The beatification ceremony of Pope John Paul II on
May 1 will be divided into stages to maintain a solemn spirit across
three days of prayerful preparation, celebration and thanksgiving,
reports the Catholic News Agency.
Cardinal Agostino Vallini,
the Pope's vicar for the Diocese of Rome, called the long beatification
weekend a "spiritual journey", with the actual ceremony is set for the
morning of May 1, sandwiched between an evening prayer vigil and a
thanksgiving Mass the following day.
As pilgrims arrive to the Eternal City by bus, ferry, and even
"charter trains" on April 30, they are invited to join together at the
Circus Maximus – a great field in the centre of Rome once used for
chariot races – for a prayer vigil.
The vigil will be both "universal
and very Roman," said Cardinal Vallini as he described the major
elements of the gathering.
It is to be divided in two parts.
The first is a celebration of the
memory of the late pontiff. A choir and orchestra will provide the music
as the image of Our Lady of Rome, Maria Salus Populi Romani, is
processed into the venue.
The French Sister Marie Simon-Pierre, whose healing was accepted as
the miracle needed for Pope John Paul II's beatification will share her
story with pilgrims at a prayer vigil in Rome the night before the
beatification Mass, reports the Catholic News Service.
Cardinal Agostino Vallini, the papal vicar for Rome, said the vigil
April 30 would include "the precious testimony" of Joaquin
Navarro-Valls, the former papal spokesman; Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz of
Krakow, Poland, who was the pope's personal secretary for almost 40
years; and Sister Marie-Simon-Pierre, the member of the Little Sisters
of the Catholic Motherhood.
Cardinal Vallini, other officials from the Rome diocese and Jesuit
Father Federico Lombardi, Vatican spokesman, held a news conference
April 5 to discuss the details of Pope John Paul's beatification May 1
and other events surrounding the ceremony.