The Catholic Weekly 10 May 2020

catholicweekly.com.au 10 10, May, 2020 NEWS AS OF 5 May, the coronavirus lockdown as Italy has known it since March 8 effectively end- ed. “Phase 2” kicked into gear with the reopening of shops and public parks, bars and restaurants for take-out ser- vice, and relatively free move- ment within one’s own region. Of course, Italy is hardly the only country that’s experi- enced a long quarantine, even though it was the first outside China to enforce one. Still, there have been a number of “only in Italy” moments along the way, things that would or could only happen in il bel paese, and now that the worst is over it’s worth looking back. Herewith, my personal Top Five list of Catholic “only in It- aly” moments from the quar- antine. (5)The Politics of Mass Italy, like the rest ofWestern Europe, is thoroughly secular. Data from the national sta- tistical institute ISTAT shows that for years, the percentage of people who never go to church, not even occasionally, is higher than the percentage who go at least once a week, and the gap is widening. Yet only in Italy would the politics of Mass become such a front-burner issue - not churches generally or reli- gious services, mind you, but the Catholic Mass. Perhaps the most vintage Italian moment in that re- gard came when the leader of the right-wing populist and anti-immigrant party the League, Matteo Salvini, pub- licly called on churches to be open for Easter Mass, prompt- ing a cascade of criticism. Among those who rallied to his defence was the head of the League’s youth wing, who took to Facebook to modify the proposal a bit: Open the churches for Easter, he sug- gested, but give preference to men, because the country is suffering from a “crisis of vi- rility.” In the end, Easter Masses remained in private … which meant, actually, that the idea of giving preference to men actually worked, since often the only people in church were the priest and maybe a deacon. (4) Get-Out-Of-Jail-Free Card: Exorcism As part of the lockdown, being outside the house since March 8 until yesterday was limited to three official mo- tives: Going to the grocery store or pharmacy, going to work in a business allowed to remain open, or going to a health appointment, plus returning home from any of the above. (Walking one’s dog also has been tolerated). Beyond that, police have been issuing stiff fines to an- yone moving around with- out reason. However, in late March in the tiny northern Italian town of Arborio (pop- ‘Only in Italy’ moments A journalist covering the Church and Rome recalls scenes that could only occur in the Eternal City A woman is pictured at the window of her apartment during a musical flash mob in Rome in March. PHOTO:CNS PHOTO/PAUL HARING ulation roughly 900), a man stopped while driving his car offered police an original ex- cuse: He was a priest, he said, on his way to performan exor- cism on someone possessed by a demon, brandishing a form he claimed was signed by the bishop of the diocese. The officer waved him on without delay, not even ask- ing for a verbal declaration (which is supposed to be standard protocol), because, and I’m quoting here, “You don’t joke around with exor- cisms.” Naturally, the guy turned out to be an impostor - the Archdiocese of Vercelli was compelled to release a state- ment saying it had no idea who he was, nor does it have any form for priests perform- ing exorcisms. Still, the guy obviously knew the right but- ton to push. (3) Actor Praises the Pope In Rome a video has been making the rounds written, directed and starring the ac- tor Fabrizio Giannini, who ap- peared in one of Italy’s most popular TV shows called Un Medico in Famiglia (“ADoctor in the Family”). It’s basically a paean to Rome, with Giannini thundering while standing alone on the city’s Via del Cor- so that after this crisis, “Rome will be reborn more beautiful and stupendous than before!” The video has become so popular that it’s been em- bedded on the web site of La Repubblica , the coun- try’s highest circulation daily newspaper. I became aware of it because a friend in our neighbourhood WhatsApp group, formed amid the quar- antine, posted it. Giannini says people can have “two certainties” as they exit the lockdown: “Masks and gloves? No … Pope Fran- cis and Rome.” He then proceeds to devote a large chunk of the video to Pope Francis’ appeals during the coronavirus crisis to two legendary Roman religious icons: Maria, Salus Populus Romani, a painting of the Vir- gin traditionally attributed to St Luke, and the miraculous crucifix of the Church of San Marcello. He tells the stories of those icons, including their roles during historical periods of the plague. Francis visited the icons on ¾ ¾ John L. Allen Jr. March 15, and later brought them to St. Peter’s Square for his 27 March Urbi et Orbi cer- emony. “When I saw those icons in the square with Pope Francis in the middle, I don’t know how to say what happened inside me,” Giannini said. “In the heart of that piazza, as if I were there, as if the pope were calling us all by name, was the entire soul of Rome … And that’s why Rome will be reborn.” Giannini, for the record, is not a known Catholic quan- tity here, someone who gets involved in Church activities or is a favourite of the clerical system. He’s simply a Roman finding hope in the one per- son, above all others, who’s always made the Eternal City by the Italian bishops’ confer- ence but introduced by Pope Francis also had a massive audience, drawing about 4.2 million viewers and finishing as the second most watched program on Italian TV that night. You know what show nar- rowly finished in first place? Don Matteo, the high- est-rated program in the his- tory of Italian TV, which has been airing for 20 years. It features a genial priest who’s got a police commissioner for a friend, and, because of his deep knowledge of hu- man nature, is able to help his friend get to the bottom of his cases. It’s the classic Italian image of a parroco , meaning a pastor - wise, knowing, no- body’s fool, yet always with a kind word and an open hand. In other words, that night the Italian TV audience was split between a parish priest and the pope praying the rosary. If you can get more Catholic than that, no matter how secular this country may be, I’d like to see it. (1) Transgender Prostitutes By a country mile, however, the most “only in Italy” story from a Catholic angle during the quarantine has to be the group of transgender pros- titutes who showed up at Rome’s Beata Vergine Imma- colata church in the Torvai- anica neighborhood to ask for help, and who ended up get- ting a hand directly fromPope Francis himself. At first just one person came to ask for help, and then they came back again with a small handful of others. When they told the pastor they were from Argentina, he suggested they write to the pope asking for money to pay rent, and promptly the pope’s person- al almoner, Polish Cardinal Konrad Krajewski, arrived to deliver the help. Obviously, it’s hardly “only in Italy” that either transgen- der persons or prostitutes are subject to violence and exploitation, and where they may find themselves in need. However, given that the Catholic Church hardly has a global reputation for approval of either transgenderism or prostitution, where elsewould it occur to people who’re both to go knocking on the door of the local Catholic parish? In Italy, everyone - and I do meaneveryone, fromthemost fervent devotee of theMadon- na to the most entrenched an- ti-clerical firebrand - knows that when the chips are truly down, the parish is the last line of defence. When all other doors are closed, when one’s family and friends walk away, when the state seems distant and unresponsive, the parish is always there. And that, gloriously, is typi- cally Italian too. With permission. This article first appeared on cruxnow. com singular - the pope. (2) Pope as Pop Star Unsurprisingly, data from Italy’s main ratings services show that viewing of TV pro- gramming has been up about a third since the lockdown be- gan, and presumably more or less the same is true in other parts of the world. What’s more unique here is that the highest ratings of all have been for two pa- pal events: The 27 March Urbi et Orbi blessing, which drew a national audience of 11 million, and the 12 April Easter Mass, which garnered 15 million. (Both were the most-watched programs in the country those months.) A nationwide prayer of the ro- sary on 19 March organized Over 11 million people watched Pope Francis give his extraordinary blessing “urbi et orbi” (to the city and the world) from St Peter’s Basilica in March. PHOTO: CNS/ALESSANDRO GAROFALO, REUTERS