Pope Francis on Wednesday prayed that journalists and people working in communications would help people “endure” lockdowns instituted because of the coronavirus pandemic.
“I would like us to pray for those who work in the media, whose work is to communicate, today, so people do not feel so isolated. For the education of children, for information, to help everyone endure this lockdown period,” Francis said before he began his Mass, livestreamed from his residence.
In March, Francis encouraged priests to continue to minister to Catholics for similar reasons. Francis reversed a decision that had ordered that all churches in Rome be closed entirely.
“Let’s pray for this, that the Holy Spirit may give to pastors the ability for pastoral discernment so that they might provide measures which do not leave the holy, faithful people of God alone, and so that the people of God will feel accompanied by their pastors, comforted by the word of God, by the sacraments, and by prayer,” Francis said at the time.
Several people in the Vatican have tested positive for the coronavirus, including Cardinal Angelo De Donatis, who is the vicar general of the Diocese of Rome and one of Francis’s close advisers.
Italy continues to be one of the countries hardest hit by the pandemic, with more than 100,000 confirmed cases and more than 12,000 deaths.
