Almost a full fourteen hundred years ago, Pope Saint Gregory “The Great” lived in a plague-stricken Rome, a city in ruins after the destruction of the Roman Empire in the West. In the face of this plague, the Christians of Rome set out to help their neighbors, even at the risk of disease-induced death. 

Gregory organized a procession of the faithful of Rome, praying and chanting through the streets in the midst of the plague, eighty of the processors reportedly collapsing due to their disease. At the end of the march, everybody in the line had reported seeing a vision of St. Michael the Archangel, and seeing the plague suddenly come to a permanent end.

The Italian government, however, does not appear willing to indulge any such action.

Having permanently closed off the Vatican City State, the Italian government has resolved to ban religious ceremonies across the entire nation for the duration of the virus, while simultaneously keeping businesses and public transportation open and ready for use.

Having received the consent of the Bishop of Rome, for the first time in the nearly 2,000 year history of the Holy See, no Masses will be offered in the Eternal City for the duration of the government’s mandate.

Though there are sporadic reports of priests throughout the nation ignoring this mandate from the government, echoing the early persecution-era Masses of the first Christians, Christianity in Italy, against all predictions, has been suddenly and inextricably put on pause.

While perhaps this turn of events would have earned the condemnation of Christians like Pope Gregory, and resounding applause from rulers like Diocletian, it has come to shock many faithful Christians throughout the world. Fearing that in the coming days they may very well be kept from their churches, Catholics are turning to Rome and to God in the hope that they are not kept from their faith.