The Pontifical Academy for Life has released a document on the lessons the human family can learn from the Covid-19 pandemic, and urged everyone to develop an ethics of risk and solidarity to protect the most vulnerable of society.

“Humana communitas in the age of pandemic: Untimely meditations on life’s rebirth” is the title of the document released on Wednesday by the Pontifical Academy for Life.
The document opens with a statement of fact: “Covid-19 has brought desolation to the world.” Despite the situation we find ourselves in, we are “summoned to the courage of resistance.”

The human community is therefore invited to take a step back and give thanks for the gift of life we have been given, in order to turn our predicament into “a passageway to life’s rebirth”.

HARD-LEARNED LESSONS
The first part of the text explores the hard reality of lessons learned from the pandemic.
Reflecting on the spectre of empty streets and mutual mistrust, the document says the pandemic has “deprived us of the exuberance of embraces, the kindness of hand shakings, the affection of kisses, and turned relations into fearful interactions among strangers, the neutral exchange of faceless individualities shrouded in the anonymity of protective gear.”

This reality has taught us the lesson of fragility, as we hear about people falling victim to Covid-19, regardless of their age, social status, or health conditions. We are reminded that we are all frail and “radically marked by the experience of finitude at the core of our existence.”

As a result, the document affirms, we are called to recognize that life is a gift.