It\u2019s not a typical sight at St. Peter\u2019s...<\/p>\n
It may have been the only time that a Pope walked alone in a completely empty St. Peter\u2019s Square in the rain.<\/p>\n
The context behind this scene was equally as historic: a global pandemic. That\u2019s why Pope Francis announced that he would deliver an extraordinary gesture, the Urbi et Orbi blessing, typically reserved for special occasions such as Christmas and Easter. <\/p>\n
Two religious images accompanied him during the ceremony.<\/p>\n
One was the crucifix from the San Marcello al Corso church in Rome, which was carried throughout the Eternal City in 1522 in a procession to pray for the end of the bubonic plague.<\/p>\n
...The other image was the ancient icon of the patron saint of Rome, the Salus Populi Romani, \u201cSalvation of the Roman People.\u201d <\/p>\n
Before the blessing, the Pope reflected on the fragility of our society, revealed by the pandemic.<\/p>\n
POPE FRANCIS He then gave the blessing with the Eucharist from the atrium of St. Peter\u2019s Basilica.<\/p>\n Pope Francis was closely watching how the pandemic developed.<\/p>\n The special blessing came when Italy was one of the countries hardest hit by the pandemic, tallying nearly a thousand deaths from the virus every day. It had just surpassed the number of casualties declared by China. <\/p>\n Delivered under the rain in an empty St. Peter\u2019s Square, the Pope\u2019s gesture was a moment of closeness and consolation for the many suffering from the effects of the pandemic around the world.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Javier Romero<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" March 26, 2021. Pope Francis delivered the extraordinary Urbi et Orbi blessing on March 27th, 2020, when Italy was one of the countries hardest hit by the coronavirus pandemic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":14467,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[],"acf":{"video":"https:\/\/youtu.be\/ZWEQ60qFn7s","video_descarga":"http:\/\/attuale.romereports.com\/news\/bricordourbietorbieng.mp4","international_url":"http:\/\/attuale.romereports.com\/news\/bricordourbietorbiint.mp4","type":"bn","newsletter":"si"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45483"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45483"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45483\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14467"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45483"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45483"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45483"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n<\/strong>The storm has uncovered our vulnerability and lays bare those false and superfluous securities with which we build our agendas, our projects, our habits and priorities.<\/em><\/p>\n