There was a candlelit path to the altar holding the Eucharist during adoration in St. Peter’s Square on March 14, 2023. / Daniel Ibanez/CNA. See CNA article for full slideshow.
Vatican City, Mar 15, 2023 / 09:30 am (CNA).
The Vatican held its first monthly eucharistic adoration in the area in front of St. Peter’s Basilica on Tuesday night.
The first monthly eucharistic adoration in St. Peter’s Square, March 14, 2023. Daniel Ibanez/CNA
The March adoration was led by Cardinal Mauro Gambetti, OFM Conv, who is the archpriest of St. Peter’s Basilica. The holy hour was offered for Pope Francis in light of his 10th anniversary as pope.
Eucharistic adoration at the Vatican on March 14, 2023, included music, Scripture readings, and prayers. Daniel Ibanez/CNA
Cardinal Mauro Gambetti lifts the Eucharist during benediction at the end of adoration March 14, 2023. Daniel Ibanez/CNA
Cardinal Mauro Gambetti genuflects in front of the monstrance during eucharistic adoration in St. Peter’s Square March 15, 2023. Daniel Ibanez/CNA
Several hundred adorers gathered at the Vatican to take part in the hour of prayer, which included music, Scripture readings, and prayers interspersed with moments of silence.
Religious sisters pray during eucharistic adoration in St. Peter’s Square March 14, 2023. Daniel Ibanez/CNA
A woman prays in front of the Eucharist during a holy hour in St. Peter’s Square March 14, 2023. Daniel Ibanez/CNA
Adorers kneel in front of the Eucharist in St. Peter’s Square March 14, 2023. Daniel Ibanez/CNA
Large orange candles created a visual pathway to the Eucharist, which was displayed in a gold monstrance set on an altar.
Adoration concluded with Benediction.
There was a candlelit path to the altar holding the Eucharist during adoration in St. Peter’s Square March 14, 2023. Daniel Ibanez/CNA
The Eucharist was displayed in a gold monstrance for adoration in St. Peter’s Square March 14, 2023. Daniel Ibanez/CNA
Benediction during the first monthly eucharistic adoration in front of St. Peter’s Basilica March 14, 2023. Daniel Ibanez/CNA
The eucharistic adoration, a new pastoral initiative of St. Peter’s Basilica, will take place the second Tuesday of every month from 8 p.m. to 9 p.m.
It is open to the public.
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Washington D.C., Feb 11, 2021 / 01:00 pm (CNA).- Pro-life activist Abby Johnson addressed students at The Catholic University of America this week amid protests by students and alumni.
On Tuesday evening, Johnson spoke at an event of the unive… […]
Pope Francis at the Church of St. Anselm on Ash Wednesday, March 1, 2017. / Credit: L’Osservatore Romano
ACI Prensa Staff, Feb 8, 2024 / 08:00 am (CNA).
Pope Francis will preside at the Mass and the traditional Ash Wednesday procession on Feb. 14 on Aventine Hill in Rome.
The Office of Liturgical Celebrations announced Feb. 6 that before the Eucharist, the Holy Father will preside at the first Lenten station at St. Anselm Church, also situated on the Aventine, at 4:30 p.m. local time.
Later, Pope Francis will participate in the penitential procession to St. Sabina Basilica, where he will celebrate Mass at 5 p.m. and bless the ashes that will be distributed to the faithful.
The Lenten stations are one of the most deeply rooted traditions for the beginning of Lent in Rome. It is an ancient custom in which the faithful stopped at different churches to meditate on the Passion of the Lord.
Every day of Lent, the Roman faithful stopped in front of one of the churches in the historic city center erected in memory of the martyrs. Subsequently, the procession took place in which the litanies were usually sung and finally Mass was celebrated.
Pope Francis will be making his personal Lenten spiritual retreat from the afternoon of Sunday, Feb. 18, to Friday, Feb. 23.
This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.
This work of art was displayed at St. Peter’s on the occasion of the Vatican’s Celebration of the Canonization of 117 Vietnamese Martyrs on July 19, 1988. / Credit: Public domain
CNA Staff, Nov 24, 2023 / 06:00 am (CNA).
Today, Nov. 24, is the feast day of St. Andrew Dung-Lac and companions, a group of 117 martyrs, led by Father Andrew, who died for the Catholic faith in Vietnam during a 19th-century persecution.
The group was made up of 96 Vietnamese, 11 Spaniards, and 10 French. Roughly half were clergy and half were laypeople, including a 9-year-old child. Some of the priests were Dominicans; others were diocesan priests who belonged to the Paris Mission Society.
According to the Vatican, Father Andrew Dung-Lac was born with the name Dung An-Tran to a poor family in northern Vietnam around the year 1795. When his family moved to Hanoi to find work, the 12-year-old Dung met a Christian catechist who shared the faith with him and baptized him with the name “Andrew.”
The climate at the time was very dangerous for Christians in Vietnam under the Emperor Minh-Mang, who banned foreign missionaries and commanded Vietnamese Christians to trample on crucifixes in order to publically renounce their faith in Jesus Christ. (Japanese authorities had for years forced Christians to do something similar, a practice that is dramatized in the film “Silence.”)
Later, in 1823, Andrew was ordained a priest, and his preaching and simplicity of life led many others to baptism, despite the young priest needing to be hidden by the faithful in order to keep him safe from the emperor. He was imprisoned multiple times and each time was ransomed by the Catholic faithful. Many Christians during this time were suffering brutal martyrdoms — strippings, torture, beheadings — and the priest changed him name to Lac in an attempt to avoid detection.
It’s estimated that from 1630 to 1886, between 130,000 and 300,000 Christians were martyred in Vietnam, while others were forced to flee to the mountains and the forests or be exiled to other countries.
In 1839, the Vatican recounts, he was arrested again along with another Vietnamese priest, Father Peter Thi, to whom Dung-Lac had visited in order to go to confession. The two were ransomed, then arrested again, tortured, and finally beheaded in Hanoi on Dec. 21, 1839. He is the patron saint of Vietnam.
Described as the “Nero of Indochina” for his harsh persecutions, Minh Mang’s reign ended the next year.
Pope John Paul II canonized the 117 martyrs together on June 19, 1988. At the time, the Vatican said, the communist government of Vietnam did not permit a single representative from the country to attend the canonization. But 8,000 Vietnamese Catholics from the diaspora were there, “filled with joy to be the children of this suffering Church.”
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