Pontifical Academy for Life:
pandemic challenges human fraternity
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| Field hospital for COVID-19 patients in Sweden (ANSA) |
In a Note on the Covid-19 emergency, the Pontifical Academy
for Life says the pandemic is an opportunity for the “spirit of humanism to
influence institutional culture”.
By Vatican News
The Pontifical Academy for Life has issued a Note on the
Covid-19 emergency entitled “Pandemic
and Universal Brotherhood”. The document calls for “an alliance between
science and humanism” that should guide our response to the crisis.
Reciprocity the basis of life
The current situation has led us to understand “the
precariousness that radically characterizes our human condition”. We are not
“masters of our own fate”; on the contrary, our lives are interconnected and
interrelated. This leads to an awareness “of the reciprocity that is at the
basis of our life”.
Noting the concerns that have arisen with regard to personal
rights and freedoms, the Academy asserts that rights have corresponding duties.
“The coexistence of free and equal persons is an exquisitely ethical question,
not a technical one”.
Special care for the old and weak
Our social bonds are being put to the test at the present
time, says the Academy. It warns that political decisions should not be based
solely on scientific data, but must take into account ethical and moral
considerations, as well. For instance, health care should be guided by
prudential decisions on the best possible use of treatments based on the needs
of the patients. If rationing of care becomes absolutely necessary – and it
should always be a “last resort” – the criteria for such rationing must not
discriminate against the old and weak. It be based instead “on solid arguments,
to avoid arbitrariness or improvisation in emergency situations”.
Attention to the most fragile
The document insists on “particular attention to those who
are most fragile”, especially the elderly and those with special needs. “Every
form of solicitude, every expression of benevolence, is a victory of the
Resurrected Jesus”, it says. At the same time, we must not forget “the other
calamities that affect the most fragile”: refugees, and victims of war and
hunger.
The unstoppable power of prayer
Finally, the Academy offers reflections on the importance of
intercessory prayer. “Where evangelical closeness meets a physical limit or
hostile opposition, intercession – founded in the Crucifix – retains its
unstoppable and decisive power, even should people seem not to live up to God’s
blessing”, it says. Prayer helps us “to come to terms with the tragic mystery
of death, the fear of which is part of all our stories today”.
The shared witness of universal brotherhood, which can be
seen even by non-believers, “points toward the best part of the human
condition”. The Academy affirms, in conclusion, that, “Humanity that, for the
sake of life as an unwaveringly common good, does not abandon the field in
which human beings love and toil together, earns the gratitude of all and the
respect of God”.
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