Friday, April 08, 2011

JPII beatification program will be divided into stages

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.