Pave Frans ser utover den tomme Petersplassen fra et vindu i Vatikanet den 13. april 2020. Foto: Vatican Media via Reuters / Scanpix.

Er Corona-pandemien “‘Moder Jord’, der straffer os for den enorme misligeholdelse”, spørger sangerinden Medina retorisk i et interview med BT, og selvom det lyder dumt, så sagde Pave Frans noget lignende et par dage senere. Pavens udtalelse er nok det mest bekymrende. Pave Frans i et interview med det katolske magasin The Tablet – Pope Francis says pandemic can be a ‘place of conversion’.

“I was curious to know if the Pope saw the crisis and the economic devastation it is wreaking as a chance for an ecological conversion, for reassessing priorities and lifestyles. I asked him concretely whether it was possible that we might see in the future an economy that – to use his words – was more ‘human’ and less ‘liquid’.

Pope Francis: There is an expression in Spanish: ‘God always forgives, we forgive sometimes, but nature never forgives’ We did not respond to the partial catastrophes. Who now speaks of the fires in Australia, or remembers that 18 months ago a boat could cross the North Pole because the glaciers had all melted? Who speaks now of the floods? I don’t know if these are the revenge of nature, but they are certainly nature’s responses.

… You ask me about conversion. Every crisis contains both danger and opportunity: the opportunity to move out from the danger. Today I believe we have to slow down our rate of production and consumption (Laudato Si’, 191) and to learn to understand and contemplate the natural world. We need to reconnect with our real surroundings. This is the opportunity for conversion.

Yes, I see early signs of an economy that is less liquid, more human. … This is the time to take the decisive step, to move from using and misusing nature to contemplating it. We have lost the contemplative dimension; we have to get it back at this time.”