section_path: Papacy (2013–2025)/COVID-19 pandemic
section_name: COVID-19 pandemic
paragraph_text: COVID-19 pandemic
  
  During the COVID-19 pandemic, Francis canceled his regular general audiences at St. Peter's Square to keep crowds from gathering and spreading the virus, which had seriously affected Italy. He encouraged priests to visit patients and health workers; urged the faithful not to forget the poor during the time of crisis; offered prayers for people with the virus in China; and invoked the Blessed Virgin Mary under her title Salus Populi Romani, as the Diocese of Rome observed a period of prayer and fasting in recognition of the victims. The pontiff reacted with displeasure on 13 March 2020 to the news that the Vicar General had closed all churches in the Diocese of Rome. Despite Italy being under a quarantine lockdown, Francis pleaded "not to leave the... people alone" and worked to partially reverse the closures.
  
  On 20 March 2020, Francis asked the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development (DPIHD) to create a Vatican COVID-19 Commission to listen to concerns and develop responses for the future. On 27 March, Francis gave an extraordinary benediction Urbi et Orbi. In his homily on calming the storm in the Gospel of Mark, Francis described the setting:
  
  Dense darkness has thickened on our squares, streets and cities; it looks over our lives filling everything with a deafening silence and a desolate void that paralyzes everything in its passage: you can feel it in the air, you can feel it in your gestures....In the face of suffering, where the true development of our peoples is measured, we discover and experience the priestly prayer of Jesus: 'may all be one'.
  
  Francis maintained that getting COVID vaccination was a moral obligation. In response to the economic harm caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, Francis said that it was the time to consider implementing a universal basic wage.