Pope Francis takes aim at anti-mask protesters: ‘They are incapable of moving outside of their own little world’ – By Quentin Fottrell (Marketwatch) / Nov 272020
The Spanish Steps are free of tourists. The Trevi Fountain is blocked off with yellow ‘caution’ tape. Two nuns cut a dramatic silhouette across an empty Peter’s Square
In his new book, “Let Us Dream: The Path to a Better Future,” to be released Dec. 1, the head of the 1.3 billion–member Roman Catholic Church lambastes those who protest the health measures aimed at reducing the spread of COVID-19: “Some groups protested, refusing to keep their distance, marching against travel restrictions — as if measures that governments must impose for the good of their people constitute some kind of political assault on autonomy or personal freedom,” he writes.
He goes further, and contrasts those who dig in against health measures with anti-mask protests. “You’ll never find such people protesting the death of George Floyd, or joining a demonstration because there are shanty towns where children lack water or education, or because there are whole families who have lost their income,” he adds. “On such matters, they would never protest; they are incapable of moving outside of their own little world of interests.”
The pontiff is pictured on the cover, with a sky-blue background and a dove, but inside he vents his frustration at how some have handled the pandemic. Indeed, the publisher says he offers “a scathing critique of the systems and ideologies that conspired to produce the current crisis, from a global economy obsessed with profit and heedless of the people and environment it harms, to politicians who foment their people’s fear and use it to increase their own power at their people’s expense.”
One month into national restrictions that closed cinemas, pools and gyms, and require restaurants and bars to close at 6 p.m., people took to the streets to show their ire over the impact on their businesses. There have been demonstrations in the northern cities of Turin, Genoa and Milan and smaller cities like Florence, Palermo on the island of Sicily, and in Naples. In one incident of many such incidents, a Gucci luxury-goods store was looted in Turin.
