His gestures have always made big impressions, but if any will go down in history, it's this one.
Beneath the rain, with a temperature of 52 degrees Fahrenheit, and in front of an imposing and deserted St. Peter's Square, Pope Francis sent a message to all of humanity in light of the coronavirus pandemic.
WE ARE IN THE SAME BOAT
POPE FRANCIS
We have realized that we are in the same boat, all of us fragile and disoriented, but at the same time, important and needed.
WE FIND OURSELVES AFRAID AND LOST
No war could obtain what this pandemic has obtained: a desolate St. Peter's Square, dominated by an unrelenting silence.
POPE FRANCIS
Thick darkness has gathered over our squares, our streets and our cities. It has taken over our lives, filling everything with a deafening silence and a distressing void, that stops everything as it passes by. We feel it in the air. We notice in people's gestures. Their glances give them away. We find ourselves afraid and lost.
OUR FAÇADES FALL AWAY
Pope Francis speaks to the world, not distinguishing between creeds. He says this difficult time has exposed society's vulnerabilities and false certainties.
POPE FRANCIS
In this storm, the façade of those stereotypes with which we camouflaged our egos, always worrying about our image, has fallen away. We carried on unperturbed, thinking we would stay healthy in a world that was sick.
WE DID NOT STOP
Amid the storm and in front of suffering, where the true development of society is measured, one discovers the need to be united.
POPE FRANCIS
We have gone ahead at breakneck speed, feeling powerful and able to do anything. Greedy for profit, we let ourselves get caught up in things, and lured away by haste. (...) We were not shaken by wars or injustice across the world, nor did we listen to the cry of the poor or of our ailing planet.
THE TIME OF OUR JUDGEMENT
Pope Francis' face expresses the emotions of all humanity: fear, sadness and hope. In the solitude of night, in this quasi-apocalyptic scene, he asks God to stop the storm.
POPE FRANCIS
You are calling on us to seize this time of trial as a time of choosing. It is not the time of your judgment, but of our judgment: a time to choose what matters and what passes away, a time to separate what is necessary from what is not.
This scene will undoubtedly remain engraved in the memory of humanity. The world will remember a pope who accepts that “our faith is weak” and that “we are afraid,” but who nonetheless stands firm through the storm.
Daniel Díaz Vizzi
Translation: Claudia Torres
