ROME – Pope Francis said on Friday that mankind needs a vaccine for the ‘heart’, as well as a vaccine for the coronavirus.
For the New Year’s Mass, when Catholics celebrate both World Peace Day and the Virgin Mary as ‘Mother of God’, the pope points to Mary’s example of ‘keeping all these things in her heart’ (cf. Luke 2:19) as an important message for Christians.
Goodness ‘comes from the heart’, said the pope in his attitude, which the cardinal of the Vatican, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, read. “How important it is to keep our hearts pure, to cultivate our inner life and to persevere in our prayer!”
“How important it is to train our hearts to care, to cherish the people and things around us,” he continued. “It all starts from this: from the nurturing of others, the world and creation.”
“While we are hoping for a new beginning and new medicine, we should not neglect care this year. Along with a vaccine for our body, we need a vaccine for our hearts. That vaccine is care, ”he said.
“It will be a good year if we take care of others, as Our Lady does with us,” he added.
The pope often talked about the coronavirus and possible remedies and insisted that eventual vaccines be made available to all to avoid a ‘vaccine nationalism’.
In his annual Vatican Christmas Day message, the pope once again urged world leaders to make vaccines available to all – especially the most needy.
“At Christmas we celebrate the light of Christ coming into the world, and he comes for all, not just for some,” Francis said.
“Today, in this time of darkness and uncertainty due to the pandemic, there are various lights of hope, such as the discovery of vaccines,” he said. “But in order for these lights to illuminate and illuminate the whole world, it must be available to all.”
“We cannot allow the various forms of nationalism to lock in on themselves, to prevent us from living as the true human family that we are,” he said. “Nor can we allow the virus of radical individualism to overwhelm us and make us indifferent to the suffering of other brothers and sisters.”
“I cannot present myself before others and place the laws of the market and patents above the law of love and the health of mankind,” the pope added.
Pope Francis urged world leaders, pharmaceutical companies and international organizations to “promote cooperation and not competition” to guarantee the widespread availability of coronavirus vaccines, “especially for the most vulnerable and needy of all regions on the planet.”
In December, the Vatican announced that Pope Francis would receive the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine in January, which would also be made available to the 800 residents and nearly 3,000 small-town workers.
The vaccination will allow the pope to travel safely to Iraq in March, Vatican health chief Andrea Arcangeli said.