Under pressure, the true and deep commitments of the heart are exposed. When facing hardships, we reveal what is really important for us.
In these weeks of the coronavirus emergency, the message that Roman Catholicism is giving is a disarming detachment from the basic principles of the biblical faith. This should come as no surprise. What is happening belongs to the core of Roman Catholic beliefs and practices, as they are taught in the Catechism of the Catholic Church and as they are lived out in Roman Catholic parishes. However, given the favour with which even some Evangelicals view the self-styled ‘renewal’ of Roman Catholicism and the action of Pope Francis, it is worth mentioning the spiritual regression we are witnessing in the midst of the pandemic crisis that is severely hitting Italy.
Invoking Mary and the saints
After the outbreak of the coronavirus, at the peak of it, there has been a flourishing of public dedications of Italy to Mary’s protection (Pope Francis) and of Rome to the Madonna Salus Populi Romani, an icon of Mary that the Pope is deeply committed to. The Archbishop of Milan dedicated the city to La Madonnina, the statue of the Virgin on the top of Milan’s Duomo. In Venice the local bishop, Patriarch Moraglia, dedicated his city to Our Lady of Health. In Naples the Archbishop, Cardinal Sepe, dedicated his city to the care of San Gennaro, the protector and patron saint of Naples. During the lockdown, in a deserted Rome, the Pope walked the empty streets to the church of Saint Marcello to pray for the end of the pandemic. He did so in front of the ‘miraculous crucifix’ that is kept there in memory of past miracles that supposedly happened through it.
