Life after the pandemic; the path to a better future

I closed my column in the Jan. 1 issue of The Catholic Commentator with a promise to write in this issue about Pope Francis’ new years’ resolutions.  He had published a very short book of only 63 pages in paperback entitled “Life after the Pandemic.”  It contained eight of the pope’s spoken and written texts from March 27, when he spoke alone in the darkness of St. Peter’s square at the beginning of Italy’s virus lockdown, to April 22.  Well, since I made that promise, the pope has given us a Christmas present published just before the feast, a substantial book of 149 pages, entitled “Let Us Dream: The Path to a Better Future,”  written in conversation with Austen Ivereigh, his British biographer.  In it, the pope talks about the pandemic as an invitation to correct the weaknesses in our national social, ecological and economic structures.  What I am writing about now comes from both books.

As Pope Francis makes suggestions about correcting these weaknesses exposed by the pandemic, he tells us about the experiences in his own life that motivated him to write his encyclicals and exhortations and to call the synods he has convened about every other year in his eight-year papacy.  This is a pope who came to the papacy with a deeper pastoral and practical experience than many of his predecessors.  He doesn’t hesitate to give his own take on economic, ecological, political and social problems which plague all of the nations on our planet.  He does so, of course, from his own South American experience as archbishop of Buenos Aires, Argentina, and also as a leader of the South American bishops at the Aparecida Conference of 2007 in Brazil.  A word of caution, however.  Pope Francis, in these books and many of his other speeches and writings, talks about the “free market.”  He is not talking about the stock market but about the whole global economy in all of the nations where a free market economy (not totally controlled by the government) exists.  

As we head into 2021, Pope Francis, in his first little book, “Life after the Pandemic,” urges us to develop the virtue of empathy and not be stricken by the “virus of indifference” to the suffering of others who may survive, but will be left with real damage to their health, their finances, their small businesses and their chances of future employment.  The resolution we should make is that we “be profoundly shaken by what is happening all around us” and see ourselves “as part of a single family and support one another.”

Many nations have devoted so much effort and capital to manufacturing and selling arms.  We now see that we need “arms of a different sort to fight disease and ease suffering, starting with all the equipment needed for clinics and hospitals worldwide.”  We must resolve to prepare better for future medical emergencies.

By ourselves alone we are insufficient.  Like Jesus’ disciples caught by a storm on the Sea of Galilee, we must call upon God’s strength to turn “to the good everything that happens to us, even the bad things.  He brings serenity into our storms, because with God life never dies.”  We must resolve to pray constantly for strength, patience and serenity as we struggle to overcome this pandemic.
Pope Francis says that an “emergency like that of COVID-19 is overcome with, above all, the antibodies of solidarity.”  This will be certainly true, as the medical experts tell us that at least 70% of our population must be vaccinated if we are to halt completely the spread of the virus.  Our resolution should be to get ourselves vaccinated as quickly as possible and urge family members, friends and fellow workers to do the same.  

In his longer, recently published book, “Let us Dream: The Path to a Better Future,”  Pope Francis reminds the world that “the basic rule of a crisis is that you don’t come out of it the same.  If you get through it, you come out better or worse, but never the same.”  We grow or don’t in the trials of life.  In them our heart is revealed whether it is big and merciful or small and only self-protective.  We are all tested in life, and not only as individuals but also as peoples.  Governments have to choose to protect the people first or the economy first.  He says that some governments “have mortgaged their people.”

Pope Francis returns to his Hispanic roots to describe the moral direction we should take in the pandemic.  “It is a moment to dream big, to rethink our priorities. We need economies that give to all access to the fruits of creation, to the basic needs of life: to land, lodging and labor.”  He calls these basic needs the three T’s (tierra, techo, y trabajo).  He stresses that we must not leave anyone behind, saying, “We need politics that integrate and dialogue with the poor, the excluded and the vulnerable, that give people a say in the decisions that impact their lives.”  As archbishop of Buenos Aires, he used to walk through the villas miseria (misery towns), the slums  at the outskirts of the city, talking to those who lived there.  He learned what they really needed and asks how can they social distance without room or wash when there is no clean water. The crisis has exposed these situations.  And the same is true for refugee camps around the world.  He closes this section by saying that we ought to “remember the truth that God put in our hearts: that we belong to him and to each other.”  The resolution he would urge is for each of us to find some small way to help these people and let the spirit of God lead our imaginations to dream better and larger ways.
Pope Francis praises the many governments who have put the well-being of their people first and acted decisively to protect health and save lives in this pandemic.  He criticizes protest groups who have refused to obey legitimate government requests to wear masks and keep social distance requirements.  He says they “are victims only in their own imagination as if such restrictions constitute some kind of political assault on autonomy or personal freedom!”  The resolution is for us all to realize that “looking to the common good is much more than the sum of what is good for individuals. It means having a regard for all citizens and seeking to respond effectively to the needs of the least fortunate.”  The resolution is to not turn into a cultural battle “what was in truth an effort to ensure the protection of life.”

During the meeting mentioned before at Aparecida, Brazil in 2007, Pope Francis says that he was on the committee drafting the concluding document, and at first was annoyed by the bishops of the Amazon Region wanting so much of it to be about their area.  Yet as time went on, through news stories and encounters with many people, his eyes were opened to the seriousness of the ecological problem there. He slowly came to see “how humanity’s fate is inseparably bound up with that of our common home.”  After his election as pope, he gathered expert scientists in ecology and theology and they worked until they reached a synthesis.  However, he insists that “Laudato Si’ is not a green encyclical.  It is a social encyclical. The green and the social go hand in hand.  The fate of creation is tied to the fate of all humanity.”  He adds that “when we neglect Mother Earth we lose not just what we need to survive but the wisdom to live together well.”  We ought to resolve to do our part to improve our common home.

There is much more in the book but this will have to do for a newspaper column.  I truly urge you to get the book.  It is available on Kindle.  As Pope Francis writes, a stoppage in our usual life, as has occurred during this pandemic, “can always be a good time for sifting, for reviewing the past, for remembering with gratitude who we are, what we have been given, and where we have gone astray.”  

Father Carville is a retired priest in the Diocese of Baton Rouge and writes on current topics for The Catholic Commentator. He can be reached at [email protected].