For the first time in the millennial history of the Catholic Church, the Pope prays this Friday alone before the immense empty square of San Pedro and will give the blessing and plenary indulgence to the world due to the coronavirus pandemic that is plaguing him.
It is an unpublished rite during which gives the blessing “Urbi et Orbi” (to the city and the world) to all the faithful and is broadcast on television, internet and radio at 12 noon, Colombia time, through the Catholic channel EWTN.
The Gospel according to Saint Mark was read, the passage in which, according to the biblical text, in the midst of a storm that threatened to sink the boat in which Jesus was going with his disciples. “Why are they afraid, in case they still have no faith?” He asked them, after calming the storm.
Pope Francis said that “for the past few weeks it seems that everything has darkened,” and made reference to the empty and silent squares around the world. “We were surprised by an unexpected storm,” he said, like the disciples in the Bible passage. “In this boat we are all, like those disciples who speak with a single voice, and with anguish say ‘we are lost.'”
The Supreme Pontiff said that we realize that we cannot be alone, but that we must face the current circumstances all together. He mentioned that in the reading, the disciples asked Jesus as if he was disinterested in them. “Don’t you care that we’re lost?” They asked him. That phrase “hurts and unleashes storms in the heart,” including that of Jesus, who then saves his disciples.
“The storm unmasks our vulnerability and exposes those false and superfluous assurances with which we had built our agendas,” said Pope Francis. “The storm uncovers all attempts to box and forget what nourished the soul of our peoples,” reflected the Pope.
“We have continued unperturbed thinking about always staying healthy in a sick world”continued the pope in his prayer. It is time to separate what is necessary from what is not and to “re-establish the course of life” towards God, Francisco said.
He stressed that our lives are supported by “ordinary people” who do not appear on the covers, but who “are writing today the decisive events in our history”, such as doctors, nurses, cleaners, security forces, volunteers, priests, religious, “and so many others who understood that no one saves himself. “
Francisco underlined the message that “we are all one”, and highlighted the work of those who do not sow panic, but co-responsibility. “The beginning of faith is knowing that we need salvation, we are not self-sufficient. We are sinking alone, we need the Lord like the ancient sailors the stars. Let us invite Jesus to the boat of our life. Let us give him our fears that he will overcome them” . Said “The strength of God” is to turn something that happens to us, even the bad, into something good.
The highest Catholic hierarch called for hope to sustain all possible paths “that help us take care of ourselves and take care of ourselves.”
“Lord, bless the world, give health to the bodies and comfort the hearts”, he said in his blessing to the world. “Do not abandon us at the mercy of the storm. You repeat again: Do not be afraid, and we together with Pedro, unload on you all our burden, because we know that you take care of us.”
After his homily, the pope withdrew from the lectern to pray before the image of the Virgin Mary. to which every person who travels outside the Vatican prays. Later, he prayed before the Christ who is credited from the believers with the healing of the great plague of 1522. Pope Francis kissed the feet of the image that traveled through Rome in those years and crossed himself.
Later, the Pope entered the Basilica of Saint Peter, where he prayed in front of the “Blessed Sacrament of the Altar”.
This blessing will allow the more than 1,300 million Catholics to obtain a plenary indulgence, that is, forgiveness of their guilt, at such a difficult time, with confinement measures that affect more than 3,000 million people.
I will preside over a moment of prayer in the atrium of St. Peter’s Basilica. With the empty square. From now on, I invite everyone to participate spiritually through the media
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“I will preside over a moment of prayer in the atrium of St. Peter’s Basilica. With the square empty. From now on, I invite everyone to participate spiritually through the media. We will listen to the Word of God, we will raise our supplication, we will adore the Blessed Sacrament, with which at the end I will give the Urbi et Orbi blessing and to which will be added the possibility of receiving the plenary indulgence, “announced the same pope several days ago.
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The image of the head of the Catholic Church who prays alone before the immense esplanade at the end of the war against an invisible enemy that has caused 25,000 deaths so far, it is almost cinematic.
Faced with the dramatic moment humanity is experiencing, Pope Francis decided to give an extraordinary blessing, the Urbi et Orbi, the same that the pontiffs usually impart only on December 25 and Easter Sunday, dates in which the birth and death of Jesus.
An extraordinary event
“It is an extraordinary event presided over by the Pope, at a particular moment, when the world falls to its knees due to the pandemic. A moment of extraordinary grace that gives us the opportunity to live this time of suffering and fear with faith and hope”, The Vatican explained in a note.
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Since the coronavirus epidemic broke out in Europe, which hits Italy and Spain with particular force, Pope Francis has spoken on several occasions, remembering in particular the doctors and nurses, on the front line of the fight, and urging priests to accompany the sick and dying.
On March 25, he participated in a worldwide ecumenical prayer with all the Christians in the world, to pray the ‘Our Father’, the prayer that Jesus taught us, “he said, in a video broadcast from the library of the Vatican Apostolic Palace.
The papal blessing from the atrium of San Pedro will be particularly followed in Latin America, the continent where the largest number of Catholics reside and the land of the pontiff Francisco, born in Argentina. Dioceses throughout the region have mobilized to invite the faithful to prayer.
The Argentine pope usually mentions the coronavirus pandemic every morning before celebrating the private morning mass that since the crisis has been broadcast live from the small chapel of his residence in the Casa Santa Marta, where he lives inside the Vatican.
In an allusion to the important role of the Catholic Church during the plagues that hit Europe in the past, the pope left the Vatican on March 15 to pray before the crucifix of the Roman church of San Marcello, which was removed in 1922 in procession through the neighborhoods of Rome to invoke the end of the plague that devastated it, for what is considered “miraculous”.
The crucifix has been transferred to Saint Peter’s Square for the blessing this Friday. Francisco, who has had to limit his actions and schedule to avoid possible contagions, prepares to celebrate the first Holy Week of the modern era without the faithful or processions.
AFP
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