ROME (CNS): Like the bishops in the United States and Canada, the bishops of Italy began the Marian month of May consecrating their nation to the care of Mary with special prayers for her intercession in ending the coronavirus pandemic.
Gualtiero Cardinal Bassetti of Perugia-Citta della Pieve, president of the Italian Bishops’ Conference, announced the special consecration on April 20, saying it was in response to hundreds of requests from Italian faithful.
The bishops entrusted “the entire country to the protection of the Mother of God as a sign of salvation and hope,” at 9.00pm on May 1, with a moment of prayer “in the Basilica of Our Lady of the Fountain near Caravaggio,” a town in the hard-hit province of Bergamo.
“The choice of the date and the place is extremely symbolic,” the bishops’ statement said.
“May is, in fact, the month traditionally dedicated to Mary, a time marked by praying the rosary, pilgrimages to shrines and by the need to turn to Mary with special prayers of intercession,” it said. “Beginning this month with an act of consecration to Mary in the current situation acquires a very special meaning for all of Italy.”
The place, Caravaggio, the statement added, symbolises “the suffering and pain experienced in a land harshly tried by the health emergency.”
During the prayer service on May 1, the bishops entrusted the sick, doctors and other health care workers, families and the deceased to Mary.
Since May 1 is the feast of St. Joseph the Worker, the bishops also included special prayers for all workers, “aware of the worry and fear” many of them are experiencing.
