New COVID-19 rules for visitors to Vatican Museums

CNA Staff   By CNA Staff

January 13, 2022 Catholic News Agency News Briefs 1 Print

 

The Vatican Museums. / Daniel Ibáñez/CNA.

Vatican City, Jan 13, 2022 / 04:10 am (CNA).

Visitors to the Vatican Museums must show a pass certifying full vaccination or recovery from COVID-19 and wear medical-grade masks under new measures announced on Wednesday.

A decree issued on Jan. 5 by Archbishop Fernando Vérgez Alzaga, president of the Pontifical Commission for Vatican City State, said that every visitor to the museum must present a Super Green Pass and wear an FFP2 mask, the European equivalent of an N95.

The rules, introduced in light of “the worsening of the emergency health situation,” went into effect on Jan. 10 and are due to expire on Feb. 28.

The ordinance, also signed by Sister Raffaella Petrini, secretary general of the Vatican’s governorate, brings the Vatican City State’s norms into line with those of Italy.

The Italian government passed a decree in December requiring citizens to be either vaccinated or show proof of recovery from COVID-19 to visit museums or other tourist sites.

The new restrictions, which came into force in the country this week, ban citizens without a Super Green Pass from entering restaurants, public transportation, gyms, hotels, theaters, and sports events.

The number of visitors to the Vatican Museums fell by 5.6 million from 2019 to 2020 due to nearly five months of closure amid Italy’s COVID-19 lockdowns.

The loss in ticket sales — a major source of revenue for the Holy See — continued into 2021 as the museums were closed on and off for the first half of the year.

The attraction, which is among the most-visited museums in the world and offers access to the Sistine Chapel, presents a detailed guide to admission rules on its website.

All visitors to the museums must undergo a temperature check, wear an FFP2 mask both indoors and outdoors, and maintain a distance of more than three feet from others.

The Jan. 5 decree applies to everyone working in Vatican City State, the sovereign city-state located within the city of Rome.

The ordinance permits only essential work trips and underlines that governorate staff without a Super Green Pass will be considered unjustifiably absent and their pay suspended. If they remain absent, they will face disciplinary action.

The decree says that exemptions will be considered on a case-by-case basis.

Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin issued a decree on Dec. 23 stating that people seeking to enter the offices of the Roman Curia must provide proof of vaccination against COVID-19 or evidence of recovery from it.

The decree extends not only to curial officials, but also to “external collaborators” and all other visitors.

Parolin told the National Catholic Register on Jan. 9 that granting an exemption to Vatican employees concerned about the vaccine’s links to cell lines from aborted fetuses “seems not to be justified.”

Italy, one of the countries hit hardest by the pandemic’s first wave, has recorded 7,971,068 COVID-19 cases and 139,872 related deaths as of Jan. 13, according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center.

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Pope Francis: Let Mary teach you what to do in the New Year

January 1, 2023 Catholic News Agency 3
Pope Francis’ Angelus message on Jan. 1, 2023, marked the Solemnity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of God. An estimated 40,000 people gathered in St. Peter’s Square for the event. / Vatican Media

Rome Newsroom, Jan 1, 2023 / 08:31 am (CNA).

Let Mary, the Mother of God, be your guide in the New Year, Pope Francis said on Sunday, the first day of 2023.

In his Angelus address before a crowd of an estimated 40,000 people in St. Peter’s Square Jan. 1, the pope said: “As we contemplate Mary in the stable where Jesus was born, let us ask ourselves: What languages does the Holy Virgin use to speak to us? How does Mary speak?”

“What can we learn from her for this year that is dawning?” he added. “We can say: Virgin Mary, teach us what we should do this year.”

The pope’s message preceding the Angelus prayer was delivered on the Solemnity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of God. Pope Francis also celebrated Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica earlier in the day to mark the feast day.

At the beginning of his Angelus message, Pope Francis remembered his predecessor, Benedict XVI, who died on Dec. 31 at the age of 95.

Echoing his words at Mass Sunday, he invited Catholics to invoke the Virgin Mary’s intercession for Benedict. “Let us all join together, with one heart and one soul, in thanking God for the gift of this faithful servant of the Gospel and of the Church,” he said.

‘The language of love’

His Angelus reflection focused on the “language of Mary,” specifically her tenderness and care for the Baby Jesus.

The Gospel of Luke describes the shepherds’ encounter with the Holy Family, and how they saw the infant Jesus “lying in the manger.”

“This verb ‘to lay’ means to carefully place, and tells us that the language proper to Mary is maternal: She tenderly takes care — this is the language of Mary — to tenderly take care of the Child. This is Mary’s greatness,” he said.

He described a noisy scene: the angels celebrating Christ’s birth and the shepherds running to meet Jesus with everyone loudly praising God.

Instead, “Mary does not speak,” Francis said, “she does not steal the show — we like to steal the show! On the contrary, she puts the Child in the center, she lovingly takes care of him.”

The pope recalled a line of poetry from the Italian writer Alda Merini, which says that Mary “even knew how to be solemnly mute, […] because she did not want to lose sight of her God.” 

All mothers do the same, he said: “After having carried the gift of a mysterious prodigy in her womb for nine months, mothers constantly put their babies at the center of their attention: They feed them, they hold them in their arms, they tenderly lay them down in the crib.”

The Mother of God’s language is “a language of a mother,” he added.

Mary, Pope Francis said, “reminds us that, if we truly want the New Year to be good, if we want to reconstruct hope, we need to abandon the language, those actions and those choices inspired by egoism, and learn the language of love, which is to take care.”

He continued: “This is the commitment: to take care of our lives, of our time, of our souls; to take care of creation and the environment we live in; and even more, to take care of our neighbor, of those whom the Lord has placed alongside us, as well as our brothers and sisters who are in need and who call for our attention and our compassion.”

[…]

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