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.
MONEY MATTERS: Xi was to highlight projects such as a new high-speed railway between Belgrade and Budapest, as Serbia is entirely open to Chinese trade and investment Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic yesterday said that “Taiwan is China” as he made a speech welcoming Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) to Belgrade, state broadcaster Radio Television of Serbia (RTS) said. “We have a clear and simple position regarding Chinese territorial integrity,” he told a crowd outside the government offices while Xi applauded him. “Yes, Taiwan is China.” Xi landed in Belgrade on Tuesday night on the second leg of his European tour, and was greeted by Vucic and most government ministers. Xi had just completed a two-day trip to France, where he held talks with French President Emmanuel Macron as the
With the midday sun blazing, an experimental orange and white F-16 fighter jet launched with a familiar roar that is a hallmark of US airpower, but the aerial combat that followed was unlike any other: This F-16 was controlled by artificial intelligence (AI), not a human pilot, and riding in the front seat was US Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall. AI marks one of the biggest advances in military aviation since the introduction of stealth in the early 1990s, and the US Air Force has aggressively leaned in. Even though the technology is not fully developed, the service is planning
INTERNATIONAL PROBE: Australian and US authorities were helping coordinate the investigation of the case, which follows the 2015 murder of Australian surfers in Mexico Three bodies were found in Mexico’s Baja California state, the FBI said on Friday, days after two Australians and an American went missing during a surfing trip in an area hit by cartel violence. Authorities used a pulley system to hoist what appeared to be lifeless bodies covered in mud from a shaft on a cliff high above the Pacific. “We confirm there were three individuals found deceased in Santo Tomas, Baja California,” a statement from the FBI’s office in San Diego, California, said without providing the identities of the victims. Australian brothers Jake and Callum Robinson and their American friend Jack Carter
CUSTOMS DUTIES: France’s cognac industry was closely watching the talks, fearing that an anti-dumping investigation opened by China is retaliation for trade tensions French President Emmanuel Macron yesterday hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) at one of his beloved childhood haunts in the Pyrenees, seeking to press a message to Beijing not to support Russia’s war against Ukraine and to accept fairer trade. The first day of Xi’s state visit to France, his first to Europe since 2019, saw respectful, but sometimes robust exchanges between the two men during a succession of talks on Monday. Macron, joined initially by EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, urged Xi not to allow the export of any technology that could be used by Russia in its invasion