CNA Staff, 26 March, 2021 / 5:00 pm (ACI Africa).
The Vatican plans to vaccinate 1,200 people living in poverty during Holy Week with the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine.
The Office of Papal Charities is offering doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, purchased by the Holy See and offered by the Lazzaro Spallanzani Hospital through the Vatican COVID-19 Commission, to “the poorest and most marginalized people who, because of their situation, are the most exposed to the virus,” according to a statement released March 26.
Cardinal Konrad Krajewski oversees the Office of Papal Charities, the Vatican department that offers charitable assistance to the poor on behalf of the pope. Krajewski himself was hospitalized with COVID-19 for 10 days in December but recovered.
The papal almoner has also set up a webpage where people can sponsor the vaccination of a person in need through an online donation to the Office of Papal Charities.
The vaccine will be administered to the poor by volunteer medical workers in the Vatican’s Paul VI Hall, where Pope Francis and Vatican employees were vaccinated beginning in 2021.
