Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Secretary of State of His Holiness, said that “COVID-19 both exposed and aggravated social fragmentation, at times with the result that older persons were abandoned and many young people suffered from isolation and loneliness, inhibiting their personal and affective development.”
“Therefore, greater attention should be given to mental health, particularly that of the youth, while accompanying people in discovering that life has value, that each of us is loved, awaited and called to a task in the world,” Cardinal Parolin said at a recent UN meeting on pandemics.
Cardinal Parolin reiterated the Holy See’s position that “universal health coverage is a moral imperative, which is rooted in the principle of the ‘equality of all in dignity and rights’ and which reflects our increasing interdependence and interconnectedness.”