The Vatican confirmed the presence of the pope at the Holy Saturday Vigil mass, which will be celebrated at 7:30 p.m. (6:30 p.m. GMT) in St. Peter’s Basilica, after he last resigned this Friday time to preside over the Via Crucis in the Colosseum in Rome to “protect his health” in view of the upcoming Holy Week rites.
A few minutes before the start of the Stations of the Cross, the Vatican press office reported that “to safeguard health before tomorrow’s vigil and the Holy Mass on Easter Sunday,” Francis would follow the Stations of the Cross at the Colosseum from his residence, the Santa Marta House.
While this Saturday, the press office confirmed the presence of the Pope at the Vigil, in one of the longest ceremonies, almost 3 hours, in the Catholic tradition.
This Friday, everything was prepared, the security device along the road from the Vatican, the organization prepared to receive the pope in the Colosseum and 25,000 faithful present, as well as the white chair in the box installed on the Palatine Hill and was left empty.
Last year, Francis, who had just left the hospital due to bronchitis, did not go to the Colosseum on the recommendation of the doctors, and this was surely the case on this occasion as well, after the two-hour celebration of the Passion of the Lord on the afternoon of yesterday and the cold and humidity in the Roman night.
For the moment, the Sunday Resurrection Mass and Easter message and the urbi et orbi blessing from the central loggia of the Vatican basilica are also confirmed.
Francis, 87, who has suffered from respiratory problems in recent times, presided, apparently without problems, at the Holy Thursday mass in a women’s prison in Rome and this Friday at the ceremony of the passion of Christ in St. Peter’s Basilica.
BY: Nadeem Faisal Baiga
