Condemning anti-lockdown protesters, Pope Francis said: “On the other hand, we have an increase in numbers of those who mercilessly profited from the misfortune of others, those who think only about themselves, who protested or complained about certain restrictive measures, unable to accept that not everyone has the same abilities and resources to face the pandemic.”

He continued: “We need change.

“The pandemic brought our organisational and developmental models into crisis; it has exposed many injustices, the troubling silence and social and health failures, subjecting a great number of our brothers to the processes of social exclusion and degradation.”