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May 14, 2020 "We are all brothers". Today the pontiff quotes St. Francis of Assisi on the day when religions come together in prayer to ask for an end to the coronavirus epidemic. "Today the High Committee for Human Brotherhood has called a day of prayer and fasting to ask God mercy and mercy in this tragic moment of pandemic, "said Pope Francis at the beginning of the mass celebrated this morning in Santa Marta."We are all brothers, said St. Francis: all brothers", he added, "for this reason, men and women of all religious denominations, we join in prayer and penance, to ask for the grace of healing".
The initiative of the day of prayer and fasting is of the High Committee for human brotherhood,composed of religious leaders who are inspired by the Document on human brotherhood, signed by Pope Francis and the great imam of al-Azhar, Ahmed al-Tayyeb, on February 4, 2019. The High Committee - chaired by the cardinal and president of the Pontifical Council for interreligious dialogue, the Spanish Comboni missionary Miguel Angel Ayuso Guixot - proposes to "turn to God with one voice, to preserve humanity, to help it overcome the pandemic".
"Our world faces a serious danger today - reads the appeal of the High Committee for Human Brotherhood - that threatens the lives of millions of people around the planet, that is, the rapid spread of the coronavirus. While we confirm the importance of the role of doctors and that of scientific research in addressing this epidemic, let us not forget to turn to God the Creator in this serious crisis ".
Hence the invitation to "all people, all over the world, to turn to God by praying, pleading and fasting, every person, in every part of the world, according to his religion, faith or doctrine, for him to eliminate this epidemic, save us from this affliction, help the scientists to find a medicine that defeats it, and that He will free the world from the sanitary, economic and humanitarian consequences of the spread of this serious contagion ".