Cardinal Tagle: ‘Physical distancing’ should not remove ‘community caring’
Church • 11:30 AM Sun Mar 29, 2020
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By:
CBCP
Luis Antonio Cardinal Tagle, Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples.
As he echoed the call for “physical distancing” to slow the spread of coronavirus, a Vatican official said the practice should not eliminate “community caring”.
Speaking during Mass for the Feast of the Annunciation on Wednesday, Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle said that the pandemic calls for compassion.
“I know we need physical distancing and that is needed and we are appealing to everyone to observe it where possible,” Tagle said in his homily at the Pontificio Collegio Filippino in Rome.
“But the feast of today reminds us that physical distancing should not lead to forgetfulness of neighbor,” he said.
The cardinal, who heads the Vatican’s Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, stressed that physical distancing is for the “common good” and the response “should be common for all”.
“And that is what is needed today. This is a pandemic and this crisis affects all people and so we should think of all and the response should be for the common good,” he added.
“As we observe physical distancing, let us not forget the communal caring. That’s what Jesus did, God with us,” Tagle also said.