In his last homily in 2021 and the first that was shown with a mask in the Vatican Basilica, the Pope said that “the pandemic has increased the feeling of confusion around the world.”
Francisco denounced this Friday “the temptation to save himself who can” that existed around the world to face the exit from the coronavirus pandemic.
“This time of pandemic has increased the feeling of bewilderment throughout the world,” the Pope said in his homily during the so-called Vespers and Te Deum of gratitude for the year that passed.
“After a first phase of reaction, in which we felt solidarity in the same boat, the temptation to save himself was extended,” added the Pope.
In the first time he was shown wearing a mask in the Vatican Basilica, however, the Pope acknowledged that the world then “reacted in time, with a sense of responsibility.”
AFP photo
In March 2020, at the beginning of the pandemic, Francisco prayed alone in San Pedro Square in a historic prayer in which he assured that “no one is saved alone” from the expansion of the coronavirus, a motto that he later used to demand greater equity and justice in the global distribution of vaccines.
This year, amid the rapid rise in cases of the Omicron variant throughout Europe, the Vatican decided to suspend the Pope’s visit to the manger mounted in the center of St. Peter’s Square “to avoid crowds” that could trigger infections.
Although the Vatican had confirmed after Italian noon that it would be Francisco who would preside over the celebration and beyond the fact that the Argentine pontiff read the homily, the ceremony was led by Italian Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, with Jorge Bergoglio sitting in a nearby chair.
In 2020, suffering from a “painful sciatica”, the Pope had already had to suspend his participation in the Te Deum and was replaced by Re.
The celebration of this Friday
During the celebration this Friday, in his eighth Te Deum in person as Pope, Bergoglio referred in his text, as is traditional, to the situation of Rome, the city of which he is bishop.
“But even in this case, we must be careful: you cannot recognize a welcoming and fraternal city from the façade, from the beautiful speeches, from the high-sounding events. No,” the Pope said while the new mayor of the Italian capital, Roberto Gualtieri, listened from the front rows of the public.
This type of city “is recognized for the daily attention to those who struggle the most, to the families who feel the weight of the crisis the most, to people with severe disabilities and their families, to those who need transportation every day to go to work. , those who live in the suburbs, those who have been overwhelmed by some failure in their life and need social services, “he added.
For the pontiff, the Italian capital, which will host the Jubilee of 2025, “is a wonderful city, which never ceases to enchant, but for those who live there it is also an exhausting city, unfortunately not always worthy for citizens and guests, a city ​​that sometimes discards “.
Later he added that “the hope is that all those who live in Rome and those who stay for work, pilgrimage or tourism, can appreciate it more and more”
The Pope’s sayings seemed directed at the always criticized waste management by the communal government, the axis of the electoral campaigns, and in which Gualtieri promised to focus his mandate
According to Bergoglio, “the hope then is that everyone, those who live in it and those who stay for work, pilgrimage or tourism, can appreciate it more and more for the care of hospitality, of the dignity of life, of the home. common, one of the most fragile and vulnerable “.
At the end of November, the Pope had received Gualtieri in the Vatican to begin the planning of the Jubilee, for which the Vatican appointed the Italian Rino Fisichella as responsible, while the mayor of the “Eternal City” will be the coordinator of part of the Italian government.
“May everyone be surprised to discover in this city a beauty that I would say is coherent, and that arouses gratitude,” Francisco concluded.
Already in 2018, the Pope had lamented the “more than ten thousand” people living on the streets of the city, while the following year he referred to “inequalities and corruption” in Rome and summoned the Church and the inhabitants of the Italian capital to “overcome obstacles” to build “a more just and fraternal city”.
Mass this Saturday
This Saturday the Pope will lead the mass alluding to the World Day of Peace from 10 am in Rome (6 in Argentina), to which in mid-December he dedicated a message with the slogan “Dialogue between generations, education and work : instruments to build a lasting peace “.
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