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Pope Francis at the Easter Vigil Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica on April 8, 2023. / Credit: Vatican Media
Rome Newsroom, Feb 29, 2024 / 12:10 pm (CNA).
The Vatican has released Pope Francis’ schedule for Holy Week 2024, which will include five papal liturgies, Stations of the Cross at the Colosseum, and other traditions to mark the most sacred week of the year.
Easter is the highest feast in the Catholic Church, known as the “solemnity of solemnities,” celebrating Jesus’ resurrection and defeat of sin and death, and the Vatican celebrates Holy Week with pomp, reverence, tradition, and a busy schedule.
The 87-year-old pope is scheduled to preside over liturgies on each day of the Easter Triduum as well as Palm Sunday.
The Holy See Press Office published the pope’s Holy Week schedule one day after Pope Francis visited the hospital for diagnostic tests. Reuters reported that the pope had a CT scan during the hospital checkup. Last year, Pope Francis was discharged from the hospital one day before presiding over Palm Sunday Mass.
Holy Week 2024 begins on March 24 with Palm Sunday and culminates with Easter on March 31. Here is the Vatican’s full schedule:
On Sunday morning, March 24, Pope Francis is scheduled to preside over Mass for Palm Sunday, also known as Passion Sunday or the Commemoration of the Lord’s Entrance into Jerusalem.
The Mass, which will be in St. Peter’s Square at 10 a.m. local time, will kick off with a grand procession of deacons, priests, bishops, cardinals, and laypeople carrying palms.
The procession includes olive tree branches, palm fronds, and the large, weaved palms called “parmureli,” all blessed by Pope Francis.
Pope Francis is set to start Holy Thursday with a chrism Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica at 9:30 a.m. in the presence of cardinals, bishops, and priests living in Rome.
During the Mass, Pope Francis, as the bishop of Rome, will bless the oil of the sick, the oil of catechumens, and the chrism oil to be used in the diocese during the coming year.
The Vatican has yet to release the details for where Pope Francis will celebrate Holy Thursday Mass 2024. Last year, the pope offered Mass at the juvenile detention center Casal del Marmo, the same detention center where he offered Holy Thursday Mass in 2013 shortly after his election.
Continuing the liturgies of the Triduum, Pope Francis is also scheduled to preside over a celebration for the Passion of the Lord on Good Friday at 5 p.m. in St. Peter’s Basilica.
During this liturgy, which is not a Mass, Cardinal Raniero Cantalamessa, the papal preacher, typically preaches instead of the pope.
In the evening, Pope Francis will lead the Stations of the Cross devotion at 9:15 p.m. in Rome’s Colosseum illuminated by candlelight.
On Holy Saturday, Pope Francis is set to preside over the Easter Vigil at 7:30 p.m. in St. Peter’s Basilica.
The Easter Vigil, which takes place on Holy Saturday night, “is the greatest and most noble of all solemnities,” according to the Roman Missal.
The liturgy begins in darkness with the blessing of the new fire and the preparation of the paschal candle. At the Vatican, cardinals, bishops, and priests process through the dark basilica carrying lit candles to signify the light of Christ coming to dispel the darkness.
Pope Francis also typically baptizes new Catholics at this Mass.
The morning of Easter Sunday, Pope Francis will preside over Mass in St. Peter’s Square at 10 a.m. on a flower-decked parvise.
After Mass, he will give the annual Easter “urbi et orbi” blessing at noon from the central balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica.
“Urbi et orbi” means “to the city [of Rome] and to the world” and is a special apostolic blessing given by the pope every year on Easter Sunday, Christmas, and other special occasions.
In 2023, local authorities estimated that there were close to 100,000 people present in St. Peter’s Square for the blessing.
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Psychologist and author Dr. Jordan Peterson was interviewed by EWTN’s Colm Flynn on Feb. 11, 2024. / Credit: Screenshot/EWTN News in Depth
Denver Newsroom, Feb 28, 2024 / 17:30 pm (CNA).
In an interview with EWTN News, renowned psychologist and author Jordan Peterson shared his perspective on his wife’s “miraculous” recovery from cancer and his view of her embrace of the Catholic faith.
Peterson recounted that upon learning of his wife Tammy’s diagnosis, the couple sought treatment options in various hospitals across North America. Wherever they turned, he said, they were told available treatments had “no evidence for success” and the one-year survival rate for the cancer afflicting Tammy “was zero.”
But as Tammy Peterson also told EWTN News in a separate interview, she ultimately fully recovered from her cancer — and connected with a close friend’s as well as her grandmother’s Catholic faith in the process.
Dr. Peterson, known for his biblical lectures, noted that the Gospels contain numerous accounts of miraculous healings.
“And for anyone who’s conventionally scientific in his or her thinking, those stories are hard to understand,” he said.
Speaking of his scientific background, Peterson said he is not a “reductive materialist.” “I think we would see the miraculous constantly if we weren’t blind,” he observed.
Peterson said his wife’s newfound faith has strengthened her ability to share her “light” in ways she hadn’t previously.
“She’s speaking publicly, which she wouldn’t have done before, although she may have liked to,” he said.
“People hide, even, their desire to have their light shine, much less the light,” Peterson continued. “They hide that from themselves. That’s lack of faith. They’re afraid that if they admitted to the ambition and pursued it, it would come to naught.”
She has also “recovered that state of childhood that Christ associates with the kingdom,” he noted.
“And that’s a remarkable thing to see, because I also knew her as a child, and so I can actually see that re-emerge,” he continued. “And that’s quite the bloody miracle, that is.”
Dr. Peterson’s own relationship to the Christian and Catholic faith is not as clear as that of his wife, who is scheduled to be received into full communion with the Catholic Church this Easter.
Though he has said in the past that Catholicism “is as sane as people can get,” when asked by Flynn if he feels a tug toward Catholicism, he opted instead to say he has an “appreciation” for Catholicism.
“There’s plenty of things the Catholic faith got right,” he told Flynn.
“At some point, every question bottoms out in a mystery, and that’s where the faith has to be,” he said. “Faith is necessary in part because you don’t know everything.”
While Peterson said he is not on the same Catholic faith journey as his wife, he emphasized that the “original proposition” of Christ’s invitation to “take up your cross and follow me” is “obviously” correct.
“Christ faced, and triumphed, over death and hell, and you might say, well, why is that relevant?” he said. “And the answer is, because that’s what you have to do.”
Peterson said it’s important for the Church to stay focused on that original proposition.
“If it’s all guitar and hippies, who the hell cares?” Peterson said, emphasizing that the Church should not try to “be more relevant” by taking up other causes, such as the climate crisis.
“It’s supposed to be an invitation to the great adventure of life,” he said of the Christian faith. “What’s the great adventure of life? Pick up your cross and follow me. Well, what’s more relevant than that?”
In sum, Peterson concluded, “everybody has their own path.” “Tammy’s on hers; I’m on mine.”
The complete EWTN News interview with Dr. Jordan Peterson can be viewed below.
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