PHP instance no longer working

We upgraded both WP and SRP to the newest versions and suddenly the PHP instance we use on our homepage no longer renders (in fact, it completely bombs the homepage and fails to render anything after that point). This is the exact code I am using:

if(function_exists(‘special_recent_posts’)) {

$args = array(
‘post_limit’ => 2,
‘widget_title’ => ‘Recent Posts’
);

special_recent_posts($args);

}

I verified the widget title is still the same and I also tried with just the default arguments, but it always fails at the special_recent_posts($args) line. I tried turning on the option to log errors to the screen but no errors appeared.

https://ww.wp.xz.cn/plugins/special-recent-posts/