Pope Francis has decided to celebrate the Holy Thursday Mass of the Lord's Supper in a Rome juvenile detention facility and wash the feet of some of the young detainees.
When Pope Francis first appeared on the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica, Alejandra Hall was surprised to recognize a fellow Argentinian who used to regularly celebrate Mass and hear confessions at a cathedral located a few blocks from her childhood home in Buenos Aires.
WHEN THE WHITE SMOKE APPEARED: I was in St. Peter’s Square; I had been in the square for nearly two hours (with the Bernardi Study-Abroad program of the University of St. Thomas) by the time the smoke went up. . . .
WHEN THE WHITE SMOKE APPEARED: I was fortunate to be present in St. Peter’s square, and I stayed in the square to see Pope Francis appear on the balcony and address the crowd...
As his flight to Chicago was boarding on the afternoon of March 13, Jesuit Father Tim Manatt, president of Minneapolis-based Cristo Rey Jesuit High School, was glued to the waiting area monitor showing a still-empty papal balcony before the announcement of the new pope.
Pope Francis said that “as things got dangerous” in the conclave voting, he was sitting next to his “great friend,” Brazilian Cardinal Claudio Hummes “who comforted me.”
Mass at Christ the Worker Parish in Buenos Aires is celebrated on a cement soccer pitch. There, parishioners sit on portable pews and relax on the embankment of an overpass; shipping containers soar over the fence behind the altar.
