Pope Francis greets the crowd as he leads the Angelus from the window of his studio overlooking St. Peter's Square at the Vatican Jan. 22, 2023. (CNS photo/Vatican Media)
Tin might be the traditional gift for a 10th anniversary, but Pope Francis really has no use for metal knickknacks. At least, that seems to be the thinking behind a push to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Pope Francis’ pontificate with the one thing he always asks for: prayer. The pope surprised people when he stepped out onto the loggia on March 13, 2013, and asked the people gathered in St. Peter’s Square and those watching around the world to pray for him. Since then, he has made it a practice to ask those who come to his audiences or other encounters to pray for him. “From the first day of his papacy, when Pope Francis speaks to the faithful he asks that we remember to pray for him,” said Cardinal Cupich, encouraging Catholics in the Archdiocese of Chicago to join the effort. “He has spent the 10 years of his pontificate preaching the Gospel of love and mercy in a world deeply in need of both. Let us respond as he has asked, with prayers.” According to Vatican News, a group of Catholic “digital missionaries,” or online influencers who solicited input from their audiences into the first phase of the ongoing synodal process, now known as the Digital Synod, set a plan in motion for people around the world to pray the Hail Mary for Pope Francis on March 13. Participants can go online ahead of time at www.decimus-annus.org/site/index and pledge to pray one or more Hail Marys for the pope on his anniversary. If they choose, a small candle will be added to their location on a world map that will be presented to Pope Francis. The initiative was launched Feb. 13; as of Feb. 28, more than 97,000 Hail Marys had been promised.
Pope clarifies rules limiting celebration of pre-Vatican II Mass Diocesan bishops must have Vatican authorization to allow the celebration of the pre-Vatican II Mass in a parish church, to establish a new “personal parish” for devotees of the old Mass or to allow its celebration by a priest ordained after July 2021 when Pope Francis issued rules restricting the celebration, he said.
The Francis pontificate, 10 years on Pope Francis is preparing to mark 10 years since his election as bishop of Rome. Jorge Mario Bergoglio arrived for the 2013 conclave with a return ticket to Argentina and a small briefcase. He didn’t expect to be elected pope. But the cardinal from Argentina emerged from the balcony on that rainy evening as the first Roman pontiff from Latin America and the first pope to name himself after St. Francis of Assisi.
Area schools join in prayers for Pope Francis Catholics across the Archdiocese of Chicago joined a worldwide effort March 13 to pray the Hail Mary for Pope Francis on the 10th anniversary of his election as pontiff.