Post-pandemic world must learn from mistakes, pope says

VATICAN CITY — The uncertainty and death brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic can be an opportunity for humanity to reflect on how to build a better world, Pope Francis said in a new book.

“The world will never be the same again. But it is precisely within this calamity that we must grasp those signs that can prove to be the cornerstones of reconstruction,” the pope said.

The book, titled “Dio e il Mondo che Verra” (“God and the World to Come”), was written with Italian journalist Domenico Agasso and was to be published by the Vatican publishing house March 16. An excerpt was published March 14 on Vatican News.

The pope denounced the manufacturing and trafficking of weapons where large sums of money are spent “that should be used to cure people and save lives. It is no longer possible to pretend that a dramatically vicious cycle of armed violence, poverty and senseless and indifferent exploitation of the environment has not crept in,” he said. “It is a cycle that prevents reconciliation, fuels human rights violations and hinders sustainable development.”

The world instead must be “fraternally united” to face common threats without resorting to “counterproductive recriminations, the exploitation of problems, shortsighted nationalism, propaganda, isolationism and other forms of political selfishness,” the pope said.

And while the pope said the world won’t be the same after the pandemic, he insisted men and women can turn “this time of trial” to “a time of wise and farsighted choices for the good of all humanity.”