VATICAN (CNS): Pope Francis asked people to pray for government officials and leaders who are tasked with making critical decisions and taking drastic measures that may make people unhappy during his livestreamed morning Mass on March 12. The pope has been dedicating each liturgy to people affected by the coronavirus pandemic.
“Let us keep praying together for the ill, their relatives, for parents with children at home, but most of all I would ask that you pray for authorities,” the pope said at the beginning of the Mass.
Government authorities, he explained, “must make decisions and many times they have to decide on measures that the people do not like. But it is for our own good.”
Many times these officials “feel alone, not understood,” he said, adding, “Let us pray for our governing leaders who have to make decisions on these measures, that they feel accompanied by people’s prayers.”
The Italian government announced on March 11 new measures—in effect at least until March 25—mandating the complete closure across the country of all commercial and retail businesses, except for grocery stores, drug stores, tobacco shops, gas stations, newsstands and banks. Factories and farms were required to adopt increased measures to maintain worker safety, while essential services such as utilities, public transportation and the post office, would still function with safety protocols in place.
The stricter measures came as the number of new cases and deaths related to the virus continued to spike. At least 1,016 people have died and there are currently at least 15,113 known cases of infection, according to the Italian health ministry March 13.
In his homily, the pope reflected on the problem of indifference—when people are very well informed and aware of bad things happening around them, but the news doesn’t “reach the heart” or move them with compassion.
“This happens to us, too,” he said. “We all know—because we hear it on the news or in the papers—how many children suffer from hunger today in the world, how many children don’t have the medicine they need, how many can’t go to school.”
What people think, know and feel are all detached from each other, he said. “The heart is cut off from the head; they are indifferent.”
The pope asked that people pray for the grace of not becoming indifferent, that “all the information of human pain that we have reaches the heart and moves us to do something for others.”
