Coronavirus in Italy: Millions quarantined, pope cancels Vatican address
Italy is taking drastic measures by locking down large portions of the population after coronavirus cases double; Amy Kellogg reports from Florence.
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Pope Francis is calling on Christians around the world to recite the Lord's Prayer, commonly referred to as the Our Father in the Catholic Church, on Wednesday at noon ET as the coronavirus continues to spread.
Inside the Vatican, the city-state in Italy, one of the hardest-hit countries by COVID-19, the pope tweeted Tuesday calling the faithful to unite.
"Let us pray for the pandemic to end" with one of the most common prayers, he said.
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"Let us all pray together for the sick, for the people who are suffering," Francis said, according to a translation.
Catholic churches in the United States are reaching out to other denominations to join as well, through the World Council of Churches and the Conference of European Churches.
"As St. Paul wrote, 'when one suffers, we all suffer.' Let that inspire us to work and pray together in solidarity as the body of Christ," Cardinal Blase J. Cupich, archbishop of Chicago, said in a statement provided to Fox News.
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Cupich will be joined by His Eminence, Metropolitan Nathanael of the Greek Orthodox Metropolis of Chicago; Rev. Yehiel Curry, bishop of the Metropolitan Chicago Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America; the Right Rev. Jeffrey Lee, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Chicago; and the Rev. Sally Dyck, bishop of the Northern Illinois Conference of the United Methodist Church.
Their broadcast will be livestreamed on YouTube. You can watch it here.
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Italy has been at the forefront of the fight, with nearly 7,000 deaths – higher than the count in China – as of Tuesday.
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