The Vatican COVID-19 Commission is an institution created by Pope Francis to express the Church’s solicitude facing the COVID-19 pandemic, and propose responses to the potential socio-economic challenges deriving from it.
[1] On 20 March 2020, Pope Francis asked the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development (DPIHD) to create a Commission to "prepare the future" through actions of support to local churches to save human lives and help the poorest,[2] and through the analysis and reflection on the socioeconomic challenges that have risen with this crisis and the proposal of criteria to face them.
In an interview with Vatican News, Cardinal Peter Turkson explained the nature and the background of the Commission:[1] The Pope is convinced that we are living through an epochal change, and he is reflecting on what will follow the crisis, on the economic and social consequences of the pandemic, on what we will have to face, and above all on how the Church can offer itself as a safe point of reference to the world lost in the face of an unexpected event.
[3][4] The Commission regularly publishes a newsletter which collects and summarises the results of its research and scientific reflection on these four disciplines.
[5] The Vatican COVID-19 Commission has elaborated various materials, reflections and messages, for instance the Catechesis offered by Pope Francis during his General Audiences[6] in August and September 2020, gathered in the book To Heal the World,[7][8] Catechesis on the pandemic, the book Life after the pandemic[9][10] and the e-book based on the Rosary Crisis and Health,[11][12] among others.