Minister of Health of the Slovak Republic: full vaccination will be a condition of participation.
Minister of Health: full vaccination will be a condition for participation
Bratislava, 20th of July (TK KBS) Health Minister Vladimír Lengvarský announced that full vaccination will be a condition for attending meetings related to Pope Francis' September visit to Slovakia. "We will allow participation well beyond the measures in force, but the condition for attending holy masses and other events will be full vaccination of event participants. That way we want to make the visit of the Holy Father in Slovakia a spiritual experience for as many people as possible," the minister said. At the same time, he declared that he would make "every effort to ensure that visitors of holy masses and other events make full use of the Visit of the Holy Father and to be able to experience his words of encouragement in peace." In his words, the aim is "to create the conditions for the Holy Father to bring back fondest memories from Slovakia, and to jointly create the conditions for his entourage, but also for believers who will want to experience a profound spiritual experience, while allowing as many people, believers and others as possible, to attend public holy Masses."
The President of the Conference of Bishops of Slovakia Mons Stanislav Zvolenský responded to the minister's words and said: "We see this decision in the spirit of our request that as many people as possible be able to attend meetings with the Holy Father. We have been told that from a security point of view and in terms of technical possibilities, this is the only realistic way not to radically limit the number of participants." The Archbishop underlined the importance of the decision, and that the organizers will know what they are up to, so that they can continue to prepare for the visit, for which there are only a few weeks left. "We ask everyone to take this information in good faith as an effort to enable as many participants as possible. Of course, we also ask the faithful for prayers for the entire visit and for the health of the Holy Father, who will come to visit us in September," the archbishop added.