St. Louis of the French is the first church in the Eternal City to be completely closed to the public because of the coronavirus epidemic. <\/p>\n
The French Embassy decided to close it after a priest, who had resided in Rome until mid-February, tested positive for the virus upon returning to Paris.<\/strong><\/p>\n Only a day later, authorities decided to reopen it on Wednesday, March 4, following health experts' assurance that such an action would not necessarily increase the risk of contagion.<\/p>\n The French national church in Rome suspended all Masses and visits, a huge disappointment for art buffs hoping to admire the masterpieces inside during their time in the city.<\/p>\n PAUL MURPHY While many passersby just happened upon the closed church by chance, others had deliberately scheduled a visit before arriving in Rome.<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cI wanted to show her the Caravaggio. I don't know. It's stupid because every other church is open.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n While many were disappointed by this unexpected turn of events, some remained optimistic.<\/p>\n \u201cWell, we [will] walk around, and we [will] see other churches. There are a lot of churches in Rome. That's no problem, but I think they shouldn't panic about coronavirus. It's a disease, and I think we should manage it.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Luckily for these tourists, Caravaggio's works will be waiting for them when they return to Rome.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Following health tests, authorities confirmed there is no danger in reopening St. Louis of the French later this week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":18363,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[],"acf":{"video":"https:\/\/youtu.be\/xx-uhjVoYxI","video_descarga":"http:\/\/attuale.romereports.com\/news\/bsluigideifrancesieng.mp4","international_url":"http:\/\/attuale.romereports.com\/news\/bsluigideifrancesiint.mp4","type":"rrp","newsletter":"si"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46937"}],"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=46937"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46937\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18363"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46937"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46937"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46937"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nHistory Professor, John Carroll University<\/strong>
\n\u201cI'm here with a group of my students from John Carroll University, and this is one of the jewels in Rome. Three outstanding Caravaggios, so it's a disappointment not to see it. On the other hand, it is what it is. We're in a world where the coronavirus is moving rapidly, and it's a learning experience in itself just to be in a city that's grappling with this.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n