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Here’s what Pope Francis is doing for All Saints’ and All Souls’ Days 2024

October 30, 2024 Catholic News Agency 4
Pope Francis says Mass for All Souls’ Day at the Laurentino Cemetery outside Rome, Nov. 2, 2018. / Credit: Daniel Ibanez/CNA

Vatican City, Oct 30, 2024 / 10:10 am (CNA).

After an October full of activity due to the Synod on Synodality, in November Pope Francis will once again mark the beginning of the month of the dead with special prayers and Masses for All Saints’ and All Souls’ Days. 

On the solemnity of All Saints on Nov. 1, Pope Francis will lead the Angelus, a traditional Marian prayer, from a window overlooking St. Peter’s Square at noon Rome time, as he does on every holy day of obligation.

Before the Angelus, the pope will deliver a short reflection; often it is based on the day’s Gospel or feast. Afterward, he may greet some of the groups present in St. Peter’s Square and draw attention to current social issues affecting the world, especially war.

For All Souls’ Day on Nov. 2, Francis will continue his custom of holding a Mass in a local cemetery to pray for the dead, especially the holy souls in purgatory.

The Mass will be offered at 10 a.m. in part of the nearly 52-acre Laurentino Cemetery — Rome’s third largest. Pope Francis usually gives a brief, spontaneous homily on this occasion.

This will be the pope’s second All Souls’ Day Mass in Laurentino Cemetery. In 2018, he offered Mass in an area of the cemetery reserved for deceased children and unborn babies called the “Garden of Angels.”

Since 2016, Pope Francis has celebrated or presided at a Mass in six different cemeteries in or near Rome. For All Souls’ Day in 2023, Mass was offered at the small Rome War Cemetery, which contains 426 Commonwealth burials from the Second World War.

During the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, the pope opted to stay in Vatican City and celebrate Mass for the faithful departed in the Church of Our Lady of Mercy, which is surrounded by the Teutonic Cemetery — the burial place of people of German, Austrian, and Swiss descent, and particularly members of the Archconfraternity to the Sorrowful Mother of God of the Germans and Flemings.

In 2019, the pope celebrated Mass at the Catacombs of Priscilla, while in 2022 he privately visited the Teutonic Cemetery again but offered Mass for deceased bishops and cardinals in St. Peter’s Basilica — another papal custom during the week of All Saints’ and All Souls’ Days.

On Sunday, Nov. 3, Pope Francis will again lead the Angelus in St. Peter’s Square, as he does every Sunday at noon.

The following morning, on Nov. 4, he will preside at a Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica for the repose of the souls of the bishops and cardinals who died during the previous year. It is the pope’s practice to always offer this Mass sometime during the first week of November.

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Church in Ukraine has lost half of its parishes in areas occupied by Russia, bishop says

October 29, 2024 Catholic News Agency 0
Father Ivan Levystky (left) and Father Bohdan Geleta (right) were held for more than a year after being captured by the Russians in Berdyansk and released on June 28, 2024. / Credit: Donetsk Bishop’s Exarchy

ACI Prensa Staff, Oct 29, 2024 / 17:20 pm (CNA).

More than two and a half years after the Russian invasion, the Church in Ukraine has lost more than half of the parishes in the occupied regions, said Maksym Ryabukha, the new Greek Catholic bishop of the Donetsk exarchate.

Speaking to the Italian daily Avvenire, the 44-year-old prelate said “the situation is increasingly worrying” since the war began in February 2022.

“We have already lost more than half of the parishes. And with the advancing Russian army, dozens of other churches have been evacuated,” added Ryabukha, whose diocese is partly under Moscow’s control, divided by over 300 miles of trenches.

According to the Italian media, in the churches of Pokrovsk, Mirnohrad, and Kostiantynivka — areas taken by Russian forces — there are no more remaining liturgical furnishings, pews, or adornments.

The new bishop of the Donetsk exarchate said the priests “stay close to the population and visit the refugees who have left their homes.” In his case, he said he is now “a bishop in a time of pain, drama, injustice, and helplessness” as he sees his Church suffering.

Ryabukha said that in the Russian-occupied areas, “those who openly call themselves Catholics disappear: Some are shot, others are imprisoned. There is no right to freely profess the faith. Our faithful keep saying: ‘We’re holding up, but it’s like being locked up in a prison.’”

Among the painful experiences, the prelate recalled the imprisonment of his priests Bohdan Geleta and Ivan Levitskyi, who were held for more than a year after being captured by the Russians in Berdyansk.

Both were released in June, and Ryabukha said their stories “show how the power of prayer is a vital support in the midst of atrocities.”

“Our two priests felt the closeness of the Church that allowed them to hold up under the evil, the torture, the inhumanity they experienced in Russian cells. And it’s with prayer that I also can be close to the communities that they prevent me from visiting. Every day I ask the Lord to protect them,” he said.

The bishop, who regularly visits Ukrainian soldiers, said that many of them, before the war, “were simple fathers or even former Salesian students. They put aside their plans to defend the country.”

“We know that the war will end. But we all want this to happen as soon as possible and with peace in the name of justice,” he added.

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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