This Friday the first vespers of the Solemnity of Mary Most Holy Mother of God were celebrated.
Pope Francis today encouraged societies to act responsibly in the face of “for himself who can” to overcome the coronavirus pandemic, which has lasted for two years, during his last homily of the year at the Vatican.
“This era of pandemic has increased the feeling of bewilderment throughout the world. After a first phase of reaction, in which we felt solidarity in the same boat, the temptation to ‘save himself who can’ spread. But thank God we reacted again, with a sense of responsibility, “said Francis, who did not preside at this Mass in the Vatican’s St. Peter’s Basilica, as he has done in the past, but attended sitting down.
The ceremony began shortly before 17:00 local time (16:00 GMT), when Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re advanced in procession to the foot of the main altar, while the pope waited seated in a chair, located in the right area of the basilica, where he remained throughout the celebration, except for the moment of the homily.
Last year, it was Battista Re who read Francisco’s words on December 31, as the pontiff suffered from sciatica and was unable to attend.
This Friday the first vespers of the Solemnity of Mary Most Holy Mother of God were celebrated, a solemn act in which the “Te Deum” was sung, singing of the traditional hymn of gratitude for the conclusion of the year, while tomorrow, January 1 , the pope is scheduled to give a homily for the first mass of 2022, on the day that the Catholic Church commemorates the World Day of Peace, which this edition will be dedicated to dialogue between generations, education and work.
The pontiff asked that Christmas not be limited to being a celebration with “a superficial emotion, linked to the outside of the party, or worse still to the consumer frenzy.”
“If Christmas comes down to this, nothing changes: tomorrow will be the same as yesterday, next year will be like the previous one, and so on,” he stressed.
The new mayor of Rome, Roberto Gualtieri, attended the mass and the pope took the opportunity to ask that the Italian capital welcome others and be a home for the fragile and vulnerable.
“In Rome everyone feels like brothers; in a sense, everyone feels at home, because this city contains within itself a universal openness. It comes from their history, from their culture; It comes mainly from the Gospel of Christ, which here took deep roots fertilized by the blood of the martyrs ”, explained Francisco.
But he warned: “You have to be careful, a welcoming and fraternal city cannot be recognized by the ‘facade’, by the beautiful speeches”.
She is recognized, she continued, for the attention she pays “to those who struggle the most, to the families who feel the weight of the crisis the most, to people with severe disabilities and their families, those who need public transportation every day to go to the work, those who live on the periphery, those who have been overwhelmed by some failure in their life and need social services ”.
Francis conceded that “Rome is a wonderful city, which never ceases to enchant”, but which can tire those who inhabit it, because “sometimes it discards.”
He therefore encouraged citizens to show that the Italian capital is “a common home, for the most fragile and vulnerable,” so that those who visit it discover its beauty and gratitude.
The ceremony lasted just over an hour and after 18:00 local time (17:00 GMT) the Christmas song “Adeste fideles” marked its end.
In the past, the pope used to visit the Bethlehem Portal on foot and the Christmas tree, located in the Plaza de San Pedro, always escorted by members of security, but this year the visit, initially scheduled, was finally canceled for avoid crowds due to the pandemic, as explained by the Vatican. (I)
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