22 12, April, 2020 C omment catholicweekly.com.au friars of the Servants of Mary decided to take the crucifix in a penitential procession from the church of SanMarcello to St Peter’s Basilica to pray for an end to the plague. It was led by SpanishCardinal Raimondo Vich, bishop of Valencia and Barcelona. The authorities, fearing the risk of contagion, tried to stop the religious procession, but the people did not accept the warning and accompanied the crucifix through the streets of the city in large numbers. The chronicles of the time relate that the procession lasted from4-20 August, more than twoweeks. The reason it took so long is that, as the procession ad- vanced, the plague receded so that each district tried to hold on to the sacred image as long as possible. When it returned to San Crucifix, icon’s miracles abound in times of plague T he crucifix and im- age of Our Lady, apart frombeing beautiful, are in fact very old and have great significance in the context of the present world- wide coronavirus pandemic. The crucifix was that of San Marcello. It is of the Sienese school and dates to the 14th Century. It normally hangs above the tabernacle in the church of San Marcello al Corso inRome and is considered bymany to be the most realisticmodel of the cru- cifixion inRome. Anumber of miracles have been attribut- ed to it. The first dates to 1519when the church of SanMarcello caught fire on the night of 22-23 May andwas completely de- stroyed. At dawn the people rushed to the church to find only the outer walls standing and ev- erything inside destroyed ex- cept the crucifix, whichwas still hanging above the altar with an oil lamp burning beneath it, al- though deformed by the heat. Soon some of the people be- gan to gather every Friday night at dusk to pray and light lamps at the feet of the cross.This gave rise to the Confraternity of the Holy Crucifix, which still exists today. Anothermiraculous event took place three years later and relates to a health crisis not un- like our present one. In 1522 a great plague struck Rome, so severe that it was feared no onewould survive. Mindful of themiracle of the crucifix saved in the fire, the Marcello, the plague had com- pletely ceased and Romewas saved. Since 1650, themirac- ulous crucifix has been taken to St Peter’s on the occasion of eachHoly Year. The image of Our Lady used by Pope Francis was the an- cient andmuch loved icon of Our Lady, Salus Populi Roma- ni, which is kept in the Lady Chapel of the Basilica of St MaryMajor inRome.The title Salus Populi Romani means literally “health” or “salvation” or “protectress” of the Roman people. The actual origin of the im- age is uncertain. One tradition has it that it was taken to Rome by St Helena, themother of the emperor Constantine in the FourthCentury. It is said that it was Pope Li- berius (352-366) who hung the image in the newly completed Basilica of StMaryMajor. According to a pious tradi- tion, the iconwas instrumen- tal in saving Rome from the ravages of a devastating plague during the pontificate of Pope St Gregory theGreat (590-604). PopeGregory carried the image in a solemn penitential procession through the streets of the city during the Easter season, praying for an end to the plague. When the procession reached theMausoleumof Hadrian, a choir of angels was heard singing the Resurrec- tion hymn “Queen of Heaven, rejoice”.The Pope immediate- ly added, “Pray for us toGod, alleluia”. At that point an angel, be- lieved to be StMichael, ap- peared above theMausoleum putting his sword back in its scabbard, as if indicating that the plaguewould cease, as in fact it did. TheMausoleum is now known as the Castel Sant’Ange- lo, the Castle of theHoly Angel. It is located along the Tiber Riv- er, very near St Peter’s Basilica. Since both the crucifix and the icon of Our Ladywere in- strumental in ending plagues many centuries ago, Pope Francis chose to use them in the hour of prayer for an end to the present pandemic. We can join himand the Church around theworld in praying toOur Lord andOur Lady for an end to this crisis.
[email protected] End of the lollipop economy H owever this cri- sis ends, the era of Australia’s ‘lollipop economy’ is over. Not in our lifetime will a work- er ever again be paid $180,000 a year to stand and hold a traf- fic sign at a construction site. (Which is the amount traffic controllers can earn under the Queensland government’s minimum labour require- ments on state-funded infra- structure projects.) If there’s one thing that sums upwhat’s happened to the Australian economy after 29 years without a recession, it’s the symbolismof someone holding a Stop/Go sign being paid twice asmuch as a school teacher. It’s uncertain howAustralia’s highly regulated, highly indebt- ed, high cost and lowproduc- tivity economy will withstand this global pandemic. The potential consequences of what’s happening are enor- mous. Some commentators are greeting the pandemic as the opportunity for the public to begin ‘trusting the experts’ again. Certainly, that’s one direc- tion the crisis could take.The Six-figure salary road workers are a thing of the past. PHOTO: 123RF.COM Pope Francis prays in front of the Marian icon, “Salus Populi Roma- ni” at the Vatican on 27 March. PHOTO: CNS PHOTO/VATICAN MEDIA Coronavirus has delivered a blow to Australia’s hallmark short-term, unrealistic economic policy exact opposite reaction is also possible, and community trust in public institutions and the authority of government could be eroded even further. There’s the very real possi- bility that the publicmight re- alise that many of the things the politicians have spent the last decade talking about are in fact utterly irrelevant. Climate change being themost obvious example. Similarly, the publicmight come to the not unreasonable conclusion that much of what the government nowdoes, and what the government requires regulators to do, has done practically nothing to improve the productive capacity of the country. The product of nearly three decades of uninterrupted eco- nomic growth is that red tape is nowAustralia’s largest in- dustry. The nation is now facing an economic, and potentially a social, ‘banana republic’ situa- tion – times 10. The almost-guaranteed re- cession the country is about to suffer will make a fewother things crystal clear. It will reveal what every- one has always known about our industrial relations system, namely that its primary pur- pose is to increase the wag- es and conditions of those in work. Australia’s industrial re- lations system, which includes us having literally the world’s highest minimumwage, does nothing to encourage employ- ment. Something else a recession will uncover is that Australia’s compulsory superannuation system is a fraud. There’s no justification for compulsory superannuation, and that’s especially the case now. If one partner in a couple with children and amortgage lose their job, the other part- ner who’s lucky enough to still be inwork needs the 9.5%of their income that the govern- ment confiscates immediate- ly, not when they retire in 30 or 40 years. The superannuation indus- try is right to be concerned about proposals for the govern- ment to allow early access to their superannuation balanc- es for people who’ve become unemployed because that will be the beginning of the end for compulsory superannuation – as it should be. Even if compulsory super- annuation is not abolished im- mediately, there is nownoway any government will increase the compulsory contribution rate. This crisis has already re- vealed Australia’s frayed and fraying social bonds. When the PrimeMinister appealed to people to stop hoarding food and toiletries he said “We’re all in this together”. He’s right. The problem is though that since the 1970s with the inven- tion of the concept of multicul- turalismandwith the rise of ‘identity politics’ more recent- ly, the notion that Australia is a single community with every citizen being in solidarity with every other citizen, has been undermined and attacked at every opportunity. No government now talks about how all Australians are equal and the same. Instead, all of the emphasis in the pub- lic discussion is on howdiverse and howdifferent we all are – and howour political and legal systems should accommodate our differences of background, gender, race, and so on. We’re taught Australia is a nation of tribes – and such thinking leads to selfishness, not selflessness. Up until a fewweeks ago some people had assumed that as Australia’s internation- al competitiveness continued to fall the country would spend the coming decades slowly sinking into perpetual decline. The nation’s condition would never be quite bad enough to be recognised as a a crisis, and so the public and the politicians they elect would never actually be sufficient- lymotivated to do something about it. Well, recent events have proved that particular predic- tion for the trajectory of the country’s fortunes spectacular- ly wrong. The nation is now facing an economic, and potentially a social, ‘banana republic’ situa- tion – times 10. This first appeared at afr.com on 23 March 2020. Used with Permission. John Roskam is the Executive Director of the Institute of Public Affairs John Roskam Columnist Father Flader Columnist “Dear Father, I watched Pope Francis’ wonderful hour of prayer on 27March andwas struck by the beautiful crucifix and image of Our Lady behind him. Do they have any special significance?”