived of communal worship and that all mankind is excluded from close human contact.
“Along with vaccines, brotherhood and hope are, as it were, the medicine we need in today’s world,” he said.
In addition to the pandemic, Francis mentioned other concerns, starting with the coup in Myanmar, which Francis visited in 2017. He called for the immediate release of political leaders as a sign of encouragement for a sincere dialogue for the good. of the country.”
He called for an end to the war in Syria at last, noting that 2021 is his 10th anniversary, and urging the international community to “address the causes of the conflict with fairness and courage and seek solutions. “. He praised the UN treaty banning nuclear weapons. and the extension of the START treaty between the US and Russia.
He also called for disarmament efforts to extend to conventional and chemical weapons.
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