Pope Francis prays in St. Peter’s Square on March 8, 2023. / Vatican Media
Rome Newsroom, Mar 30, 2023 / 10:00 am (CNA).
In the month of April, Pope Francis has asked the world to pray in a special way for a culture of nonviolence and peace.
“Living, speaking, and acting without violence is not surrendering, losing, or giving up anything but aspiring to everything,” the pope said in a video message released March 30.
He urged both countries and citizens to “resort less and less to the use of arms.”
In the video, images of Pope Francis delivering his message are interspersed with scenes of war zones, bombed-out cities, people fleeing war, police at crime scenes, and peace protesters.
In some of the video clips, the faces of iconic people associated with peace — Pope John XXIII, Mother Teresa, Martin Luther King Jr., and Mahatma Gandhi — are superimposed on the scenes.
“As St. John XXIII said 60 years ago in his encyclical Pacem in Terris, war is madness,” the pope said. “It’s beyond reason.”
“Any war, any armed confrontation, always ends in defeat for all,” he said.
Pacem in Terris, subtitled “On establishing universal peace in truth, justice, charity, and liberty,” was published 60 years ago on April 11.
Pope Francis urged the world to “develop a culture of peace” and to “remember that, even in cases of self-defense, peace is the ultimate goal, and that a lasting peace can exist only without weapons.”
The pope’s monthly prayer intention is promoted and published by The Pope Video initiative, run by the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network.
“Let us make nonviolence a guide for our actions, both in daily life and in international relations,” Pope Francis said.
More information about the pope’s prayer intention for April can be found here.
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Pope Francis celebrates Mass in St. Peter’s Square for Easter 2022 / Daniel Ibanez/CNA
Rome Newsroom, Apr 1, 2023 / 05:00 am (CNA).
Palm Sunday marks the start of one of the most full and beautiful liturgical periods of the Catholic Church year.
It is also one of the busiest liturgical periods at the Vatican, where Pope Francis has been scheduled to preside over nine Masses, liturgies, and devotions between April 2 and Easter Monday, April 10.
With Pope Francis having been hospitalized on March 29 for a respiratory infection, it was unclear if he would be well enough to participate in any or some of the liturgies.
Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni confirmed on April 1 as Pope Francis was discharged from the hospital that the pope is still planning to be present for Palm Sunday Mass on April 2. Pope Francis will preside over the liturgies with a cardinal celebrating at the altar.
Here is the Vatican’s full schedule for Holy Week and Easter 2023:
Palm Sunday
Daniel Ibáñez/CNA.
On Sunday morning, April 2, Pope Francis is scheduled to preside over Mass for Palm Sunday, also known as Passion Sunday or the Commemoration of the Lord’s entrance into Jerusalem.
The Mass, which will be in St. Peter’s Square at 10 a.m. local time, will kick off with a grand procession of deacons, priests, bishops, cardinals, and laypeople carrying palms.
The procession includes olive tree branches, palm fronds, and the large, weaved palms called “parmureli,” all blessed by Pope Francis.
Holy Thursday
Vatican Media.
Pope Francis is set to start Holy Thursday with a Chrism Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica at 9:30 a.m. in the presence of cardinals, bishops, and priests living in Rome.
During the Mass, Pope Francis, as the bishop of Rome, will bless the oil of the sick, the oil of catechumens, and the chrism oil to be used in the diocese during the coming year.
In the evening, the pope will offer Mass at the juvenile detention center “Casal del Marmo,” the same detention center where he offered Holy Thursday Mass in 2013, shortly after his election.
Pope Francis washes inmates’ feet at Rome’s Regina Coeli Prison on Holy Thursday, March 29, 2018. Vatican Media.
In 2022, the pope offered the Mass at a prison in Civitavecchia, a port city about 50 miles northwest of Rome. After the homily, Francis washed the feet of 12 inmates, representing the disciples.
Good Friday
Continuing the liturgies of the Triduum, Pope Francis is also scheduled to preside over a celebration for the Passion of the Lord on Good Friday at 5 p.m. in St. Peter’s Basilica.
During this liturgy, which is not a Mass, instead of the pope papal preacher Cardinal Raniero Cantalamessa preaches on Christ’s crucifixion.
Vatican Media.
In the evening, Francis will lead the Stations of the Cross devotion at the Colosseum at 9:15 p.m.
Holy Saturday
On Holy Saturday, Pope Francis is set to preside over the Easter Vigil at 7:30 p.m. in St. Peter’s Basilica.
The Easter Vigil, which takes place on Holy Saturday night, “is the greatest and most noble of all solemnities,” according to the Roman Missal.
Vatican Media
The liturgy begins in darkness with the blessing of the new fire and the preparation of the paschal candle. At the Vatican, cardinals, bishops, and priests process through the dark basilica carrying lit candles to signify the light of Christ coming to dispel the darkness.
Pope Francis also typically baptizes new Catholics at this Mass.
Easter Sunday
The morning of Easter Sunday, Pope Francis will preside over Mass in St. Peter’s Square at 10 a.m. on a flower-decked parvise.
After Mass, he will give the annual Easter urbi et orbi blessing from the central balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica.
Pope Francis gives the Urbi et Orbi blessing for Easter 2022. Vatican News
“Urbi et orbi” means “to the city [of Rome] and to the world” and is a special apostolic blessing given by the pope every year on Easter Sunday, Christmas, and other special occasions.
In 2022, local authorities estimated 100,000 people were present for the blessing.
Easter Monday
Pope Francis will mark Easter Monday, also called “Monday of the Angel,” by praying the Angelus at noon from a window of the Apostolic Palace.
The Angelus is a traditional prayer honoring the Virgin Mary. Pope Francis leads the prayer and gives a brief reflection every Sunday and on important Marian and other feast days.
A view of Baltimore’s basilica nestled amid the city’s famed row houses. / Public domain
Washington, D.C. Newsroom, May 12, 2023 / 14:40 pm (CNA).
A 17-member commission created by the Archdiocese of Baltimore will investigate the roles that bishops, clergy, and other prominent Catholic figures within the archdiocese played in American slavery.
The commission, which is still in its early stages, includes academics, archivists, and other researchers who are poring through old documents for information on the subject. The commission first met in March and hopes to unveil some of its findings to the public within the fall of this year.
“It’s striking that … Catholics, clergy and lay, are people of their times and accepted the institution of slavery as just part of life in America,” Bishop Bruce Lewandowski, an auxiliary bishop in the archdiocese, told CNA. “It’s very sad to say that.”
Lewandowski said the commission is engaging in “significant research” at the moment and said the goal is to eventually make the history known to the public. Although the means by which they will unveil the information are yet to be decided, he said it could be through articles, presentations, a web page online, or something in document form.
The archdiocese will also use the material for education within churches and schools.
“[We plan to] use it, for example, at the parish level, in Catholic schools, [in the] seminary, [in] education [and] formation so the history is known,” Lewandowski said.
In addition to education, Lewandowski added that the archdiocese intends to “prayerfully reflect” on the information, and the commission will provide recommendations on “atonement and reparations” for the role of the archdiocese in slavery.
“This is part of an ongoing process … of coming to terms with racism in the present by looking deeply in the past,” Lewandowski said.
“We also want to engage the community … [and] evaluate the efficacy of our approaches to systemic racism in the archdiocese,” Lewandowski continued.
The idea for a commission sprang from a working group that developed into a permanent structure in the archdiocese called the Racial Justice Coordinating Council. The group, which interviewed nearly 80 people about their experiences with racism within the archdiocese, provided recommendations on racial justice. At a later date, the council requested a serious study into the archdiocese’s participation in slavery.
“That working group came up with a significant number of recommendations for the archbishop to implement,” Lewandowski said. “And those fell into different categories: education, clergy and seminary formation, the Catholic Center and its internal workings. So, a number of different recommendations.”
Lewandowski added that the participation in slavery is part of the history of the archdiocese, and “we need to continually address it.”
“This is just part of the next phase,” the bishop said.
Non-violence is a weapon of the strong. Non-violence and truth are inseparable and presuppose one another. We may never be strong enough to be entirely nonviolent in thought, word and deed. But we must keep nonviolence as our goal and make strong progress towards it – Mahatma Gandhi
Non-violence is a weapon of the strong. Non-violence and truth are inseparable and presuppose one another. We may never be strong enough to be entirely nonviolent in thought, word and deed. But we must keep nonviolence as our goal and make strong progress towards it – Mahatma Gandhi