Vatican official: Science-solidarity combo needed to stop pandemic

Friday, Mar. 20, 2020

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — The eff ects of the coronavirus can be defeated only with a combination of science and solidarity, said the president of the Pontifi cal Academy for Life. “An emergency like COVID-19 is fought especially with the antibodies of solidarity,” said Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, president of the academy. His comments were released March 17 as members of the academy continued work on a document titled, “Coronavirus and Human Fraternity.” “The technical and clinical measures for containment must be integrated with a vast and profound complicity for the common good, avoiding the tendency to choose advantages for the privileged to the detriment of the vulnerable based on citizenship, income, politics or age,” he said. The most important attitude for stopping the pandemic, he said, is to see other people as allies, “otherwise the community evaporates and I, too, am lost.” “The ‘other’ is the person who walks by and greets me from a meter away 

because he is safeguarding me and himself,” the archbishop said. He also asked people to think about what they are doing to stop the spread of the coronavirus and the lessons they could hold for the future when life returns to normal. Recognizing that all people are members of one human family and understanding what it means to be a community should not just be a matter of calculating risks or advantages, he said. “Christianity, from its origin, has understood universal fraternity and interpreted it as responsible closeness among human beings.” But clearly, he said, the pandemic has shown the connection between all people and should lead to a “strengthening of the social logic of mutual help.” “The world is interconnected, and the sooner we understand that, the sooner we will be a true global community,” he said. “The sacrifi ces we are making point us to the path of solidarity and brotherhood among all human beings without distinction.”