Ash Wednesday planning without the Pope's attendance

 

Vatican makes new plans for Ash Wednesday as worst is apparently over in pope’s pneumonia battle

BY NICOLE WINFIELD

February 28, 2025

ROME (AP) — Pope Francis reached the two-week mark in his recovery from pneumonia Friday as doctors suggested he had overcome the most critical phase of the infection but held out on declaring him out of danger entirely.

The Vatican, though, made alternative plans for Ash Wednesday next week, making clear Francis still had a long road ahead. Cardinal Angelo De Donatis, a Vatican official and former vicar of Rome, will preside over the March 5 ceremony and procession that inaugurates the church’s solemn Lenten season leading up to Easter in April.

The Vatican’s early Friday update suggested a level of normalcy and routine as the 88-year-old pope continues recovering at Rome’s Gemelli Hospital. “As in past days, the night was tranquil and the pope now is resting,” it said.

Francis had breakfast, read the day’s newspapers and was receiving respiratory physiotherapy, the Vatican said.

In their Thursday evening bulletin, doctors said Francis’ clinical condition had confirmed that he was improving. He was alternating the high-flow supplemental oxygen he had been receiving by a nasal tube with a mask in a sign of improved respiratory function. Additionally, he left his hospital room to go to his nearby private chapel to pray, while continuing with respiratory physiotherapy and work, the Vatican said.

For the second day in a row, doctors avoided saying Francis was in critical condition, suggesting he had overcome the most acute phase of the infection. But given the complexity of his lung infection, they said “further days of clinical stability are needed” before they revise their prognosis officially and say he is out of danger.

Francis has been at Gemelli Hospital since Feb. 14 after his bronchitis worsened.

He has shown steady, albeit slight, improvements since a respiratory crisis and kidney trouble over the weekend sparked fears for his life. The improvements beat back speculation of an imminent death or resignation and signaled that he was still very much in charge.

Prayers continued to pour in

In Mexico City, a few dozen people gathered Thursday night at the cathedral to pray for Francis’ recovery.

“He is like part of the family,” said Araceli Gutiérrez, who treasures the time she saw the pope during his trip to the country of nearly 100 million Catholics in 2016. “That’s why we feel so concerned for him.”

María Teresa Sánchez, who was visiting from Colombia with her sister, said that she has always felt close to Francis — the first Latin American pope.

“That’s like having a relative within the higher-ups, with God,” she said. “He has done so much for religion; he’s such a humble person.”

Upcoming calendar in question

Despite his improvements, Francis’ near-term upcoming calendar of events was being changed: The Vatican canceled a Holy Year audience scheduled for Saturday, and it remained to be seen if Francis would skip his Sunday noon blessing for the third week in a row. With Ash Wednesday now delegated to a cardinal, the next major events come during Holy Week and Easter, which this year falls on April 20.

In past years, when Francis has battled bronchitis and influenza in winter, he curbed his participation in Ash Wednesday and Holy Week events, which call for the pope to be outdoors in the cold leading services, participating in processions and presiding over prayers in the solemn period in which the faithful commemorate Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection.

Beyond that, Francis has a few major events coming up that he presumably would hope to keep if well enough. On April 27, he is due to canonize Carlo Acutis, considered to be the first millennial and digital-era saint. The Vatican considers the Italian teenager, who died of leukemia in 2006 at the age of 15, an inspiration for young Catholics.

Another important appointment is the May 24 commemoration of the 1,700th anniversary of the Council of Nicea, Christianity’s first ecumenical council. The spiritual leader of the world’s Orthodox Christians, Patriarch Bartholomew I, has invited Francis to join him in Iznik, Turkey, to commemorate the anniversary, which he has called an important sign of reconciliation between the Catholic and Orthodox churches. Before he got sick, Francis said he hoped to go, though the Vatican hasn’t confirmed the trip.

Maria Hernandez contributed from Mexico City.

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Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

Diocese of Rome bans Traditional Latin Mass for Easter Triduum

 

Traditionis custodes: Rome diocese bans Traditional Latin Mass for Easter Triduum

By Hannah Brockhaus

Rome, Italy, Nov 10, 2021 / 04:20 am

The vicar general for the Diocese of Rome has banned the celebration of the Traditional Latin Mass during the Easter Triduum in his implementation of Pope Francis’ motu proprio Traditionis custodes.

In a letter dated Oct. 7, but made public on several blogs Nov. 9, Cardinal Angelo De Donatis said that Mass could continue to be celebrated according to the 1962 Roman Missal at five churches in Rome on all days except from the evening of Holy Thursday to the evening of Easter Sunday, the period known as the Triduum.

De Donatis also stated that no other sacraments or sacramentals may be celebrated according to the pre-Vatican II missal except the Mass.

The diocesan press office confirmed on Nov. 10 that the letter, addressed to the priests and faithful of the Diocese of Rome, was authentic.

As pope, Francis is also the bishop of Rome, but because the pope has many other responsibilities, the day-to-day care of the Diocese of Rome is entrusted to the vicar general, whose full title is Vicar General of His Holiness.

A vicar general is given, by canon law, executive power over the diocese in all administrative acts except those reserved to the bishop. In the Diocese of Rome, the cardinal vicar functions like a de facto diocesan bishop.

Rome diocese’s guidelines were issued in response to Pope Francis’ motu proprio Traditionis custodes, published in July, which placed tight restrictions on Mass using the 1962 Roman Missal, known variously as the extraordinary form of the Roman Rite, the Tridentine Mass, and the Traditional Latin Mass.

In a letter to the world’s bishops explaining his decision, the pope said he felt compelled to act because the use of the 1962 Missal was “often characterized by a rejection not only of the liturgical reform, but of the Vatican Council II itself, claiming, with unfounded and unsustainable assertions, that it betrayed the Tradition and the ‘true Church.’”

Responding to the pope’s motu proprio, the cardinal vicar of Rome said “it seemed fitting to continue to exercise a lively pastoral charity towards the faithful” who wish to participate in the Traditional Latin Mass.

He said that all priests in the diocese who sought to celebrate Mass according to the 1962 Missal must be authorized in writing by the diocesan bishop, as stipulated in Traditionis custodes.

The cardinal designated the pastor of Santissima Trinità dei Pellegrini, a church run by the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter (FSSP), as responsible “pro tempore” (for the time being) for the “dignified celebration of the Eucharistic liturgy, as well as the ordinary pastoral and spiritual care of the faithful.”

The readings during Traditional Latin Masses must be proclaimed in Italian according to the 2008 translation by the Italian bishops’ conference, De Donatis’ letter said.

He added that with Pope Francis’ motu proprio, “it is no longer possible to use the Roman Ritual and the other liturgical books of the ‘ancient rite’ for the celebration of sacraments and sacramentals (e.g., not even the Ritual for the Reconciliation of Penitents according to the ancient form).”

Issued with immediate effect on July 16, Traditionis custodes (“Guardians of the tradition”) made changes to Benedict XVI’s 2007 apostolic letter Summorum Pontificum, which acknowledged the right of all priests to say Mass using the Roman Missal of 1962.

With Traditionis custodes, Pope Francis said that it is now each bishop’s “exclusive competence” to authorize the use of the Traditional Latin Mass in his diocese.

Since the motu proprio’s promulgation, some bishops have said that priests may continue to offer the Traditional Latin Mass in their dioceses, while others have banned it.

Cardinal Vicar of Rome has Coronavirus

Copyright: Vatican Media

‘An Opportunity to Share in Suffering’ — Cardinal Vicar of Rome, Angelo De Donatis, Tests Positive for Coronavirus

In Hospital, But in Good Condition, Cardinal Says He Is Serene, Confident, & Entrusts Himself to the Lord

March 31, 2020 11:59Deborah Castellano LubovRome

The Cardinal Vicar Angelo De Donatis has tested positive for coronavirus.

In a March 30 statement from the Vicariate of Rome, this news of the first confirmed cardinal with the virus was published.

“After manifesting some symptoms today, Monday, March 30, 2020,” the note began, “Cardinal Angelo De Donatis, Vicar General of the Diocese of Rome, was subjected to the swab for COVID-19, which turned out to be positive.”

While adding the cardinal has been hospitalized at Rome’s Policlinico Gemelli Hospital, and has a fever, it stated “his general condition is good, and he has begun an antiviral therapy.”

His closest collaborators, it noted, are in self-isolation as a preventive measure.”

“I am also living this test,” Cardinal De Donatis said, expressing: “I am serene and confident!”

Saying “I entrust myself to the Lord and to the support of the prayer of all of you, dearest faithful of the Church of Rome!,” he noted: “I am living this moment,” he said, “as an occasion that Providence gives me to share the sufferings of so many brothers and sisters.”

The Cardinal concluded, noting: “I offer my prayer for them, for the whole diocesan community and for the inhabitants of the city of Rome!”