Vatican City begins administering first doses of coronavirus vaccine

By Hannah Brockhaus for CNA

January 13, 2021 CNA Daily News News Briefs 0 Print

The Vatican is administering the coronavirus vaccine in the atrium of the Paul VI Audience Hall. Credit: Vatican Media.

Rome Newsroom, Jan 13, 2021 / 09:35 am (CNA).- Vatican City State began administering the first doses of the coronavirus vaccine on Wednesday.

Vatican residents and employees and their families are receiving their doses of the Pfizer-BioNtech vaccine in the atrium of the Paul VI Audience Hall.

Pope Francis also received his first dose of the vaccine on Jan. 13, according to Argentine newspaper La Nacion. He will reportedly receive the second dose in about three weeks.

The pope announced in a recent interview that he would be vaccinated against COVID-19. He also said he believed “that ethically everyone should take the vaccine.”

Pope emeritus Benedict XVI will also soon receive the coronavirus vaccine, according to his personal secretary, Archbishop Georg Gänswein.

Gänswein and the rest of the household at the 93-year-old Benedict’s Vatican residence, the Mater Ecclesiae Monastery, will also be vaccinated.

Dr. Andrea Arcangeli, head of the Vatican health service, told Vatican News last month that he believes “it is very important that even in our small community a vaccination campaign against the virus responsible for COVID-19 is started as soon as possible.”

Vatican City State, the world’s smallest independent nation-state, has a population of around 800 people. But together with the Holy See, the sovereign entity that predates it, it employs more than 4,000 people.

Since the beginning of the coronavirus outbreak, a total of 27 people have tested positive for COVID-19 in Vatican City State. Among them were at least 11 members of the Swiss Guard.

Pope Francis and other Vatican officials have been outspoken in calling for the fair distribution of COVID-19 vaccines, especially to the world’s neediest people.

“I ask everyone — government leaders, businesses, international organizations — to foster cooperation and not competition, and to seek a solution for everyone: vaccines for all, especially for the most vulnerable and needy of all regions of the planet,” Pope Francis said in his traditional “Urbi et Orbi” blessing on Christmas day.

The 84-year-old Pope Francis is generally healthy, though he suffers from sciatica and had eye surgery for cataracts in 2019. When he was young, he had a portion of a lung removed because of an infection.

More than 79,000 people have died from COVID-19 in Italy, according to the John Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center.

The average age of Italy’s victims is around 80, according to AP, which noted that 65% of Italy’s coronavirus dead had three or more other health problems before testing positive.

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On All Saints’ Day, Pope Francis says holiness is ‘a gift and a journey’

November 1, 2023 Catholic News Agency 2
Pope Francis speaks to pilgrims gathered in St. Peter’s Square for the Angelus on the solemnity of All Saints on Nov. 1, 2023. / Credit: Vatican Media

CNA Staff, Nov 1, 2023 / 10:46 am (CNA).

Pope Francis on Wednesday told pilgrims in St. Peter’s Square that holiness is both a “gift” from God and a “journey” to which we must “commit” ourselves after we’ve received it. 

The Holy Father delivered the remarks from the Apostolic Palace prior to a special recitation of the Angelus for the Nov. 1 solemnity of All Saints. The pope asked attendees to consider holiness in light of the feast day.

Holiness is “a gift, you can’t buy it,” Francis said. “And at the same time, it’s a journey. A gift and a journey.”

“Holiness is a gift of God, which we’ve received at baptism. And if we let it grow, it can completely change our lives,” he said.

The saints, the pope noted, “are not heroes who are unreachable or distant. They’re people like us, our friends, whose starting point is the same gift that we’ve received: baptism.”

“Holiness is a gift offered to everyone for a happy life,” the pope said. “After all, when we receive a gift, what’s our first reaction? It’s precisely that we’re happy, because it means that someone loves us. A gift of holiness makes us happy. It shows us how God loves us.”

But “every gift must be accepted, welcomed,” the pope said. And a gift “carries with it the responsibility of a response.” Holiness is “an invitation to commit ourselves,” Francis said, so that we do not squander the gift from God. 

Pilgrims gather in St. Peter's Square for the Angelus on the solemnity of All Saints, Nov. 1, 2023. Credit: Vatican Media
Pilgrims gather in St. Peter’s Square for the Angelus on the solemnity of All Saints, Nov. 1, 2023. Credit: Vatican Media

Holiness, the pope argued, is also “a journey. A journey to be made together, helping each other, united with those great companions, who are the saints.” 

“They’re our elder brothers and sisters on whom we can always count,” he said. “The saints support us, and when we take a wrong turn along the way, with their silent presence, they never fail to correct us.”

The pope urged visitors to ask themselves several questions regarding receiving the gift of holiness: “Do I remember having received the gift of the Holy Spirit, who calls me to holiness and helps me to arrive there? Do I thank the Holy Spirit for this gift? Do I feel that the saints are close to me? Do I turn to them? Do I know the history of some of them?”

“May Mary, Queen of All Saints, help us feel the joy of the gift received and increase in us the desire for our eternal destination,” he said. 

After the recitation of the Angelus, the pope noted that on Thursday he would be celebrating Mass at the nearby commonwealth war cemetery in Rome, in which are buried numerous soldiers who died in World War II.  

“Let’s continue to pray for all those suffering from the wars of today,” Francis said. “We remember suffering Ukraine, suffering Palestine, suffering Israel. Let’s remember all the other parts of the world where war is happening.”

[…]

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