https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2020-03/pope-francis-mary-prayer-crucifix-coronavirus.html

By Vatican News

Two intense moments of prayer: one before the ancient icon of Maria Salus Populi Romani at the Basilica of St. Mary Major, and the other at the foot of a wooden crucifix that protected Rome from a great plague.

Pope Francis spent his afternoon on the Third Sunday of Lent seeking to underline his closeness to those who suffer by imploring the special protection of Our Lady.

Mary before the Cross

The Director of the Holy See Press Office, Matteo Bruni, announced the Pope’s visits in a communique on Sunday.

“This afternoon, just after 4 PM, Pope Francis left the Vatican and made a private visit to the Basilica of St. Mary Major, to offer a prayer to the Virgin Mary, Salus Populi Romani, where her icon is kept and venerated. Then, after taking a walk along the Via del Corso – as if making a pilgrimage – he visited the church of San Marcello on the Corso, where a miraculous crucifix is housed. In 1522 it was carried in procession throughout the neighborhoods of the city so that the “Great Plague” might cease in Rome. With his prayer, the Holy Father pleaded for an end to the pandemic that has struck Italy and the world. He also implored the healing of the many sick people, remembered the numerous victims of these past days, and asked that their families and friends might find consolation and comfort. His prayer intention was also extended to healthcare workers, doctors, nurses, and all those working in these days to guarantee the smooth functioning of society. The Holy Father returned to the Vatican around 5:30 PM.”

Devotion to the Marian icon

Pope Francis’ special devotion to Our Lady Salus Populi Romani is well-known. He visits her icon on major Marian feast days, and makes a point to stop in for a prayer both before and after his international Apostolic Journeys.

In 593 Pope St. Gregory the Great carried the icon in procession to stop a plague. And in 1837 Pope Gregory XVI invoked her to put an end to a cholera epidemic.

Miraculous crucifix

The Pope’s second stop on Sunday was also significant, considering the critical moment the world is going through.

The church of San Marcello on the Corso houses a venerated wooden crucifix from the 15^thcentury, which scholars hold is the most realistic in Rome. It even survived a fire, and saved the city from a plague. Pope St. John Paul II embraced that same crucifix to mark the culmination of the Day of Forgiveness during the Jubilee Year of 2000.

From the ashes

The numerous traditions of miracles attributed to the “Most Holy Crucifix” began on 23 May 1519.

On that night a large fire completely destroyed the church that bears Pope Marcel’s name. The entire building was found in ruins the next morning. But from the ashes emerged the crucifix of the main altar, untouched. A small oil lamp still burned at the Crucified’s feet.

The scene greatly touched the faithful of Rome, and several began to meet every Friday evening to pray. Pope Leo X ordered the rebuilding of the church in 1519.

To stop Rome’s great plague

Three years after the fire, Rome was hit by the “Great Plague”.

The faithful carried the crucifix in procession – despite the bans understandably put in place by the authorities to halt the spread of the contagion. The crucifix was carried through the streets of Rome toward St. Peter’s Basilica. The procession lasted 16 days: from 4 to 20 August 1522. As it progressed, the plague showed signs of retreating, and every neighborhood sought to keep the crucifix as long as possible.

Finally, as the crucifix reentered the church, the plague ceased altogether.

Since 1600, the procession from the church of San Marcello to St. Peter’s Basilica became a tradition repeated during Holy Years. The names of the Popes who called each Jubilee are inscribed on the back of the crucifix, along with the year.

By Vatican News
https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope-francis/mass-casa-santa-marta/2020-03/pope-pastors-mass-parable-tenants-infidelity-promise-covenant.html

Beginning his Mass on Friday morning at the Casa Santa Marta, Pope Francis reminded everyone that we are “uniting ourselves to those who are ill and to their families”.  He then announced his intention for the liturgy which manifests that he understands the dilemma that priests in Italy find themselves in.

“I would also like to pray today for pastors who need to accompany the people of God during this crisis. May the Lord grant them the strength and the ability to choose the best ways to help. Drastic measures are not always good.  Therefore, we pray that the Holy Spirit might grant pastoral discernment to pastors so that they might perceive measures that might not leave the holy, faithful people of God alone, and so that people of God might feel accompanied by their pastors”.

Later, during his homily, the Pope reflected on the parable of the tenants presented in the Gospel of the day (Matthew 21:33-46).

God and His people

This parable refers to God’s care for His people, the Pope said. The vineyard is the chosen people, the tenants are the Doctors of the law, and the servants are the prophets. God did His work well in the vineyard, he Pope said. The hedge, the winepress and the tower can be compared to God’s election of the chosen people, the promise He made to Abraham, and the covenant relationship He entered into with them on Sinai.

“The people must always keep that election in their memory – that they are a chosen people; the promise –so they always look ahead in hope; and the covenant in order to daily live in fidelity.“

Infidelity

When God sends His servants to receive the fruit of the vineyard from the tenants, they are beaten, killed and stoned. Instead of respecting His own Son, they kill Him to get His inheritance. “They robbed the inheritance”, Pope Francis said. “It’s a story of infidelity” to God’s call ; infidelity to their election, to the promise and to the covenant, which are God’s gifts.

“They don’t understand that it was a gift. They take it as a possession. These people appropriated the gift. They took away the aspect of the gift to transform it into their own possession. The gift that was richness, openness and blessing was closed, put inside a cage”.

Forgetfulness

Pope Francis attributes this transformation of the gift into a possession as the result of the “sin of forgetting”. We forget that “God has made a gift of Himself to us so that He might be given as a gift”. Instead of receiving the gift, we begin to own it.

“So, the promise is no longer a promise, the election is no longer an election, the covenant is interpreted according to my own opinion. It becomes an ideology”.

Roots of clericalism

It is possible that the Gospel hints at clericalism which was already present even then, the Pope said. Clericalism, “always denies” the gratuitousness of the election and the promise. Since God has made a gift of Himself to us, this gift must be given freely to others and not as if it belongs to us.

The Pope’s Prayer

The Pope concluded his homily with a prayer that we might be granted the grace of “receiving the gift as a gift and of transmitting this gift as a gift and not as a possession, not in a sectarian, rigid or clerical manner”.