Having Been Criticized, Pope Francis Finally Wore A Mask At A Public Event

Pope Francis (Ashwin Vaswani / Unsplash)

JAKARTA - Pope Francis wore a mask for the first time at a public event on Tuesday, October 20 when he and other religious leaders attended prayer services for peace around the world.

During the service which took place at the Basilica of Santa Maria in Rome, the Pope wore a white mask. Previously, he only wore a mask in the car which led him to the weekly audience at the Vatican.

He has come under criticism, especially on social media, for not wearing a mask at public events which sometimes leads to close contact with visitors. The 83-year-old attended the service with other Christian leaders at the basilica, including Patriarch Bartholomew, the spiritual leader of Orthodox Christianity.

Simultaneously in other locations in Rome, Jews prayed at the city's synagogue and Buddhist, Sikh, Hindu and Muslim leaders also prayed for peace. The pope only took off his mask when reading speeches, as other leaders do when they spoke, and put it back on when he finished speaking.

The event continued in the adjacent Campidoglio square designed by Michelangelo, where Christian and non-Christian religious leaders read speeches, some of which were messages to politicians. "Peace is the priority of all politics," said the Pope.

"God will hold accountable those who fail to seek peace, or who inflame tensions and conflicts. He will call them to account for all the days, months and years of war the nations of the world have experienced."

Pope Francis said the pandemic had shown that "no one can survive on his own". The incident occurred as the number of people testing positive for the coronavirus has continued to rise in Italy in recent weeks.

Italy recorded 10,874 new cases of COOVID-19 in the past 24 hours, up from 9,338 cases on Monday, October 19. There was a relatively small spike in cases at the Vatican, where four members of the Swiss Guard, the elite corps tasked with protecting the whales, also tested positive for COVID-19.

The annual prayer was started by the late Pope John Paul and the Roman Catholic Community of Sant 'Egido in 1986. The event was scaled back this year due to the coronavirus pandemic. Justin Welby, Archbishop of Canterbury and world Anglican spiritual leader, was supposed to attend this year's event but canceled due to restrictions in place to reduce the spread of COVID-19.