#104
Pope Francis on Mask Debates

As debates rage about directives to wear masks as a protection against COVID-19 infection, Pope Francis took a clear stance on the importance of considering the health of others: “It’s illusory to make individualism the guiding principle of society.” He warned against the "adolescent resistance" of some priests, and instead praised health care workers and “the pastoral zeal and creative concern of priests [which] has helped people in their faith journeys and given them companionship in the presence of pain or fear." He emphasized that most priests were “obedient and creative” in remaining close to their flock in the difficult months of the pandemic. “They were fathers, not adolescents.”  
 
These remarks were made last Sunday (June 21), when Pope Francis spoke to a group of doctors, nurses, and health workers from the northern Italian region of Lombardy, one of those hardest hit by the pandemic. He praised their tireless efforts, courage, and compassion: of 150 doctors who have died in Italy during the pandemic, 51 were from the Lombardy region. An estimated 121 Italian priests have also died because of the pandemic. The Pope called their commitment to care "a visible sign of a heart-warming humanity.”

The backdrop is continuing tensions around public authority to regulate aspects of religious practice, which began with closing churches. Some have resisted such restrictions even during the height of the pandemic. Catholic Cardinal Raymond Burke, for example, issued an open letter on March 21, stating that access to Mass and the sacraments must not be denied even as the world faces the coronavirus pandemic. Pope Francis, however, has stayed firm in his messages of positive energy, creativity, community, and spiritual unity. “This way, we will emerge from this crisis spiritually and morally stronger.”

(Based on: June 22, 2020, Religion News Service article.)