Vatican City, Mar 14, 2020 / 04:56 pm (CNA).- Due to the coronavirus pandemic, Pope Francis’ liturgies for Holy Week and Easter, which usually include the presence of thousands of people, will be held without public attendance this year.
According to an online notice from the Prefecture of the Papal Household, “because of the current global public health emergency, all the Liturgical Celebrations of Holy Week will take place without the physical presence of the faithful.”
The Prefecture of the Papal Household is the office responsible for distributing the free of charge tickets which grant pilgrims access to Pope Francis’ general audiences and other public liturgies.
Pope Francis’ schedule for Holy Week begins April 5 with Palm Sunday Mass in St. Peter’s Square.
The schedule proceeds with a Chrism Mass on Holy Thursday, April 9, in St. Peter’s Basilica.
Good Friday he is slated to celebrate the Lord’s Passion in the basilica before leading Stations of the Cross at the Coliseum.
Pope Francis will also offer Easter Vigil Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica and Mass for Easter Sunday in the square before giving the traditional “Urbi et Orbi” blessing from the balcony of the basilica at 12:00 pm.
These liturgies will all now be held without the presence of pilgrims or other visitors. It is not clear if the planned locations or times of the liturgies will change.
The notice on the prefecture’s website also states that the pope’s general audiences and Sunday Angelus prayers will continue to be held via video livestream until April 12.
Francis’ Angelus address on March 8 and general audience on March 11 were held via internet livestream and live television broadcast from the apostolic library due to the coronavirus outbreak.
Italy is currently under a nationwide lockdown through at least April 3 to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus.
Italian police also closed St. Peter’s Square to the public March 10.
Italy has the highest number of confirmed cases and deaths from coronavirus outside of Asia.
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Pope Leo waving at the crowds gathered on St. Peter’s Square for the Jubilee for Families, Children, Grandparents and the Elderly, June 1, 2025 / Credit: Daniel Ibáñez/CNA
CNA Newsroom, Jun 1, 2025 / 07:31 am (CNA).
Pope Leo XIV declared families “the cradle of the future of humanity” as he celebrated Mass for thousands of pilgrims gathered in St. Peter’s Square for the Jubilee of Families, Children, Grandparents and the Elderly on Sunday.
Speaking to families from nearly 120 countries on a sunny morning in Rome, the pontiff emphasized the fundamental role of family relationships in God’s plan for salvation, drawing from the Gospel reading of Jesus’ prayer at the Last Supper.
“Dear friends, we received life before we ever desired it,” Pope Leo XIV said in his homily on June 1.
Pope Leo XIV gcelebrates the Holy Mass Holy Mass for Jubilee of Families, Children, Grandparents and the Elderly at St. Peter’s Square on Sunday, June 1, 2025. Credit: Daniel Ibáñez/CNA
“As soon as we were born, we needed others in order to live; left to ourselves, we would not have survived. Someone else saved us by caring for us in body and spirit. All of us are alive today thanks to a relationship, a free and freeing relationship of human kindness and mutual care.”
The Holy Father made an extended tour of the square in the popemobile before Mass, blessing children and greeting the crowds of families who had traveled to Rome for this major event of the Holy Year of Hope 2025.
Pope Leo XIV blesses a child from his popemobile on St. Peter’s Square on Sunday, June 1, 2025. Credit: Daniel Ibáñez/CNA
Marriage as measure of true love
In his homily, Pope Leo XIV emphasized that marriage represents “not an ideal but the measure of true love between a man and a woman: a love that is total, faithful and fruitful.” He cited Pope Paul VI’s 1968 encyclical Humanae Vitae, noting that conjugal love “makes you one flesh and enables you, in the image of God, to bestow the gift of life.”
The pope highlighted several beatified married couples as exemplars for today’s world, including Louis and Zélie Martin, parents of Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus, and Blessed Luigi and Maria Beltrame Quattrocchi, who lived in Rome in the last century. He also remembered the Polish Ulma family, “parents and children, united in love and martyrdom” during World War II.
“By pointing to them as exemplary witnesses of married life, the Church tells us that today’s world needs the marriage covenant in order to know and accept God’s love and to defeat, thanks to its unifying and reconciling power, the forces that break down relationships and societies,” the pontiff said.
Practical counsel for families
Pope Leo XIV offered specific guidance to different generations present at the celebration. To parents, he recommended being “examples of integrity to your children, acting as you want them to act, educating them in freedom through obedience, always seeing the good in them and finding ways to nurture it.”
Children received counsel to “show gratitude to your parents,” with the pope noting that saying “thank you” each day “is the first way to honour your father and your mother.”
Families from nearly 120 countries wave flags and cheer during the Jubilee of Families celebration at St. Peter’s Square, as Pope Leo XIV declared families “the cradle of the future of humanity” during his homily on Sunday, June 1, 2025. Credit: Daniel Ibáñez/CNA
To grandparents and elderly people, he recommended watching “over your loved ones with wisdom and compassion, and with the humility and patience that come with age.”
The Holy Father emphasized the family’s role in transmitting faith, declaring that “in the family, faith is handed on together with life, generation after generation. It is shared like food at the family table and like the love in our hearts.”
Prayer for peace amid global conflicts
Following the Mass, Pope Leo XIV led the Regina Coeli prayer, using the occasion to remember families suffering from war.
“May the Virgin Mary bless families and sustain them in their difficulties. I think especially of those who suffer because of war in the Middle East, in Ukraine and in other parts of the world,” he said.
The pontiff also commemorated the beatification of Blessed Cristofora Klomfass and 14 companion religious sisters of the Congregation of Saint Catherine Virgin and Martyr, who were killed by Soviet soldiers in 1945 in territories of present-day Poland.
“Despite the climate of hatred and terror against the Catholic faith, they continued to serve the sick and orphans,” he noted.
During his remarks, Pope Leo XIV expressed particular joy at welcoming so many children to today’s celebration, calling them sources of renewed hope. He praised grandparents and elderly people as “genuine models of faith and inspiration for young generations.”
Stella caeli exstirpavit quae lactavit Dominum
Mortis pestem quam plantavit primus parens hominum.
Ipsa stella nunc dignetur sidera compescere,
Quorum bella plebem caedunt dirae mortis ulcere.
O gloriosa stella maris, a peste succurre nobis:
Audi nos, nam te filius nihil negans honorat.
Salva nos, Jesu! Pro quibus virgo mater te orat.
English translation”
The star of heaven who suckled the Lord
Has rooted out the plague of death which the first parent of men planted.
May that very star now deign to restrain the constellations
Whose wars kill the people with the sore of terrible death.
O glorious star of the sea, save us from the plague.
Hear us, for thy Son honours thee, refusing thee nothing.
Save us, Jesus, on whose behalf the virgin mother beseeches thee.
Stella Caeli
Stella caeli exstirpavit quae lactavit Dominum
Mortis pestem quam plantavit primus parens hominum.
Ipsa stella nunc dignetur sidera compescere,
Quorum bella plebem caedunt dirae mortis ulcere.
O gloriosa stella maris, a peste succurre nobis:
Audi nos, nam te filius nihil negans honorat.
Salva nos, Jesu! Pro quibus virgo mater te orat.
English translation”
The star of heaven who suckled the Lord
Has rooted out the plague of death which the first parent of men planted.
May that very star now deign to restrain the constellations
Whose wars kill the people with the sore of terrible death.
O glorious star of the sea, save us from the plague.
Hear us, for thy Son honours thee, refusing thee nothing.
Save us, Jesus, on whose behalf the virgin mother beseeches thee.
More information here: https://madisondiocese.org/prayer