Christmas Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica Dec. 24, 2022. / Credit: Daniel Ibanez/CNA
Rome Newsroom, Nov 28, 2023 / 09:03 am (CNA).
As the preparatory season of Advent draws near, the Vatican has published the schedule of Pope Francis’ liturgies for Christmas 2023 through the Jan. 7 feast of the Baptism of the Lord.
Most of the liturgies will take place in St. Peter’s Basilica.
Following his custom in recent years, Pope Francis will preside over a Christmas Eve “Mass at Night” at 7:30 p.m. in the basilica.
On Christmas Day, he will deliver the traditional “urbi et orbi” (“to the city and the world”) blessing from the central balcony on the front of St. Peter’s Basilica. This blessing is given only on Christmas and Easter or on other exceptional occasions and includes the pope’s wishes for peace in the world.
For the vigil of the Jan. 1 solemnity of Mary, Mother of God, the pope will preside over first vespers, also known as evening prayer. The prayer service will also include the singing of the “Te Deum,” a Latin hymn of thanksgiving from the early Church.
This year, Dec. 31 will also mark the first anniversary of the death of Pope Benedict XVI at the age of 95.
On Jan. 1, 2024, Pope Francis will preside over a Mass at 10 a.m. for the solemnity of Mary, Mother of God. The first day of the year is also commemorated as the World Day of Peace.
For the solemnity of Epiphany, which is observed in Italy and the Vatican on Jan. 6, Francis will again preside at a Mass at 10 a.m.
And on the feast of the Baptism of the Lord, Jan. 7, Pope Francis will preside at a Mass in the Sistine Chapel, where he will also baptize the babies of several Vatican employees.
Among other pre-Christmas festivities, the Vatican will also unveil its Nativity scene and light its Christmas tree in St. Peter’s Square on Dec. 9, one day after the Dec. 8 solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, when Pope Francis will mark the feast day by honoring the Virgin Mary with a prayer near the Spanish Steps.
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Denver, Colo., Jun 12, 2017 / 05:01 pm (Denver Catholic).- In what was a historic first for the Archdiocese of Denver, the exhumed remains of a potential saint were laid to rest at the Cathedral Basilica of the Immaculate Conception June 7.
Juan Luis Tron (second from left) and Maria Magdalene Baca (second from right) together with other young people from the Regnum Christi movement wait outside St. Peter’s Basilica on Jan. 2, 2023, to pay their respects to the late Pope Benedict XVI, who died Dec. 31, 2022. / Hannah Brockhaus / CNA
Vatican City, Jan 2, 2023 / 11:00 am (CNA).
Approximately 40,000 people visited Benedict XVI in the first five hours he was lying in state on Monday, according to the Vatican gendarmes.
Catholics have traveled to the Vatican from both near and far to see the late pope for the last time and to pray for his eternal repose.
The Herrera family traveled from Madrid, Spain, after learning that Benedict XVI had died on Dec. 31. They arrived in Rome late on Jan. 1 and joined the line of mourners the next morning.
Maria Jimenez told CNA she and her husband and four children, ages 19–25, “came especially to see the pope, to pray for him and to see him. To say goodbye, too.”
“We love Benedict,” she said, adding that she thinks he will one day be a saint.
Here are a few of the people who said goodbye to Benedict on Jan. 2:
Giancarlo Rossi, who lives in Rome, told CNA he got in line to enter St. Peter’s Basilica at 7:45 a.m. on Jan. 2, 2023, to pay his respects to the late Pope Benedict XVI. Hannah Brockhaus / CNA
Giancarlo Rossi, who lives in Rome, told CNA he got in line to enter St. Peter’s Basilica at 7:45 a.m.
He prayed the rosary while he waited to pay his final respects to Benedict.
“I met him a few times — I am from here. And so I came to greet the pope for the last time,” he told CNA. “And I am praying for him. I offered my Mass for him and I will ask for a plenary indulgence for him, as well.”
Gabriella Fedele, also from Rome, said she felt that Benedict XVI was a great and humble leader of the Church.
She told CNA his death is “a great sorrow, because a light is extinguished on this earth, but yet one is lit up in heaven.”
Sister Angel Bilegu, a consecrated virgin in the Diocese of Rome, pictured on the right with members of the Little Sisters of Our Lady of Sorrows. They were among those who visited St. Peter’s Basilica on Jan. 2, 2023, where the late Pope Benedict XVI, who died Dec. 31, 2022, laid in state for public viewing. Hannah Brockhaus / CNA
Sister Angel Bilegu, a consecrated virgin in the Diocese of Rome, waited in line from before sunrise to see the pope emeritus, whose election as pope she remembers.
“I appreciated his magisterium a lot,” she said. “He was a pastor and a theologian, who really did theology ‘on his knees.’”
“I really liked him a lot and so I had to come to say goodbye.”
The Schudel family was among those who visited St. Peter’s Basilica on Jan. 2, 2023, to pay their respects to the late Pope Benedict XVI, who died Dec. 31, 2022. Hannah Brockhaus / CNA
Carmen Floriani and her husband, Hans Schudel, came to Rome with their three young children from Switzerland. Schudel waited in line from 6 a.m., while Floriani joined with their children — ages 5 months, 3, and 5 years — later in the morning.
Floriani, who is originally from Trento in the far northern part of Italy, told CNA her family came to see Benedict XVI “because he was our pope for some years,” but also because she and her husband, married six years, have a special connection to the Bavarian pope.
“The witness at our marriage is [former Cardinal] Ratzinger’s relative,” she said. “I studied in Munich, in Bavaria, and there I met the only members of his family still there. This is another reason for coming to say goodbye to him.”
Juan Luis Tron (second from left) and Maria Magdalene Baca (second from right) together with other young people from the Regnum Christi movement wait outside St. Peter’s Basilica on Jan. 2, 2023, to pay their respects to the late Pope Benedict XVI, who died Dec. 31, 2022. Hannah Brockhaus / CNA
A group of teens, members of the international lay movement Regnum Christi, also lined up early on Monday morning.
They said they were in Rome from Mexico, Spain, Germany, Philippines, and Italy for a gathering of 120 members of the movement.
Maria Magdalena Baca, 17, said: “We are pretty young and maybe we don’t remember much of him as pope. But I remember when he came to Mexico and my parents talked to me about him as a pope.”
“I believe that we should be thankful, too,for his life,” 18-year-old Juan Luis Tron, from Mexico City, told CNA. “He was a pope that I admired so much. We have been talking about his life and many consecrated [women of Regnum Christi] and priests [of the Legionaries of Christ] have said, even though it’s sad, the notice that he has passed away, we should be thankful for his life and for all the things he built in the Church.”
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