A leading Vatican cardinal has called the death toll due to the COVID-19 pandemic a real “massacre of the elderly”, and appealed for the world to re-think the way it cares for old people.

Italian Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, the president of the Pontifical Academy for Life, on Tuesday cited research by Tel Aviv University showing a direct proportional relationship between the number of beds in nursing homes and the number of elderly deaths in Europe whereby, in every country studied, the higher the number of beds in nursing homes, the higher the number of elderly victims.

French Father Bruno-Marie Duffè, Secretary of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, said the fact that children and young people cannot meet their elderly leads to “real psychological disorders” for both young and old, who without being allowed to see one another, could “die of another virus: Grief.”

The officials were speaking at a presentation of the document, Old age: our future. The elderly after the pandemic.

The document calls for a reform of the health care system and urges families to try to comply with the wish of the elderly who request to stay in their homes, surrounded by loved ones and their own things whenever possible.