PHOTOS: Rome celebrates its patron saints with a burst of colorful flowers  

Victoria Cardiel By Victoria Cardiel for CNA

June 29, 2025 Catholic News Agency News Briefs 0 Print

 

The Via della Conciliazione, the grand avenue leading to St. Peter’s Square in Rome, was transformed this Sunday into a vibrant tapestry of color laid over the asphalt, June 29, 2025. / Credit: Hannah Brockhaus

Rome Newsroom, Jun 29, 2025 / 12:50 pm (CNA).

The Via della Conciliazione, the grand avenue leading to St. Peter’s Square, was transformed this Sunday into a vibrant tapestry of color laid over the asphalt, with dozens of floral artworks created by master artisans and volunteers from across Italy.

These floral works, rich in religious symbolism, decorated the spiritual heart of Rome as part of a new edition of the Infiorata Storica (Historic Flower Festival).

Murals made of flowers adorned The Via della Conciliazione, the grand avenue leading to St. Peter’s Square, which was transformed on Sunday into a vibrant tapestry of color. June 29, 2025. Credit: Hannah Brockhaus
Murals made of flowers adorned The Via della Conciliazione, the grand avenue leading to St. Peter’s Square, which was transformed on Sunday into a vibrant tapestry of color. June 29, 2025. Credit: Hannah Brockhaus

This year’s 12th edition centered on the theme of the Jubilee of Hope, expressed through floral arrangements, each covering more than 500 square feet. The art works were made using dried flower petals, wood shavings, colored sand, salt, sugar, and natural pigments.

This year’s 12th edition of the Infiorata Storica centered on the theme of the Jubilee of Hope, expressed through floral arrangements, each covering more than 500 square feet. June 29, 2025. Credit: Hannah Brockhaus
This year’s 12th edition of the Infiorata Storica centered on the theme of the Jubilee of Hope, expressed through floral arrangements, each covering more than 500 square feet. June 29, 2025. Credit: Hannah Brockhaus

Beginning on Saturday evening, June 28, teams of floral artists and volunteers worked overnight in an intense effort that concluded at 9 a.m. Sunday — just in time for thousands of pilgrims gathered in St. Peter’s Square for the Solemnity of Sts. Peter and Paul to admire the floral carpets in their full splendor.

The Via della Conciliazione, the grand avenue leading to St. Peter’s Square, was transformed on Sunday into a vibrant tapestry of color with dozens of floral artworks created by master artisans and volunteers from across Italy. June 29, 2025. Credit: Hannah Brockhaus
The Via della Conciliazione, the grand avenue leading to St. Peter’s Square, was transformed on Sunday into a vibrant tapestry of color with dozens of floral artworks created by master artisans and volunteers from across Italy. June 29, 2025. Credit: Hannah Brockhaus

A rich tradition reborn

This creative and spiritual gathering aims not only to beautify the city but also to preserve a deeply rooted tradition dating back to 1625, when Benedetto Drei, head of the papal florist’s office, first decorated the entrance to St. Peter’s Basilica with flowers.

The floral works, rich in religious symbolism, decorated the spiritual heart of Rome as part of a new edition of the Infiorata Storica (Historic Flower Festival). June 29, 2025. Credit: Hannah Brockhaus
The floral works, rich in religious symbolism, decorated the spiritual heart of Rome as part of a new edition of the Infiorata Storica (Historic Flower Festival). June 29, 2025. Credit: Hannah Brockhaus

Though the custom faded in the 17th century, it was revived in 2013. Today, the Infiorata has become an iconic event that combines art, faith, and culture.

Within the context of the liturgical celebrations led by Pope Leo XIV, the floral exhibition offered a symbolic path of prayer and hope, linking Rome with believers from around the world.

This article was originally published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner, and has been translated and adapted by CNA.

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Parolin: Pope Francis has ‘final word’ on McCarrick report’s release

February 6, 2020 CNA Daily News 0

Vatican City, Feb 6, 2020 / 12:20 pm (CNA).- Pope Francis will make the final decision on when to publish a highly-anticipated report on former cardinal Theodore McCarrick, the Vatican’s Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin said Thursday.

“I think that [the report] will come out soon, I cannot tell you exactly when,” Parolin told a small group of journalists Feb. 6.

Speaking on the sidelines of a conference on holiness, the cardinal said “we are trying to speed up the time to arrive” at the publication of the report on the Vatican’s internal investigation into the disgraced former cardinal.

Parolin did confirm that he expects the document to be released “in the near future.”

“However, the publication depends on the pope. The work that is done is done, but the pope must give the final word,” he added.

The Vatican announced that it would conduct an internal review of files on McCarrick’s career in October 2018. McCarrick was a cardinal and the archbishop of two major American sees before he was found guilty of serial sexual abuse and laicized in 2019, following a canonical process.

Since the review was announced, American Catholics – including many bishops – have repeatedly called for the release of its findings.

Over the past several months, the bishops of the United States have been meeting with Pope Francis for their ad limina visits, travelling to Rome in regional groups. While there, several bishops have raised the issue of the McCarrick report. 

When the topic was came up during the USCCB meeting in Baltimore in November last year, Cardinal Sean O’Malley, recently returned from Rome, updated the U.S. bishops on the report’s progress, saying that the final draft was being translated into Italian for presentation to Pope Francis and was expected to be released at the beginning of 2020, if not sooner. 

In the 87 days since Cardinal O’Malley gave that update, other bishops have said they also raised the issue while in Rome.

In December, Bishop Earl Boyea of Lansing told EWTN News that he asked about the status of the McCarrick investigation and was “very glad to hear that a report is coming.”

Bishop Joseph Strickland of Tyler also told reporters that he’d asked about the timing of the report’s release in a meeting with Pope Francis during his own ad limina visit in January.

McCarrick was laicized in February 2019, after he was found by the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith “guilty of the following delicts while a cleric: solicitation in the Sacrament of Confession, and sins against the Sixth Commandment with minors and with adults, with the aggravating factor of the abuse of power.”

Pope Francis announced an internal Vatican investigation into the career of McCarrick in October 2018.

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