“Let us not allow so much pain to have been in vain”, Preacher of the Papal Household, Capuchin friar Raniero Cantalamessa, has appealed to the world in a Good Friday service presided over by Pope Francis in a desolate St. Peter’s Basilica scarred by the coronavirus.
Pope Francis cancelled in-person liturgical celebrations at Easter. Other Christian Churches did the same, to avoid crowds that could expose the faithful to the risk of infection by the coronavirus.
At 11.00 this morning, at the Altar of the Cathedra of Saint Peter’s Basilica, the Holy Father Francis presided at the solemn liturgical celebration of Palm Sunday of the Passion of the Lord.
Pope Francis’ Good Friday meditations this year will speak of hope beyond crime, concentrating on such sentiments as “no sin will ever have the last word”.
In an exclusive interview with Vatican Media, the Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, confirms the closeness of the Church to those who are suffering during this dramatic time of the coronavirus pandemic.
In the midst of COVID-19, The Vatican Congregation for Divine Worship has issued a votive Mass “in time of pandemic” and a new intention for the Solemn Intercessions during the Celebration of the Lord’s Passion on Good Friday.
Pope Francis on Thursday handed over 30 respirators purchased in recent days to the Office of Papal Charities to be donated to intensive care units of hospitals in Italy and Spain that are most affected by the coronavirus pandemic.
The Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments issued a new Decree on Wednesday 25 March, entitled “In time of COVID-19” (II).
The Vatican has insisted that even despite coronavirus Easter “cannot be transferred to another time”.
“Mercy, mercy, please, forgive”. Pope Francis made this appeal to the world today in his Wednesday General Audience, a plea he said was the cornerstone of his ministry as pontiff.
The Prefecture of the Papal Household has announced that Holy Week celebrations in Rome will take place without the physical presence of the faithful, in an attempt to contain the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus.
The Spanish bishops have hinted at the cancellation of the country’s famous Holy Week processions after the government declared this Friday a “state of alarm” over the COVID-19 crisis.
In a letter to the people of the Veneto region of Italy – an area particularly hard hit by the coronavirus epidemic – Pope Francis has shared “a beautiful page of charity”.
Pope Francis’ ongoing cold has forced the first papal absence from the Lenten retreat of the Roman Curia in 70 years, since, in 1950, Pope Pius XII excused himself from the pre-Easter spiritual exercises in order not to interrupt meetings with pilgrims in that Holy Year.
In his Angelus prayer today, Pope Francis said he was “saddened” by the plight of “so many displaced people chased away by war” as Greece blocked the entry of 10,000 Syrian refugees at its border with Turkey.
To mark the beginning of Lent, a traditional penitential liturgy was held for clergy of the Diocese of Rome on Thursday.
An Irish Church development organisation has denounced that disasters stemming from climate change kill 14 times more women than men.
Bishops in the north of Italy have said the cancellation of Ash Wednesday services in the region this February 26 due to the coronavirus outbreak are a reminder of human “fragility”, but also an “occasion for grace”.
“Our earthly possessions will prove useless, but the love we share will save us”, Pope Francis has recalled this Ash Wednesday in a Mass at the Basilica of Santa Sabina on Rome’s Aventine Hill.
Lent is starting today. This is a special time of the year when we are invited to pray, reflect and feel closer to one another.
In his Wednesday General Audience today, Pope Francis prayed for the victims of the coronavirus, for “peace” in the “battlefield with wars on each side” that is Iraq, and for the 1,200 Air Italy employees under the threat of mass layoffs after the airline entered into liquidation.
Ahead of Ash Wednesday today, which marks the beginning of Lent 2020, Archbishop Eamon Martin has launched the #LivingLent initiative on Twitter and Instagram.
The Archbishop of Milan has criticised the “alarmism” and the apathy for victims in poorer countries as the coronavirus outbreak sweeps over Italy, Europe and the wider world, forcing the Vatican to also take measures to prevent the spread of the disease.
The novel coronavirus hasn’t just claimed to date 219 infections and five deaths in Italy, in the worst outbreak of the respiratory disease outside China.
In his message for Lent, released today, Pope Francis blasted the “idolatry” of the “unbridled thirst for profit” and appealed for a “more just and inclusive” economy.