Pope Francis left Vatican City on Sunday to pray in one of Rome’s cathedrals for victims of the coronavirus pandemic, the Vatican said. The 83-year-old pontiff first visited Rome’s Santa Maria Maggiore basilica and then walked “on foot, as if on a pilgrimage” to the San Marcello al Corso church, the Vatican said in a statement. The statement said Pope Francis selected the church because it holds a “miraculous crucifix which, in 1522, was carried in procession through the districts of the city” to mark the end of the Great Plague.
