Pope Francis greets his followers in the Vatican without mask a day after it was made mandatory in Italy

POPE Francis continued to refuse to wear a protective face mask as he greeted his general audience on Wednesday, October 7, at the Vatican, despite the fact that it is now mandatory to wear one both outdoors and indoors in the Vatican City.

The 83-year-old Francis appeared in the Paul VI Hall greeting the faithful flock without maintaining a safe distance. Neither did the assistant who helped him use the disinfectant gel after greeting nor did the security personnel or the Vatican photographers wear a mask

Pope Francis has welcomed several families with children, as he usually does in audiences, approaching them without any precautions and even kissing the hands of a priest.

The Governor’s Office of the Vatican City decreed a directive on Tuesday, sent in turn to the superiors of the entities of the Santa Sede, by which the mask is mandatory “daily in all outdoor places and also in work spaces in which the distance cannot always be guaranteed”. This regulation is valid for the interior of the Papal State and also its extraterritorial headquarters.

The Pope’s resistance to wearing the mask has generated astonishment in the Vatican, but yesterday it caused more confusion because it was in a closed space and the day after the Vatican ordinance. So far he has only been seen wearing a white mask on one occasion, on September 9, in the vehicle that took him to the Patio de San Dámaso. Then, when he faced the audience, he took it off.

In the private meetings that Pope Francis has in the Vatican, the Pope does not wear a mask, although they say he usually respects safety distances. It seems that it is something common in the Vatican, today some members of the Roman curia seated at a distance from the Pope during the audience also appeared without masks.

Italy has decided to force the use of the mask at all times, also outdoors, as the only measure to stop the increase in infections that is being registered this week in the country. In Lazio, the region where Rome is located, it has been mandatory to wear it in the street since last week.

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