Covid, Bassetti: I thought I was at the end, the Lord got my hair back

“It was a terrible ordeal and at one point I thought I had reached my limit, my limit. He was well cared for, but the disease was displaying all its negative power. But then, as the days went by, I felt like an inner push, outstretched hand: I was better, I was recovering my spirits and my condition, it was the strength of the Lord that literally grabbed my hair ”. the Cardinal Gualtiero Bassetti, 78, Florentine of Marradi, president of the CIS and archbishop of Perugia, returns today cured to the capital of Umbria after the positivity to Covid Found on October 28, hospitalization, intensive care, treatment and fear of not making it. In those dramatic days French Pope He telephoned directly to the Perugian Curia to obtain information on the cardinal’s state of health. And this information was becoming less and less heavy, until November 19, the day of discharge from the Umbrian hospital and transfer to the Gemelli in Rome for convalescence.

Your Eminence, from the Holy Father to the faithful of the diocese, all embraced him in a hug. What does it mean for a sick person to feel the love of the people around him?

“It did me a lot of good, I realized that many cared for me and with pleasure I discovered that I felt the thoughts and prayers of many people, interpreting them as support in the hardest moment of need. This disease, understood in the sense of in general, it has incredible implications that still have to be understood in all its effects. More time will have to pass for a clearer scientific picture, it is true that the consequences are tremendous, devastating and in some cases they continue until after recovery. “

But if everything human on the board of existence has a precise meaning, what does a disease like this mean for us in a historical phase of great social and spiritual uncertainty?

“It tells us that we have really exceeded that limit of omnipotence that we thought we had reached. On the other hand, the ecosystem that surrounds us is fragile and, as you can see, we are too. It is a message that we all have a duty to capture together, without divisions or fragmentations that now do not have to exist ”.

Cardinal, Covid deaths create pain in families and upset the community. Our nerves are on the edge of our skin, there is controversy over everything and the restrictions make life increasingly difficult …

“Look, this is a very difficult time, one of those time passages that can guide the world for better or for worse. We no longer have certain references to the past and we wanted to dispel some of them, meanwhile in the present we sail in sight, without a lighthouse. This disease seems to insinuate itself even in our doubts, in the uncertain reality that it is difficult for us to read correctly. That is why we must allow ourselves to be sustained by faith, now more than ever: it can give us that forward vision that in the face of pain and suffering we cannot see “.

So you speak of a modern man without perspective …

“I’m talking about a man who needs to rediscover that look towards the after. The tools are there but we are called to know how to grasp them and trust them. This virus must also be faced with solidarity, with disinterested altruism, with a good gesture from the man in favor of all other living beings. We are all put to the test, sick and not. We have to change certain behaviors, habits that have brought us to this point. The perspective is found in the facts, in the gestures, in the choices. And then the time has come to do the right thing. “