ROME — Pope Francis made a pilgrimage to two of Rome’s historic shrines Sunday afternoon to pray for an end to the coronavirus pandemic.
Francis first traveled to the Basilica of Saint Mary Major to pray before an ancient image of Mary as Salus Populi Romani (Health — or Salvation — of the Roman People), traditionally thought to have been painted by Saint Luke, and then visited the church of San Marcello al Corso to pray before a crucifix believed to have saved Rome from the “great plague” in 1522.
According to Vatican News, the pope prayed for an end to the global pandemic and also asked for healing for the sick and consolation and comfort for their families and for healthcare workers:
Pope Francis walks to the church of San Marcello al Corso with his security detail.
The Vatican underscored the pope’s well-known “special devotion” to the image of Mary Salus Populi Romani, where he often stops to pray before leaving on international travel and upon his return to the city.
The wooden crucifix at the church of San Marcello al Corso, which many believe is miraculous, had been carried in procession through the streets of the city in 1522 during the plague in Rome:
Pope Francis prays before a wooden crucifix in the church of San Marcello.
In a March 13 letter to priests signed by Pope Francis’s personal secretary but purportedly written by the pontiff himself, the pope suggested that the Church’s pastors risk acting like frightened “hired hands” rather than “good shepherds” ready to lay down their lives for the sheep.
“In the epidemic of fear that all of us are living because of the pandemic of the coronavirus, we risk acting like hired hands and not like shepherds,” he wrote.
Pope Francis approved the closing of all Rome churches on March 12 but immediately repented of this decision and had most of them reopened on March 13, reportedly after receiving a number of complaints from prelates.
“It is good for the churches to remain open. Priests should be on the front lines,” the letter declares. “The faithful should find courage and comfort from seeing their shepherds. They should know that they can run in any moment and find refuge in their churches and parishes and find them open and welcoming.”
The pope also urged priests to adopt a divine perspective in assessing how they can best serve the faithful.
“Think of all the souls who feel terrified and abandoned because we pastors follow the instructions of civil authorities — which is right in these circumstances to avoid contagion — while we risk putting aside divine instructions — which is a sin. We think as men think and not as God thinks,” he says. “We join the ranks of those who are terrified rather than joining the doctors, the nurses, the volunteers, the healthcare workers, and mothers and fathers, who are on the front lines.”
“I think of all those people who will certainly abandon the Church, when this nightmare is over, because the Church abandoned them when they had need of her,” he said.
In his letter, the pope insisted that priests should go out and meet people — door to door if necessary — to offer them the spiritual assistance that only they can give, “never shutting ourselves in, standing back as spectators.”
“Otherwise, we will find that people are ordering out to have their meals and their pizzas delivered, but do not have Holy Communion brought to them when they are old or sick or needy,” he wrote. “It will happen that supermarkets, newspaper stands, and tobacconists are open, but not the churches.”
Last week, the Vatican announced that the pope would suspend all his public Masses and other services during Holy Week and Easter, the high point of the Catholic Church’s liturgical year.