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Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, Prefect of the Vatican Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples and President of Caritas Internationalis, in Novena:

The pandemic is making the suffering of vulnerable people – migrants and refugees, the elderly, the sick, the poor and unemployed – even deeper.

We urge our governments to ensure access to healthcare and social protection for everyone – particularly the most vulnerable.

We pray that our leaders rise to the challenge of promoting unity and a shared responsibility in all of our countries….

Can our governments admit that many of them got it wrong when they didn’t allow everyone to belong to the human family in a dignified way?

Can our societies put aside economic concerns and show that they care for everyone without exception?

In the midst of loss, uncertainty and suffering, something incredible is happening: we are noticing the bonds which form our human family. Bonds that we previously took for granted or ignored.

As we live in isolation and we all become marginalised and vulnerable, the global suffering we are seeing has made it startlingly apparent to us that we need other people and other people need us too.