Posted: Tuesday, December 29, 2020. 1:36 pm CST.
By Aaron Humes: The head of the Roman Catholic Church, Pope Francis, has said the “lights of hope” represented by COVID-19 vaccines must be available to all “to illuminate and bring hope to all,” according to National Public Radio.
He made the remarks in his Christmas address after The Vatican earlier this month said the use of coronavirus vaccines is “morally acceptable,” even if some vaccines are manufactured using “cell lines from aborted fetuses in their research and production process.”
The pontiff, due to COVID-19 restrictions, was speaking to a smaller audience from his official residence at the Apostolic Palace rather than the usual venue of the outdoor central balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica. The blessing, known in Latin as Urbi et Orbi (“to the City [of Rome] and to the World”) is delivered at Easter and Christmas time annually.
The pope used the occasion to highlight the need for countries to help each other “in the face of a challenge that knows no borders.”
“We cannot allow the various forms of nationalism closed in on themselves to prevent us from living as the truly human family that we are,” Francis said. “Nor can we allow the virus of radical individualism to get the better of us and make us indifferent to the suffering of other brothers and sisters.”
Argentine Francis, who turned 84 earlier this month, urged that everyone who needs a vaccine have access to it.
“I cannot place myself ahead of others, letting the law of the marketplace and patents take precedence over the law of love and the health of humanity,” Francis said. “I ask everyone — government leaders, businesses, international organizations — to foster cooperation and not competition, and to seek a solution for everyone: vaccines for all, especially for the most vulnerable and needy of all regions of the planet.”
In Italy, where more than 14,000 people have died so far this month, a nationwide lockdown went into effect on Christmas Eve.
Italy was set to deliver the first doses of a COVID-19 vaccine Sunday, the Associated Press reports. As in other countries, health care workers and nursing home residents will be first to receive it. Seniors and others at high risk of exposure would be next.
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