The Vatican complained on Friday that some travel agents are asking faithful to shell out a “service” fee for procuring places for the beatification of Pope John Paul II when no tickets or invitations are needed for the May 1 ceremony in St Peter’s Square.
The Vatican lamented that there have been “unauthorized offers by some tour operators, especially on the Internet, of assistance in procuring tickets, with a service charge.”
“For the beatification Mass of Pope John Paul II, as made clear from the outset, no tickets are required,” it said in a statement.
It said that when other public ceremonies, unrelated to the -beatification, are held at the Vatican, tickets are required, but that they are “always issued free of charge and no person or organization can request any kind of payment.”
The Vatican also disclosed details of the program for those wanting to participate in -beatification events, including a prayer vigil the night of April 30 in Circus Maximus, a sprawling, grassy field in the valley between the Palatine and Aventine Hills where ancient Romans cheered on charioteers.
If all 2 million pilgrims come — as some authorities are -predicting — they won’t be able to fit in St Peter’s Square for the beatification led by Pope Benedict XVI. Many faithful will spill over into adjacent spaces, where large video screens are expected to be set up for viewing the ceremony. While tickets won’t be necessary, police will keep an eye on the crowds, the Vatican said.
No matter how many pilgrims arrive, all will have a chance to file past John Paul’s remains, which will be placed inside St Peter’s Basilica immediately after he is beatified, the Vatican said.
The remains of the Polish pontiff, who died at age 84 after suffering from Parkinson’s disease for years, are entombed in the grotto underneath St Peter’s Basilica.
However, for the beatification, the marble slab covering the coffin will be removed, and the closed coffin brought up to the basilica level so the faithful can file by, said a Vatican spokesman, the Reverend Federico Lombardi. After that, the coffin will be interred, behind another slab, but this time in a side chapel of the basilica, as previously announced.
The faithful will also have the opportunity to attend a Mass of thanksgiving, celebrated by the Vatican’s No. 2 official, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, in the square on the morning of May 2.
Last month, Benedict declared that a French nun’s recovery from Parkinson’s disease was the miracle needed for the beatification of his predecessor, who died in 2005 after leading the Roman Catholic Church for more than 26 years.
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is to visit Russia next month for a summit of the BRICS bloc of developing economies, Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) said on Thursday, a move that comes as Moscow and Beijing seek to counter the West’s global influence. Xi’s visit to Russia would be his second since the Kremlin sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022. China claims to take a neutral position in the conflict, but it has backed the Kremlin’s contentions that Russia’s action was provoked by the West, and it continues to supply key components needed by Moscow for
Japan scrambled fighter jets after Russian aircraft flew around the archipelago for the first time in five years, Tokyo said yesterday. From Thursday morning to afternoon, the Russian Tu-142 aircraft flew from the sea between Japan and South Korea toward the southern Okinawa region, the Japanese Ministry of Defense said in a statement. They then traveled north over the Pacific Ocean and finished their journey off the northern island of Hokkaido, it added. The planes did not enter Japanese airspace, but flew over an area subject to a territorial dispute between Japan and Russia, a ministry official said. “In response, we mobilized Air Self-Defense
CRITICISM: ‘One has to choose the lesser of two evils,’ Pope Francis said, as he criticized Trump’s anti-immigrant policies and Harris’ pro-choice position Pope Francis on Friday accused both former US president Donald Trump and US Vice President Kamala Harris of being “against life” as he returned to Rome from a 12-day tour of the Asia-Pacific region. The 87-year-old pontiff’s comments on the US presidential hopefuls came as he defied health concerns to connect with believers from the jungle of Papua New Guinea to the skyscrapers of Singapore. It was Francis’ longest trip in duration and distance since becoming head of the world’s nearly 1.4 billion Roman Catholics more than 11 years ago. Despite the marathon visit, he held a long and spirited
China would train thousands of foreign law enforcement officers to see the world order “develop in a more fair, reasonable and efficient direction,” its minister for public security has said. “We will [also] send police consultants to countries in need to conduct training to help them quickly and effectively improve their law enforcement capabilities,” Chinese Minister of Public Security Wang Xiaohong (王小洪) told an annual global security forum. Wang made the announcement in the eastern city of Lianyungang on Monday in front of law enforcement representatives from 122 countries, regions and international organizations such as Interpol. The forum is part of ongoing