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Pope Francis addressed a world severely tested by the coronavirus, saying this is not a time for indifference because everyone is suffering and must be united. In his Easter message, he said that for many this is a time of worry about an uncertain future, about jobs that are at risk and about other consequences of the current crisis, VOA News reported. 

Pope Francis said, “Indifference, self-centeredness, division and forgetfulness are not words we want to hear at this time. We want to ban these words forever!”

Delivering his Easter Urbi et Orbi message to the city and to the world in an empty Saint Peter’s Basilica at the Gates of Confession, the pope’s words this Easter resounded more strongly than ever. He said the world is “now oppressed by a pandemic severely testing our whole human family.”

After celebrating Easter Mass with a very limited number of attendants and without the faithful in Saint Peter’s Basilica, in his message the pope’s first thoughts went to the many who have been directly affected by the coronavirus.

The sick, the pope said, those who have died and family members who mourn the loss of their loved ones, to whom, in some cases, they were unable even to bid a final farewell.

The 83-year-old pope said this is an Easter of solitude lived amid the sorrow and hardship that the pandemic is causing, from physical suffering to economic difficulties. This disease, he added, has not only deprived people of human closeness, but also of the possibility of receiving consolation from the sacraments in person.

Francis expressed gratitude and affection toward the doctors and nurses who work to exhaustion and not infrequently at the expense of their own health.

In light of the present circumstances, the pope called for international sanctions to be relaxed, since they make it difficult for targeted countries to provide adequate support to their citizens.