Vatican calls for global prayer ‘marathon’ for end to pandemic

The Vatican announced this week a rosary initiative dedicating the month of May to prayer for an end to the coronavirus pandemic.

The Pontifical Council for the Promotion of the New Evangelization dedicated the month to a “prayer marathon” with the theme “Prayer to God went up incessantly from the whole Church.”

“The initiative will involve all the shrines of the world in a special way, so that they might encourage the faithful, families, and communities to recite the rosary to pray for an end to the pandemic,” said the council in statement on April 21.

The Marian month of prayer will be opened by Pope Francis on May 1 with the praying of the rosary that will be broadcast online. The pope will close the initiative on May 31.

Pope Francis spoke about the coronavirus and its economic effects in a video message to participants in the 27th Ibero-American Summit in Andorra on April 21.

He said the pandemic “has demanded enormous sacrifices from each nation and its citizens.”

The pontiff noted that 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 pandemic has made no distinctions and has hit people of all cultures, creeds, social and economic strata,” said the pope as he stressed the importance of considering anti-COVID vaccination as a “universal common good.”

“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,” said Pope Francis.

He said that in responding to the pandemic, attention should be paid to reforming the international debt structure and allowing access to external financing to promote economic development. - LiCAS.news