Pope tells leaders pandemic opportunity for change

Pope Francis has urged world leers to use coronavirus emergency as an opportunity to reform injustices of global economy.

Francis laid out his appeal for greater involvement and influence of United Nations in protecting poor, migrants and environment in a videotaped speech Friday to United Nations General Assembly, held mostly virtually this year because of pandemic.

Francis said world has a choice to make as it tries to emerge from COVID-19 crisis and dress grave economic impact it has h on planet's most vulnerable: greater solidarity and multilateralism, or a self-retreat into greater "individualism and elitism."

"We never emerge from a crisis just as we were. We come out eir better or worse. This is why, at this critical juncture, it is our duty to rethink future of our common home and our common project," he said.

Francis is expected to lay out furr his vision for need for solidarity in post-COVID world in an encyclical to be released October 4.