June 24, 12th Sunday in Ordinary Time
SOLEMNITY OF THE NATIVITY OF JOHN THE BAPTIST
From left: Birth of John, Pontormo, 1520; Holy Family with young John, Fra Bartolome, 1507; Jesus and John, Murillo;
and John the Baptist: Bernini sculpture, 1615; Bronzino sculpture, 1555; Rublev icon.
Readings for today's Mass:
www.usccb.org/bible/readings/062412-mass-during-the-day.cfm
AT THE VATICAN TODAY
Sunday Angelus - The Holy Father paid tribute to John the Baptist as the last prophet of the Old Testament
and the first of the New, who announced the Messiah, baptized him and went on to precede him in violent death.
He also thanked the Italian faithful who today observe the Day of Charity for the Pope, and asked for
their prayers as he visits the earthquake victims in the Modena region on Tuesday.
When the Vatican bulletin yesterday had a brief item about the Holy Father visiting the Church of the Abyssinians behind St. Peter's Basilica to pray at the wake of a Polish Franciscan who had worked for the Vatican Penitentiary, I thought he must have been someone special. A story with photo in today's OR says why - he was his confessor. It's hard to imagine anyone more unique than the Pope's confessor. Let us say a prayer for him.
Pope mourns death
of his confessor
Translated from the 6/24/12 issue of
On the late afternoon of Friday, June 22, Benedict VXI went to the Church of St. Stephen of the Abyssinians in order to pray before the coffin of Fr. Mariusz (Mieczyslaw) Paczoski, a conventual Franciscan, who was a Vatican penitentiary and his confessor.
The Polish priest died Wednesday, June 20, at age 77. After having carfried out various responsibilities in his order - master of novices, provincial minister, vicar of the General Custody in Assisi, and guardian of the Franciscan shrine in Niepokalanów — then served two terms as rector of the College of Penitentiaries of St. Peter's Basilica.
Benedict XVI blessed the remains and knelt in prayer before the coffin laid before the altar of the little church behind St. Peter's Basilica.
[The Holy Father also came to this church in November 2010 at the wake for Manuela Camagni, of the Memores Domini, who had been one of his housekeepers.]
He was accompanied by his two private secretaries and welcomed by Cardinal Angelo Comastri, Arch-Priest of St. Peter's Basilica.
Funeral rites were held for Fr. Paczoski on Saturday morning.
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 24/06/2012 15:28]