By Laura Ieraci
ROME — An American theology professor living in Italy issued a message of calm in the face of the increase in COVID-19 cases worldwide in an interview aimed at American audiences earlier this month. Dr. Lori King, who lives and works in Assisi, was interviewed by her brother, award-winning television journalist turned communications manager Keith King, who lives in Kansas City.
“It’s distressing for me to hear this wave of panic that seems to be hitting the U.S., and people stockpiling,” she said. “I don’t think it’s a time to close in and just think about ourselves. I would say we need to be prudent and not panic.”
In the video interview, posted March 19, Dr. King urged people to seek the blessings and opportunities in the midst of the challenges in the worldwide public health crisis.
“Look at this time as a time to maybe reevaluate relationships and to be together,” she said. “Take some time to do things that you wouldn’t normally have time to do. The blessing of this, in the midst of all this suffering, is that it’s giving people an opportunity to slow down, think about what’s important, reach out to each other.”
Dr. King shared how Italians are acting in the midst of the ever-growing public health crisis in Italy. At the time this article was published, Italy had suffered more than 9,100 deaths to COVID-19; more than 27,000 deaths were recorded worldwide.
“No one is stockpiling. The stores are full. The people are relatively tranquil," she said of the Italian people. "They’re very worried about what’s going to happen, but they’re doing it with courage, and they’re doing it with a sense of humour."
She pointed to the flash mobs that have been popping up all over the country of Italians singing from their balconies.
“They’re finding ways to cope,” she said. “It’s in times like these that I realize what I love about Italy and it’s the heart of the Italian people and their dedication to their families and to their faith.”
Italian officials are enforcing social distancing and emphasizing solidarity and staying connected to loved ones through phone calls or other means of communication, she added.
The mayor of Assisi wrote “a beautiful letter,” she said, stating that the community “must care for the most vulnerable in our society and the elderly, and so we need to make this sacrifice that’s going to be inconvenient, but it’s a small sacrifice to help these people out.”
Dr. King said she was not concerned about her own health, but rather that she could pass the virus onto friends who are in at-risk categories.
“Staying in alleviates that stress for me,” she said. “I’m not out so I can’t be exposing anyone unwittingly.”
Dr. King said she has been spending her time in her studio apartment and on her terrace. Working on her doctoral dissertation years ago got her used to solitude, she said. During the Italian lockdown, she pulled her dissertation off the shelf to give it another read. Her research was on hope in the Paschal sermons of St. Augustine of Hippo—an appropriate theme for the upcoming liturgical season, she said.
While none of her friends or family are suffering or have died from COVID-19, she said she feels the pain of the Italian people.
“Italians are really close to their families,” she said, noting that the majority of victims are octogenarians.
Assisi, where Dr. King lives, is a quiet, medieval town in central Italy, made famous for St. Francis, known for his peacemaking and preaching, who lived there and began his Order of Friars Minor, also known as Franciscans. Dr. King will occasionally assist The Lay Centre with international groups of university students in Italy on study abroad programs.
“I’m good actually. I’m calm,” Dr. King assured her brother. “I don’t have anything to complain about.”
