In the Catholic Church, May is the month we set aside to pray to Mary, the mother of God. This is usually done in the form of the Rosary. This May, Pope Francis has asked all Catholics to pray the Rosary for those who have been affected by the pandemic. Because we cannot bring our students to the chapel and pray the Rosary with them, we will focus some collective worship time looking at the Rosary and how Mary can be a role model to all of us here at St Paul’s.
The Vatican has announced a rosary initiative dedicating the month of May to prayer for an end to the coronavirus pandemic.
Pope Francis has spoken about the coronavirus and its economic effects.
The COVID-19 pandemic “has demanded enormous sacrifices from each nation and its citizens,” he said. The crisis has called on “the entire international community to commit, united, with a spirit of responsibility and fraternity, to face the many challenges already in action, and those which will come.”
The pope said that he had prayed for the millions of people who have died from COVID-19 or who are suffering from the illness, as well as their families.
“The pandemic has made no distinctions and has hit people of all cultures, creeds, social and economic strata,” he said.
He has emphasised the importance of considering anti-COVID vaccination as a “universal common good.”
He said: “In this area, initiatives that seek to create new forms of solidarity at the international level are particularly welcome, with mechanisms aimed at guaranteeing an equitable distribution of vaccines, not based on purely economic criteria, but taking into account the needs of all, especially those of the most vulnerable and needy.”
“It is urgent to consider a recovery model capable of generating new, more inclusive and sustainable solutions, aimed at the universal common good, fulfilling God’s promise for all men,” Pope Francis said.
