Pope Francis, Catholic shrines to offer rosary for Mary’s help during pandemic

May 25, 2020 CNA Daily News News Briefs 1 Print

Vatican City, May 25, 2020 / 10:04 am (CNA).- Pope Francis will pray the rosary in the Vatican Gardens’ Lourdes grotto on Saturday, as Catholic shrines from around the world join via video streaming.

The intention of the worldwide rosary is for the Blessed Virgin Mary’s help and solace during the coronavirus pandemic.

According to a letter sent to shrine rectors by Archbishop Rino Fisichella, president of the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of the New Evangelization, the livestreamed prayer will take place at 5:30 p.m. Rome time on May 30.

Catholic shrines have been asked to participate by holding their own recitation of the rosary, in accordance with local health measures, at the same time as the Rome event and to promote the initiative.

They have also been asked, if possible, to provide satellite or streaming connections with the Vatican’s television center so that video footage of the rosary at the different shrines can be shared during Pope Francis’ livestream.

During the coronavirus emergency, many Catholic shrines have had to close to the public, including the Shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes in France, which only partially reopened to pilgrims May 16.

The Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima in Portugal has also been closed and the May 13 anniversary of the 1917 Marian apparitions were celebrated without the presence of the public for the first time in its history due to the pandemic.

The rosary with Pope Francis is being organized by the Pontifical Council for Promoting the New Evangelization, which in its letter to rectors paraphrased the Acts of the Apostles 1:14: “All joined together constantly in prayer, along [with] Mary.”

“In light of the emergency situation caused by the Coronavirus pandemic that has caused the stoppage of the normal activity of all Shrines and the interruption of all pilgrimages, Pope Francis wishes to express a gesture of closeness to each of you with the recitation of the Holy Rosary,” Archbishop Fisichella wrote.

The Pontifical Council for Promoting the New Evangelization has been responsible for Catholic shrines since 2017.

Globally, there have been more than 5.4 million confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus, with more than 340,000 recorded deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center.
 
 

 

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Pope Francis: Bible the ‘beating heart’ of the Church

April 26, 2019 CNA Daily News 0

Vatican City, Apr 26, 2019 / 09:47 am (CNA).- Pope Francis emphasized Friday the importance of the Bible in the life of the Church, echoing Benedict XVI’s call for “a new season of greater love for Sacred Scripture.”

“It is important to remember that the Holy Spirit, the Life-Giver, loves to work through Scripture. The Word brings the breath of God into the world, infuses the warmth of the Lord in the heart,” Pope Francis said April 26.

“The word of God is alive: it does not die nor does it age, it remains forever,” he said. “It is alive and it gives life.”

The pope met with the participants in international congress promoted by the Catholic Biblical Federation in the Vatican’s Apostolic Palace on the 50th anniversary of the organization’s founding. The April 24-26 congress discussed “the Biblical inspiration of the whole pastoral life and mission of the Church.”

Pope Francis said “it would be nice to see ‘a new season of greater love for sacred Scripture on the part of every member of the People of God, so that … their personal relationship with Jesus may be deepened,’” quoting Benedict’s 2010 apostolic exhortation Verbum Domini.

Francis called for the “Word of God to become the heart of every ecclesial activity; the beating heart, which vitalizes the limbs of the Body.”

“The Word gives life to each believer by teaching them to renounce themselves in order to announce Him,” he said.

The Bible is “constantly calling us to come out of ourselves” he explained, adding that Word of God helps people to be less self-centered.

“The Word leads to Easter living: as a seed that dying gives life, like grapes that give wine through the press, like olives that give oil after passing through the mill. Thus, provoking radical gifts of life, the Word vivifies,” Francis said.

The pope said that the Bible should not remain in the library, but should be brought into the streets of the world where people live.

“The Bible is not a beautiful collection of sacred books to study, it is the Word of Life to sow,” he said.

“I wish you to be good bearers of the Word, with the same enthusiasm that we read these days in the Easter stories, where everyone runs,” Pope Francis said. “They run to meet and announce the living Word.”

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1 Comment

  1. Praying the Rosary – can bring about union of hearts and minds. Where two or three are gathered in my name – there I am, says the Lord.

    Reply

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