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Pope Francis is praising heroic medical staff and priests who contributed so greatly, often under difficult circumstances, during the coronavirus (COVID-19) lockdown.
Last Saturday he welcomed Italy’s front-line medical and civil protection personnel from the coronavirus-ravaged region of Lombardy to the Vatican to thank them for their selfless work and “heroic” sacrifice.
Their example of professional competence and compassion from these heroic medical staff would help Italy forge a new future of hope and solidarity, he said.
More than 160 Italian doctors and 40 nurses have died from coronavirus, and 30,000 national healthcare workers became infected.
Francis said Lombardy’s medics and nurses became literal “angels”. They helped the sick recover or accompanied them to their death, as their family members were prevented from visiting them in the hospital.
He spoke of the “little gestures of creativity of love” they provided: a caress or the use of their cell phone “to bring together the old person who was about to die with his son or daughter to say goodbye, to see them for the last time…
“This was so good for all of us: the testimony of proximity and tenderness.”
Most priests were also in line for the Holy Father’s words of praise. “They were fathers, not adolescents,” Francis said.
“The pastoral zeal and creative concern of priests has helped people in their faith journeys and given them companionship in the presence of pain or fear.”
“This priestly creativity has won out over some, a few, adolescent expressions against the measures of public authorities, who have the obligation to take care of people’s health. The majority were obedient and creative.”
The “adolescents” he was speaking of are conservative priests griping about shuttered churches amid the outbreak.
Among those challenging the call to close churches and obey isolation and social distancing regulations was conservative Catholic Cardinal Raymond Burke.
In a letter published on 21 March, Burke said just as people are able to continue going to pharmacies and supermarkets, the faithful should also “be able to pray in our churches and chapels, receive the Sacraments, and engage in acts of public prayer and devotion, so that we know God’s closeness to us and remain close to Him, fittingly calling upon His help.”
Despite Burke’s concerns about the pandemic regulations, Francis is hopeful Italy would emerge morally and spiritually stronger from the emergency and the lesson of interconnection that it taught: that individual and collective interests are intertwined.
“It’s easy to forget that we need one another, someone to take care of us and give us courage,” he said.
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