Pope urges govts to use virus to create fairer world

Pope Francis urged governments on Monday to use the coronavirus crisis as an opportunity to create a world that is more economically and environmentally just - and where basic health care is guaranteed for all. Francis made the appeal in his annual foreign policy address to ambassadors accredited to the Holy See, an appointment that was postponed for two weeks after he suffered a bout of sciatic nerve pain that made standing and walking difficult.

Excusing himself for the delay, Francis urged the governments represented in the Apostolic Palace to contribute to global initiatives to provide vaccines to the poor and to use the pandemic as a whole as a chance to reset what he said was a sick economic model that exploits the poor and the Earth.

"There is need for a kind of new Copernican revolution that can put the economy at the service of men and women, not vice versa," he said, referring to the 16th century paradigm shift that posited that the sun was at the centre of the universe, not Earth.

He said such an economy is "one that brings life not death, one that is inclusive and not exclusive, humane and not dehumanizing, one that cares for the environment and does not despoil it."

Francis called for basic health care to be provided to all, noting that those on the margins of society and who worked in the informal economy have been among the hardest hit by the pandemic, and have the fewest social nets needed to survive it.

"Driven by desperation, many have sought other forms of income and risk being exploited through illegal or forced labour, prostitution and various criminal activities, including human trafficking," Francis warned.

In addition to the COVID-19 devastation, Francis listed some of the areas of particular concern, starting with the coup in Myanmar, where Francis visited in 2017.

He called for political leaders to be "promptly released as a sign of encouragement for a sincere dialogue aimed at the good of the country.

He called for the war in Syria to finally end, noting that 2021 marks its 10th anniversary. He praised the recent entry into force of the UN treaty prohibiting nuclear weapons and the extension of the START treaty between the US and Russia.

He called for disarmament efforts to extend to conventional and chemical weapons, saying the world simply has too many.

He noted that children have suffered from an "educational catastrophe" with closed schools, women have been victims of domestic abuse, the faithful have been deprived of the chance to worship together and that all of humanity has been isolated and deprived of close human contact.

"Along with vaccines, fraternity and hope are, as it were, the medicine we need in today's world," he said.