ROME — The Vatican threatened its unvaccinated workers Wednesday while Pope Francis prayed for all those who have lost their jobs during the pandemic.

The governor of Vatican City State has decreed that employees must possess a “super green pass” attesting to vaccination against the coronavirus or proof of having recovered from the disease if they wish to continue working.

Those who attempt to go to work without the vaccine passport will be turned away and the missed time will be considered an unjustified absence without pay, the decree states. If the absence from work continues, employees will be liable for further penalties including loss of their jobs.

Three Swiss Guards already have already resigned from the corps when faced with the obligation to receive the vaccine if they wished to continue in the Vatican’s employ.

Pope Francis arrives to lead an open-air mass on September 15, 2021 in Sastin, Slovakia. Only fully vaccinated and a limited number of tested worshippers have been allowed to attend public gatherings on this occasion. (Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images)

In a curious juxtaposition, the same day that the Vatican decree was released Pope Francis lamented the loss of work of so many people because of the coronavirus pandemic, which has led some to commit suicide.
“In these times of pandemic, many people have lost their jobs — we know this — and some, crushed by an unbearable burden, reached the point of taking their own lives,” Francis stated during his General Audience Wednesday. “I would like to remember each of them and their families today. Let us take a moment of silence, remembering these men, these women, who are desperate because they cannot find work.”

“Not enough consideration is given to the fact that work is an essential component of human life, and even of the path of sanctification,” the pope said, adding that work is not only a means of earning a living but also a place where people “feel useful.”

“I think of those who are out of work,” he said. “How many people go knocking on the doors of factories, of businesses asking ‘Is there anything to do?’ — ‘No, there’s nothing, there’s nothing.’ I think of those who feel their dignity wounded because they cannot find this work.”

“What gives you dignity is earning bread — and if we don’t give our people, our men and women, the ability to earn bread, that is a social injustice in that place, in that nation, in that continent,” he said.