杏MAP导航

By Vatican News

The 杏MAP导航 has recorded an interview with Papal biographer, and journalist Austin Ivereigh, on life under lockdown amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

Life in the Vatican amid Covid-19

Asked how he and the Curia are experiencing this unprecedented time, 杏MAP导航 Francis says that everyone is working despite the restrictions. 鈥淭he Curia is trying to carry on its work, and to live normally, organizing in shifts so that not everyone is present at the same time. It鈥檚 been well thought out. We are sticking to the measures ordered by the health authorities. Here in the Santa Marta residence we now have two shifts for meals, which helps a lot to alleviate the impact. Everyone works in his office or from his room, using technology. Everyone is working; there are no idlers here.鈥�

The 杏MAP导航 also reveals that he praying more and thinking of his responsibilities now, and what will come afterwards.

鈥淚鈥檓 living this as a time of great uncertainty. It鈥檚 a time for inventing, for creativity鈥�, he said. The 杏MAP导航 points out that, 鈥渢he creativity of the Christian needs to show forth in opening up new horizons, opening windows, opening transcendence toward God and toward people, and in creating new ways of being at home. It鈥檚 not easy to be confined to your house.鈥�

Speaking about the aftermath of the pandemic and his role as Head of the Church, 杏MAP导航 Francis says, 鈥渢hat aftermath has already begun to be revealed as tragic and painful, which is why we must be thinking about it now. The Vatican鈥檚 Dicastery for the Promotion of Integral Human Development has been working on this, and meeting with me.鈥�

Economy and responsibility

During the recorded interview, the 杏MAP导航 notes the 鈥渆xemplary measures鈥� a number of governments have taken to defend their citizens during the pandemic, but he adds, 鈥渨e鈥檙e realizing that all our thinking, like it or not, has been shaped around the economy. In the world of finance it has seemed normal to sacrifice [people], to practice a politics of a throwaway culture, from the beginning to the end of life.鈥�

He goes on to say that 鈥渞ight now, the homeless continue to be homeless. A photo appeared the other day of a parking lot in Las Vegas where they had been put in quarantine. And the hotels were empty. But the homeless cannot go to a hotel. That is the throwaway culture in practice.鈥�

Opportunity for conversion

During the interview, 杏MAP导航 Francis is asked whether it was possible to see an economy that is more human, and if he sees the crisis and the economic devastation it is wreaking as a chance for an ecological conversion, for reassessing priorities and lifestyles. The 杏MAP导航 responds by saying that, 鈥渆very crisis contains both danger and opportunity: the opportunity to move out from the danger. Today I believe we have to slow down our rate of production and consumption (Laudato si鈥�, 191) and to learn to understand and contemplate the natural world. We need to reconnect with our real surroundings. This is the opportunity for conversion.鈥�

鈥淵es, I see early signs of an economy that is less liquid, more human鈥�, he adds,  鈥渂ut let us not lose our memory once all this is past, let us not file it away and go back to where we were. This is the time to take the decisive step, to move from using and misusing nature to contemplating it. We have lost the contemplative dimension; we have to get it back at this time.鈥�

杏MAP导航 Francis also underlines that if we don鈥檛 鈥済o down into the underground, and pass from the hyper-virtual, fleshless world to the suffering flesh of the poor鈥�, there will be no conversion.

Next door Saints

At a time when many people are on the front lines of this pandemic, the 杏MAP导航 recalls 鈥渢he saints who live next door. 鈥淭hey are heroes: doctors, volunteers, religious sisters, priests, shop workers鈥攁ll performing their duty so that society can continue functioning.鈥� 鈥淚f we become aware of this miracle of the next-door saints鈥�, he says, 鈥渋f we can follow their tracks, the miracle will end well, for the good of all. God doesn鈥檛 leave things halfway. We are the ones who do that.鈥�

Asked if he sees emerging from this outbreak a church that is more missionary, more creative, and less attached to institutions, 杏MAP导航 Francis explains that, 鈥渢he one who makes the Church is the Holy Spirit, who is neither gnostic nor Pelagian鈥�. The 杏MAP导航 goes on to say that 鈥渨e have to learn to live in a Church that exists in the tension between harmony and disorder provoked by the Holy Spirit. If you ask me which book of theology can best help you understand this, it would be the Acts of the Apostles. There you will see how the Holy Spirit deinstitutionalizes what is no longer of use, and institutionalizes the future of the Church. That is the Church that needs to come out of the crisis.鈥�

Our confinement with all our creativity

鈥淲e have to respond to our confinement with all our creativity鈥�, the 杏MAP导航 continues. 鈥淲e can either get depressed and alienated鈥攖hrough media that can take us out of our reality鈥攐r we can get creative. At home we need an apostolic creativity, a creativity shorn of so many useless things, but with a yearning to express our faith in community, as the people of God. So: to be in lockdown, but yearning, with that memory that yearns and begets hope鈥攖his is what will help us escape our confinement.鈥�

Asked if he has a particular message for the elderly and those facing poverty at this time, the 杏MAP导航 replies by saying, 鈥渢he elderly continue to be our roots. And they must speak to the young. This tension between young and old must always be resolved in the encounter with each other.鈥� 鈥淭hose who have been impoverished by the crisis are today鈥檚 deprived, who are added to the numbers of deprived of all times, men and women whose status is 鈥榙eprived鈥欌��.

鈥淲hat I ask of people鈥�, he adds, 鈥渋s that they take the elderly and the young under their wing, that they take history under their wing, take the deprived under their wing.鈥�