In celebration of the upcoming feast of the protomartyrs of Rome, a Eucharistic procession was held on June 27, 2024, through the streets of Vatican City. / Credit: Daniel Ibáñez/EWTN News
ACI Prensa Staff, Jun 28, 2024 / 17:10 pm (CNA).
On the occasion of the feast of the holy protomartyrs of Rome, which the Church celebrates every June 30, the traditional Mass and Eucharistic procession took place in Vatican City.
In celebration of the upcoming feast of the protomartyrs of Rome, a Eucharistic procession was held on June 27, 2024, through the streets of Vatican City. Credit: Daniel Ibáñez/EWTN News
The Pontifical Music Band plays during the Eucharistic procession in honor of the protomartyrs of Rome at the Vatican on June 27, 2024. Credit: Daniel Ibáñez/ EWTN News
The Eucharist is held in a monstrance by Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi during a Eucharistic procession in honor of the protomartyrs of Rome on June 27, 2024, at the Vatican. Credit: Daniel Ibáñez/ EWTN NewsHoly Mass, celebrated on June 27 in the Church of Our Lady of Mercy at the Teutonic Cemetery, was offered by Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, president emeritus of the Pontifical Council for Culture.
Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi presides at the Mass in honor of the holy protomartyrs of Rome on June 27, 2024, at the Church of Our Lady of Mercy of the Teutonic Cemetery in Rome. Credit: Daniel Ibáñez/EWTN News
At the end, a solemn Eucharistic procession took place, with the accompaniment of the Pontifical Musical Band along the avenues of Vatican City.
Members of the Pontifical Academy Cultorum Martyrum, numerous faithful, representatives of the Swiss Guard, and the gendarmerie as well as members of the Association of Sts. Peter and Paul participated in this traditional procession.
Lay faithful precede the Eucharist during a procession in honor of the protomartyrs of Rome on June 27, 2024. Credit: Daniel Ibáñez/EWTN News
Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi holds the monstrance during a Eucharistic procession in honor of the protomartyrs of Rome on June 27, 2024. Credit: Daniel Ibáñez/EWTN News
The Eucharistic procession in honor of the protomartyrs of Rome goes around St. Peter’s Basilica on June 27, 2024 at the Vatican. Credit: Daniel Ibáñez/EWTN NewsCardinal Gianfranco Ravasi incenses the Eucharist during a procession in honor of the protomartyrs of Rome on June 27, 2024. Credit: Daniel Ibáñez/EWTN News
Members of the faithful follow the Eucharistic procession honoring the protomartyrs of Rome on June 27, 2024. Credit: Daniel Ibáñez/EWTN News
Swiss Guard accompany the Eucharist under the baldacchino during a Eucharistic procession in honor of the protomartyrs of Rome on June 27, 2024. Credit: Daniel Ibáñez/EWTN News
Who were the holy protomartyrs of Rome?
On June 30, the Church commemorates the holy protomartyrs of Rome, who died during the first persecution against the Catholic Church, which was unleashed in the second half of the first century.
They suffered terrible torments and gave their lives just to call themselves “Christians,” followers of Jesus of Nazareth.
Consequently, they were granted the title of “protomartyrs” — a term from ancient Greek — which means “first martyrs” or “first witnesses.”
This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.
If you value the news and views Catholic World Report provides, please consider donating to support our efforts. Your contribution will help us continue to make CWR available to all readers worldwide for free, without a subscription. Thank you for your generosity!
Click here for more information on donating to CWR. Click here to sign up for our newsletter.
Hungary’s ambassador to the Holy See Eduard Habsburg told EWTN News that Pope Francis will find “a vibrant Christian country” when he visits Hungary April 28–30, 2023. / Credit: Daniel Ibañez/CNA
“If the Vatican finances are sound, it means that our Church will continue. If the Vatican finances are not sound, it’s going to have problems,” former Vatican auditor general Libero Milone said. […]
Father José María Calderón (left) is Spain’s national director of the Pontifical Missions Society. Serafín Suárez (right) is a missionary in Zimbabwe. / Credit: PMS Spain
ACI Prensa Staff, Jun 14, 2024 / 08:00 am (CNA).
The Spanish section of the Pontifical Missions Societies (PMS Spain) has presented its annual report for the year 2023, which shows that the Catholic Church in the increasingly secularized country still maintains a prominent place in the Church’s global evangelization efforts.
The report reveals that in 2023 Spain fielded more than 6,000 active missionaries in 1,123 mission territories spread across 139 countries. By the numbers, Peru, Venezuela, and Italy have the largest number of Spanish missionaries. Of the total, 53% are women with an average age of 75.
In addition to prelates, priests, and religious, 643 Spanish laypeople participate in this evangelization effort. Together, they belong to nearly 400 ecclesial institutions, from dioceses to religious institutes and congregations, or associations of the faithful.
Moreover, the report reveals that following the United States, the Church in Spain continues to provide the most financial support to the overall Pontifical Missions effort, ascending to nearly 17 million euros (about $18.2 million). In 2023, PMS Spain distributed more than 13 million euros (almost $14 million) to nearly 900 missionary projects.
The national director of PMS Spain, Father José María Calderón, explained the importance of “making all Christians aware of the fact that evangelization is not only the task of missionaries but of all the baptized.” To do so, in 2023 PMS Spain held more than 80 conferences and roundtables along with dozens of missionary exhibitions, contests, music festivals, and diocesan meetings.
Serafín Suárez, missionary of the Spanish Institute of Foreign Missions who has been evangelizing in the Diocese of Hwange, Zimbabwe, for 30 years, expressed his desire to humanize and put faces and names to all the numbers contained in the report.
Suárez conjured the image of “a tapestry in which colors, landscapes, and people appear that everyone praises for their beauty: Turn the tapestry over. And we are going to find that there are only ropes and knots,” he pointed out. “Missions are that. What appears is the beautiful tapestry, but it would be impossible if the knots and ropes were not behind it.”
“Missionaries are the fruit of those ropes and those knots,” Suárez continued. “We are bearers and spokespersons for what we have behind us,” which is many people who “without going outside, live and help the mission.”
Suárez said the missions are characterized by two hands. In one hand is “the bread of the Word” because that is the commission the missionaries have received: “Try to transform the world in which you live from the word of Jesus.”
This becomes difficult, he pointed out, when most missions are carried out in disadvantaged countries, making it necessary to extend another hand “with another bread, our daily bread.” Both, he added, “are complementary.”
This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.
Leave a Reply