A church in Malta is leading the race to develop a prayer than can cure Covid-19.
Several churches around the world are working tirelessly to create a prayer that will end the pandemic. But St Philip’s parish church in Żebbug says it is in pole position.
“I feel like we’re on the verge of a major breakthrough,” Żebbug parish priest Fr Mario Abdilla told Bis-Serjetà, adding that it had taken months of hard work to arrive at this stage.
“If only coming up with a prayer was as simple as doing the sign of the cross and saying ‘Dear Lord – please cure Covid-19. Amen.’ It’s a little more complicated than that. The prayer has to have the right balance of contrition, adoration and supplication. Then we have to determine whether to invoke Jesus, Mary or another saint who can intercede for us. And should the prayer be spoken, or in the form of a psalm? When is the best time to recite it? These are all issues that myself and my team have been wrestling with over the past few months. But I reckon another two lines, and we’ve cracked it,” he said.
A prayer must also go through various phases of testing.
“The prayer is first tested on animals, and then on nuns who have been intentionally infected with the virus.”
Once the prayer is finalised, it will be sent to the Vatican for approval. If successful, it will be distributed to every Catholic church in the world.
The consequences of getting it wrong, however, could be catastrophic.
“Even though we really want to beat those bastards at Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Manila, we really cannot rush this. During a test two days ago, I accidentally said ‘give us grace’ instead of ‘give us strength’, and we had those two earthquakes. Contrary to popular belief, God’s mercy is not limitless.”
Fr Abdilla also noted that various other religions were working on a cure.
“The advantage of a Catholic prayer is that you’ll only have to say it once to be cured, whereas if it were an Islamic prayer, you’d have to say it five times a day for it to be effective,” he said.
