Pope Francis has grasped the opportunity of the COVID-19 pandemic crisis to stress the message in his encyclical Laudato Si’ that things are not well with our “common home”, and there is the need for a transformation to save humankind. At St Peter’s Square on March 27, he said: “We have gone at breakneck speed, feeling powerful, able to do anything”, and yet suddenly we realise our fragility and weaknesses.
This is an opportunity to rebuild a better world, not to ‘continue from where we stopped’. The world we are supposedly leaving behind is that of multiple viruses of selfish indifference, hypocrisy, greed and cynicism. We have failed to eliminate inequalities, to correct injustices, to be true stewards of the earth. We have misspent money that should have gone for health and education. We have exploited migration as if there are different categories of humans. We abused vital information by being opaque and misleading. We have allowed big countries to use their soft power to manipulate people’s views and opinions. We have brushed aside key issues like the environment, climate change, global warming and the loss of biodiversity.
The Pope asks us to be brave and innovative to seek new solutions, whether through human creativity or science, but always with a great sense of humility. We must rediscover the value of work in a way that it gives dignity to the person. The pandemic exposed the misguided principles of the way economies are run, with ‘disposable’ jobs, where money took precedence over health and well-being. The Pope questions the ‘technocratic paradigms’ that have failed, whether they are state-centred or market-driven. These reflect weak and manipulated governance structures.
We have witnessed over half a million deaths due to the pandemic, and the IMF forecasts that the world economy will shrink by at least five per cent this year. The way we do politics and economics has failed miserably. Speaking on April 12, the Pope said: “Now more than ever, people must be put at the centre, united to heal, to care and to share.”
In a meditation published in Vida Nueva, he wrote: “An emergency like COVID-19 is overcome in the first place by the antibodies of solidarity… no one is saved alone”. There is need to rediscover the value of relationships among people who are prepared to listen, care and empathise with those who are marginalised, the poor and the immigrants.
The Pope has created a commission that is looking at the challenges humanity is facing in battling the virus and what it will inevitably face in its aftermath. The commission, led by the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, is considering the socio-economic and cultural challenges emerging from the crisis and will make recommendations for a sustainable global and national governance.
On May 17, the Pope announced a special Laudato Si’ Anniversary Year to ask what kind of world we want to leave to future generations. This question is more relevant now that our fragilities have been tested by the pandemic.