Pope uses mask, sanitizer as he appeals for public health

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis wore a face mask and used hand sanitizer Wednesday as he appealed for the faithful to look out for the health of others as well as themselves during the coronavirus pandemic.

Francis took off the mask as his car pulled into the San Damaso courtyard inside the Apostolic Palace, where last week he resumed his weekly public audiences after a nearly six-month COVID-19 shutdown.

While chairs were spaced out in the courtyard, the limited crowd massed along the barriers as Francis passed by and some lowered their masks to call out to him. The 83-year-old pope, who lost part of one lung to illness when he was young, loves plunging into crowds but tried to keep his distance and urged the crowd to stick to their seats to avoid contagion.

An aide squirted some hand sanitizer in Francis’ hands after he greeted the well-wishers and before he approached his cleric translators on the podium. It was the first time the pope has been seen in public wearing a mask and using hand sanitizer.

During his remarks, Francis lamented that “partisan interests” were emerging in which some nations and groups are seeking to keep vaccines for themselves, or to further their own political or economic interests.

“The coronavirus is showing us that each person’s true good is a common good and, vice versa, the common good is a true good for the person," he said. “Health, in addition to being an individual good, is also a public good. A healthy society is one that takes care of everyone’s health.”

Francis is expected to elaborate on the need for the world to seek out the common good after the pandemic in an upcoming encyclical that he will sign next month during a private visit to Assisi, birthplace of his namesake, St. Francis.