A tabernacle was desecrated May 24, 2023, at St. Ann Parish in the town of Nindirí in Nicaragua. / Credit: Facebook of the Chapel of Our Lady of Fatima
ACI Prensa Staff, May 26, 2023 / 11:00 am (CNA).
During the early hours of May 24, unidentified persons desecrated the chapel of Our Lady of Fatima in the small settlement of Campuzano, situated roughly halfway between Managua and Masaya in Nicaragua.
In a statement, St. Ann Parish, located in the town of Nindirí to which the desecrated chapel belongs, reported that “the sacrilegious act consisted of forcing open the secured door and removing the tabernacle from the chapel, forcing open the tabernacle to steal the ciborium, outraging the Consecrated Species.”
The Hosts, according to the parish, “were abandoned in a property near the chapel.”
The parish held an act of reparation yesterday afternoon followed by the celebration of Holy Mass.
On the chapel’s Facebook page, along with the photos of the destruction, it reads: “They can desecrate our churches, break our images, but our faith always remains in Jesus Christ who made heaven and earth. All hail to Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament.”
This desecration adds to the more than 500 attacks that the Catholic Church has suffered in the last five years under the dictatorship of President Daniel Ortega and his wife, Vice President Rosario Murillo, which have been compiled by the lawyer and researcher Martha Patricia Molina.
This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.
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This year Pope Francis did not walk in the Eucharistic procession, but joined at the end for adoration of the Blessed Sacrament and to offer the Eucharistic blessing. / Credit: Elizabeth Alva/EWTN News
Rome, Italy, Jun 2, 2024 / 16:44 pm (CNA).
Pope Francis gave a solemn blessing with the Blessed Sacrament from the steps of the Basilica of Saint Mary Major on Sunday in the culmination of a Eucharistic procession through the streets of Rome.
Holding the monstrance in his hands, the pope offered the blessing on the Solemnity of Corpus Christi on June 2 following prayers of adoration in front of the Blessed Sacrament.
Crowds lined the streets as the Eucharist was carried under a canopy from the Archbasilica of St. John Lateran to the Basilica of St. Mary Major along the Via Merulana, following the historic route Pope Gregory XIII created for religious processions between the two basilicas during the Jubilee of 1575.
Cardinals, bishops, priests, religious sisters, and families walked together in the one-hour procession singing hymns and reciting prayers. Curious tourists stopped to ask what was happening and onlookers leaned out their windows to watch as the real presence of Christ passed by.
“Beginning from the altar, we will carry the Consecrated Host among the homes of our city,” Pope Francis told the congregation in his homily for the Corpus Christi Mass before the procession.
“We are not doing this to show off, or to flaunt our faith but to invite everyone to participate, in the Bread of the Eucharist, in the new life that Jesus has given us,” he said.
“We are not doing this to show off, or to flaunt our faith,” said Pope Francis in his homily before the procession, “but to invite everyone to participate in the Bread of the Eucharist, in the new life that Jesus has given us.”. Credit: Elizabeth Alva/EWTN News
It was the first time that Pope Francis participated in Corpus Christi celebrations in Rome in years.
Health issues prevented the pope from participating in a public Corpus Christi Mass in Rome in 2023 and 2022 and COVID-19 restrictions limited his celebration to Vatican City in 2021 and 2020.
This year Pope Francis did not walk in the Eucharistic procession, but joined at the end for adoration of the Blessed Sacrament and to offer the Eucharistic blessing to the crowd.
Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, the prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of Faith, served as the primary celebrant at the altar for the Mass at the Lateran basilica. Bishop Baldassare Reina, the vicegerent of the diocese of Rome, carried the Eucharist in the procession.
Cardinals, bishops, priests, religious sisters, and families walked together in the one-hour procession singing hymns and reciting prayers. Credit: Courtney Mares / Catholic News Agency
The last time that the pope led the Corpus Christi procession along the traditional Roman route from the Lateran basilica to St. Mary Major was seven years ago in 2017.
“The Eucharistic bread is the real presence,” Pope Francis said in his homily. “This speaks to us of a God who is not distant and jealous, but close and in solidarity with humanity; a God who does not abandon us but always seeks, waits for, and accompanies us, even to the point of placing himself, helpless, into our hands, subjecting himself to our acceptance or rejection.”
“Dear brothers and sisters, how much need there is in our world for this bread,” Francis said.
“It is urgent to bring back to the world the good and fresh aroma of the bread of love, to continue to hope and rebuild without ever growing weary of what hatred destroys.”
Archbishop Eamon Martin holds a reliquiary containing relics of Auschwitz martyr St. Maximilian Kolbe in Warrenpoint, Northern Ireland, Sept. 5, 2021. / Anita Hoppe.
Warrenpoint, Northern Ireland, Sep 8, 2021 / 04:00 am (CNA).
The Primate of All… […]
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