Pope Francis reads the Act of Consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary in St. Peter’s Basilica, March 25, 2022. / Vatican Media.
Vatican City, Mar 25, 2022 / 12:30 pm (CNA).
Pope Francis on Friday consecrated Russia and Ukraine to the Immac… […]
An image of the Immaculate Heart of Mary at St. Peter’s Church, Vienna, Austria. / Diana Ringo via Wikimedia (CC BY-SA 3.0 at).
Vatican City, Mar 25, 2022 / 09:55 am (CNA).
11:04 a.m.
Pope Francis goes to confession, then hears confessions
After Pope Francis preached his homily, there was a moment of total silence in the basilica. Following the recitation of the Confiteor, the prayer beginning “I confess to almighty God…”, the pope walked across the basilica to the area with the confessionals. There, he made his confession while standing. He then walked over to a confessional and began to hear confessions himself.
10:54 a.m.
An act followed in Russia and Ukraine
Catholics in the Russian capital Moscow are gathering today to pray and follow the live feed of the act of consecration. They are meeting at Immaculate Conception Cathedral, a building with a turbulent history.
Ukrainian Catholics will also be praying the act of consecration, which has been shared on the website of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, based in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv.
Andrii Yurash, Ukraine’s ambassador to the Holy See, has tweeted this:
PopeFrancis leading Mass with rank of dedication🇺🇦&🇷🇺 to ImmaculateHeart of VirginMary according to Revelation in Fatima in 1917, when She asked to consecrate🇷🇺 in intention to convert it&prevent from doing bad things. So today’s rank is another attempt🇻🇦defend🇺🇦from devil’s🇷🇺war pic.twitter.com/sO32IhB1k2
— Andrii Yurash (@AndriiYurash) March 25, 2022
10:44 a.m.
The ‘sacrament of joy’
The penitential service includes the opportunity for individual confession. Here are the confessors arriving in the basilica.
In his homily, Pope Francis spoke about confession, describing it as “the sacrament of joy.”
10:34 a.m.
The meaning of the act of consecration
The act of consecration is long and theologically rich. Here are five things to know about it.
Some commentators have raised questions about a phrase found in some non-English versions of the text. The phrase, “Earth of Heaven,” is present in the Spanish text (“tierra del Cielo”) and the Italian translation (“terra del Cielo”).
The Vatican has issued an explanation of the phrase. You can find it here.
10:24 a.m.
The statue of Mary inside St. Peter’s Basilica
Pope Francis is expected to stand before this statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary as he reads the act of consecration. The act is available on the Vatican website in an impressive 36 languages, including Ukrainian and Russian. The pope is expected to make the act of consecration in Italian.
10:14 a.m.
A guide to the penitential service
Here is the booklet for the penitential service and act of consecration given to members of the congregation inside St. Peter’s Basilica. You can see the contents here.
10:12 a.m.
How to watch live
If you’d like to watch the consecration live, we encourage you to tune in via EWTN.
The pope is expected to recite the act of consecration at around 6:30 p.m. local time.
When is 6:30 p.m. Rome time for you? There’s a handy cheat sheet here.
10:08 a.m.
Inside the basilica
This was the scene inside the basilica ahead of the penitential service and act of consecration.
Here are the preparations, as seen by our reporters at the basilica:
St. Peter’s Basilica is preparing for the penance service and consecration of Russia and Ukraine to the Immaculate 🤍 of Mary. pic.twitter.com/HPu3roaESi
— Hannah Brockhaus (@HannahBrockhaus) March 25, 2022
The crowd in St Peter’s Basilica is waiting in eager anticipation of Pope Francis’ consecration of the world, especially Russia and Ukraine, to the Immaculate Conception of Mary. pic.twitter.com/iqcGzPsFSN
— Courtney Mares (@catholicourtney) March 25, 2022
09:55 a.m.
Welcome to readers
Welcome to CNA’s live coverage of the momentous global act of consecration of Ukraine and Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Our reporters are inside St. Peter’s Basilica, where a penitential service will begin shortly, followed by the consecration.
Eleanor McCullen testifies during the confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson, March 24, 2022. / Screenshot taken from PBS NewsHour YouTube channel
Washington D.C., Mar 25, 2022 / 09:32 am (CNA).
A pro-life sidewal… […]
Immaculate Heart of Mary. / Zvonimir Atletic via www.shutterstock.com.
Vatican City, Mar 25, 2022 / 09:10 am (CNA).
An official at the Vatican’s Dicastery for Communication has offered an explanation of the “Earth of Heaven” reference in some n… […]
Pope Francis venerates the Cross on Good Friday in St. Peter’s Basilica. / Daniel Ibáñez/CNA.
Vatican City, Mar 25, 2022 / 08:44 am (CNA).
The Vatican’s liturgy office said on Friday that it would not be issuing COVID-19 guidelines for Holy Wee… […]
Pope Francis in front of a statue of Our Lady of Fatima in St. Peter’s Square on May 13, 2015. / Vatican Media.
Vatican City, Mar 25, 2022 / 08:00 am (CNA).
Pope Francis has asked Catholics around the world to join him on Friday in consecrating… […]
The logo of ACI MENA, EWTN’s new Arabic-language news agency, based in Erbil, Iraq. / EWTN
Irondale, Ala., Mar 25, 2022 / 07:28 am (CNA).
EWTN Global Catholic Network has launched an Arabic-language news service headquartered in Erbil, Iraq, Michael P. Warsaw, EWTN’s chairman and CEO, announced March 25, on the Solemnity of the Annunciation.
The Association for Catholic Information Middle East and North Africa, or ACI MENA, will publish original news content in Arabic using a network of correspondents across the region. The news agency will operate from the campus of Erbil’s Catholic University (CUE.) A ceremony marking the occasion was held in Erbil, which included Archbishop Bashar Warda of the Chaldean Catholic Archdiocese of Erbil.
“I am pleased to announce that EWTN has begun a service reporting news from the embattled and underserved Christian communities in the Middle East,” Warsaw said.
“This is an important milestone in the growth of EWTN News around the globe, and I am pleased that we are taking this significant step to better serve our courageous brothers and sisters in the region who have endured so much,” he said.
“Because it is published in Arabic, this agency will also augment the service offered by ACI-Africa, our Nairobi, Kenya-based Catholic news agency, which EWTN launched in 2019 and which publishes content in English, French and Portuguese,” Warsaw added. “ACI MENA will provide a new voice to help spread the Gospel and news of the Church to these Christian communities in their own language.”
Hanna studied philosophy and theology for nine years at the Babel College in Iraq and graduated with a degree in civil engineering from the University of Nantes in France. Hanna speaks Arabic, French, English, and Aramaic fluently, and has a significant understanding of classic Arabic.
“When war came around to Iraq, I lost friends and relatives and became a political refugee in Europe,” Hanna said. “Ten years later, I received a call to work on the reconstruction in the Nineveh plains, to rebuild the church of Mosul. Then, late last year, I received a call for the position of Editor-in-Chief with ACI MENA. And I heard the Lord say: ‘I took you from the ends of the earth; from its farthest corners I called you. I said, you are my servant; I have chosen you and have not rejected you’ (Isaiah 41:9.)”
“Becoming ACI MENA’s Editor-in-Chief, to carry the message of love to the Arabic world still submerged in conflicts and persecution, may be a heavy cross … but He has risen!” Hanna added.
Alejandro Bermudez, executive director of the ACI Group, of which ACI MENA is now a part, called the news agency’s launch “a major step forward for the ACI Group as well as for the larger EWTN News family.”
“We are honored to expand our news coverage of the ancient and heroic communities in this region, providing them local, Vatican and world news in Arabic,” Bermudez said. “ACI MENA will not be a simple translation of news in Arabic, but a local news agency written in Arabic for the Arabic-speaking world, which will also bring stories of local Christian communities to the rest of the world.”
ACI MENA is the latest addition to the ACI Group, which includes ACI Prensa, the world’s largest Spanish-language Catholic news organization with headquarters in Lima, Peru; ACI Digital, the São Paulo, Brazil-based news organization, which serves the Portuguese-speaking world; ACI Stampa, the Italian-language news organization based in Rome; and ACI Africa, which covers news from the African continent in English, French, and Portuguese.
ACI Group is part of the larger EWTN News, Inc. division, which also includes Catholic News Agency (CNA), the German-language news service CNA Deutsch, and several other Catholic news outlets, including the National Catholic Register, “EWTN News Nightly,” “EWTN News In Depth,” and several other television news programs.
In its 41st year, EWTN is the largest religious media network in the world. EWTN’s 11 global TV channels are broadcast in multiple languages 24 hours a day, seven days a week to over 390 million television households in more than 150 countries and territories.
EWTN platforms also include radio services transmitted through SIRIUS/XM, iHeart Radio, and over 500 domestic and international AM and FM radio affiliates; a worldwide shortwave radio service; one of the largest Catholic websites in the U.S.; and EWTN News; as well as EWTN Publishing, its book publishing division.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) / Shutterstock
Boston, Mass., Mar 25, 2022 / 06:30 am (CNA).
U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi spoke about being a “devout” Catholic in an on-stage discussion on Tuesday, while defending he… […]
Cardinal Piacenza, head of the Apostolic Penitentiary, celebrates Mass Nov. 1, 2020, at Rome’s Shrine of Our Lady of the Third Millennium at Tre Fontane. / null
Vatican City, Mar 25, 2022 / 04:40 am (CNA).
The Catholic Church’s consecration of … […]
Sacraments of Healing The Catechism’s introduction to the “sacraments of healing” is so good that the best service to be provided here is simply to cite it verbatim: Through the sacraments of Christian initiation, man […]
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