Cardinal Czerny argues that any approach to Covid-19 that does not include those most vulnerable among us is a non-solution. Who then seems to have overlooked these people?
Card. Michael Czerny S.J. was born on 18 July 1946, in Brno, Czechoslovakia (today the Czech Republic). Following his 1963 graduation from Loyola High School in Montreal, he joined the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits).
On 9 June 1973 he was ordained to the priesthood. From 1992 to 2002, Czerny served as the Social Justice Secretary at the Jesuit General Curia in Rome. He then founded and directed the African Jesuit AIDS Network from 2002 to 2010, collaborating with the Bishops’ Conferences throughout Africa and occasionally teaching at Hekima College in Nairobi.
In Rome again, from 2010 to 2016, he served as advisor to Cardinal Peter Turkson, President of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace. Since the beginning of 2017 he has been one of the two Under-Secretaries of the Migrants and Refugees Section of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development. On 1 September 2019, Pope Francis named him among the 13 new Cardinals.
Why do we seem unable to work together to manage our common home? Is the Covid pandemic considered “global” while Ebola was not, because Covid has laid waste to rich countries, while Ebola did not? Is the failure of governments that we see almost everywhere actually the failure of citizens for not demanding more of their leaders?
Cardinal Michael Czerny, who heads the Vatican’s work on refugees and migrants, offers uncomfortable answers in this “New Thinking for a New World” conversation with Alan Stoga.
Let us know what YOU think and leave a below.
Listen to the episode here or find us on a podcast platform of your choice, (Itunes, Spotify, Acast, Stitcher, Libsyn, etc).
Despite the tragedy, or precisely because of it, Covid has shifted the wrong direction the world was going heading to and catalyzed it towards a more humane world.
Governments and their societies around the world must take advantage of this new awakening and ensure we truly take a sustainable and humane path.
Yes we are together, been affected as well here in Uganda, so much hunger , people sleep without eating, no money , no work. Ebola was here but it took little time though it was deadly. Tired of corona and its lockdown
Jul 19, 2020, 10:41 PM (9 hours ago)
August,1st,2020
The Post Covid-19 era has given responsibility to each one the younger generation, scio-political activists ,thinkers ,writers etc that they should view and review all philosophies, methods,mindsets of people, needs and GREEDS of the present system and its fallouts.After 2 world wars a international body named UNO along with two thoughts of political and economic development models gave unemployment, poverty, global warming, climate change crises, shortage of safe drinking water and Coronavirus Pandemic which remained anti nature , anti human during the journey wheather it was under Marxian influence or under corporate capitalism and Coronavirus Pandemic proved totally failed systems which were unable to arrange medicine,PPE, hospitals, Quarantine centres and during lockdown thousands workers and migrant labour died due to unavailability of food, shelters, mobile facilities etc.
Both models developed only missiles,bombs,nuke weaonary etc to create conflicts and supplying arms for profit maximisation.
The foregoing evidence suggests that explanation of reality and it’s various processes as made by Marxists is neither ‘scientific truth’ as claimed by Marxists nor a ‘Falsehood ‘as advocated by the anti Marxists.So it is one sided.
However, despite its one- sided approach about nature and humankind.Marx had broken new grounds and made certain useful additions to human knowledge e.g nothing being absolute and eternal in the world every phenomenon being under constant change;. Universe and it’s various phenomenae being known able.
To accept the irrelevance of Marxism hi highly shocking when we treat it as a universal Truth’ and devotedly sacrificing for the Marxist cause.But there is no other way out except to come to terms with reality which always demands the rejection of dogmas, judgement of processes on the basis of evidence and reviewing of all such concepts which begin to conflict with new facts and experiences. In the process of change and development of various phenomenae in this universe contradiction is not a only method of change and development.Economy being an important (but not only) factor in social development; human resources (, labour)as a component (not exclusive) of capital; social nature of Mankind; and so on.
The present system was solely adopted the concept of Confrontation and Communal/Races/Ethnicities hatred to conquer the nature including humankind and exploited unlimitedly the natural and human and natural resources to make maximum profits to accomulate wealth and used each phenomenon (including humankind) as Commodity in a manner of Use and Throw.
The present realities demanding that Politics of Peace and Coexistence with behavioral attitude of Tolerance and interdependence among all diverse identities, Regional communities and nations is the way out of an alternate political and economic development model with global vision and which can defeat the Politics of Confrontation and Communal/Races hatred.
——————————-
All this demanding continuous interaction and conversations
The economic consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic call for urgent policy responses to support households and firms alike, but how this support is designed will be critical in ensuring that it does not result in enduring global market distortions.
Support packages that are time-limited, targeted, cash-based, and consistent with longer-term objectives are the basis for ensuring a sustainable recovery.
Transparency of support packages is critical for public trust, but also once the crisis is over in order to foster accountability and enable governments to learn from what worked best
Until the recent past, all the countries of the world have functioned on the basis of a political autarky which has meant that everyone seeks, exclusively, his economic interests and does not worry about the fate of others, and particularly the weakest … Thus, the United States was withdrawn into their isolationist system, Europe closed itself in its political bloc, the Gulf countries the same and the Asian countries each for its strategic interests…
In this political scheme, Africa found itself left to fend for itself, marginalized and excluded from any human development that characterizes human civilization of the third millennium. Thus, in addition to being seen as authentic colonies that have not yet been freed from their guardians, African countries have been ravaged politically, economically, humanly and socially by their own leaders; for various reasons…
Faced with this situation, local populations have been trapped by poor Governance systems, neglect and carelessness of their own leaders. Of course, when a country drowns in chronic underdevelopment, poverty, misery and diseases of all kinds spring up everywhere.
Also, the United Nations and the other international institutions have not lived up to their human mission and have been content with the superficial and small retouching, a posteriori, that do not resolve the underlying problems.
Subsequently, Globalization, which turned into an anarchic global disorder, caused each country to take refuge in its own intrinsic potential, while ignoring the rest of the world.
In addition, civil and military wars have come to complicate matters, while the expansion of social evils and extremism & fanaticism from all sides (religious, racial, etc.) have ended up destroying what remains of human values and international solidarity among leaders and populations in a number of countries (especially African).
In recent times, several pandemics and viruses (influenza, h1n1 avian influenza, Ebola, SARS, etc.) have appeared and have gone unnoticed or, at least, have not attracted too much attention and mobilized a lot of human resources , financial, sanitary, etc., because they died out at the right time.
But what made these pandemics or viruses not attracted too much attention was that they weren’t overly publicized and politically manipulated, unlike Covid-19. This is how the therapeutic management of these recent pandemics was carried out blindly and without any international solidarity on the human, health, safety level, to such an extent that the Ebola virus vaccine has not yet emerged, despite the multitude of vaccines on the market but ineffective.
It must be admitted that the majority of countries or vulnerable peoples are victims of their own partners who were supposed to protect or help them. And when the crisis worsens, grows and becomes international, they do everything to further complicate the situation … Like certain religious sects, such as El Qaida, Daesh and Boko Haram, which have massacred the most vulnerable among the poor.
Finally, the Covid-19 pandemic arose to put Humanity in front of the accomplished fact and before its conscience toward its human vocation on Earth. Because, the peoples need to unite and help each other, in a peaceful cohabitation, to survive and overcome all the plagues and natural & human disasters, because they have a common living space (Earth) and a common destiny.
The developed Western countries cannot do all for the underdeveloped countries, if those latter do not want to accept to take charge of themselves and contribute to the resolution of their complex multiform crises, for racial, clan, sectarian, regionalist, ideological and religious considerations.
Also, it is imperative to put an end to these multifaceted sects and these extremist minorities who want to tip the world into another savage and anarchic era, where notions of justice, law and humanism will no longer have any meaning.
Therefore, it is necessary to promote the spirit of human solidarity and the concept of interdependence between States and Governments in order to overcome all these multifaceted crises.
Abderrahmane AMROU
Links to articles about viruses from recent years:
https://www.futura-sciences.com/sante/actualites/epidemie-sras-ebola-zika-h1n1-sont-terminees-precedentes-epidemies-80626/
http://www.lecavalierbleu.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/extrait_158.pdf