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Pope Francis arrives in procession to celebrate Ash Wednesday Mass at the Basilica of Santa Sabina in Rome in this Feb. 26, 2020, file photo. Because of ongoing COVID-19 restrictions, the pope will celebrate Ash Wednesday Mass at the Vatican rather than the traditional location on the Aventine Hill. (CNS photo/Paul Haring)

Pope to celebrate Ash Wednesday at Vatican, skipping ‘station churches’

February 11, 2021
By Cindy Wooden
Catholic News Service
Filed Under: Feature, Lent, News, World News

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Pope Francis will celebrate Ash Wednesday Mass Feb. 17 in St. Peter’s Basilica rather than making the traditional walk from the Church of St. Anselm to the Basilica of Santa Sabina on Rome’s Aventine Hill, the Vatican said.

Because of ongoing concerns about drawing a crowd and the potential that could have for spreading the coronavirus, the Mass and distribution of ashes will take place with a congregation of about 100 people at the Altar of the Chair in the basilica as has been the practice for the past several months, the Vatican press office said Feb. 5.

Pope Francis will not hold his weekly general audience that day.

The “pilgrimage” from the “station church” of St. Anselm to the “station church” Santa Sabina is an ancient Rome tradition revived in the early 1960s by St. John XXIII.

A church was designated as a “station church” because of its prominence in early Christianity or because it was constructed on the burial site of a saint or martyr of the early church. In long-ago Lents, popes would gather with the faithful of Rome at a different church each day and then walk together to another church for Mass, making a pilgrimage from one stop or station to another until Easter.

An instruction from the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments regarding the distribution of ashes during the pandemic will not make a difference at the Vatican since the traditional practice there was to sprinkle ashes on the crown of people’s heads rather than to rub them on a person’s forehead.

The congregation, in a note Jan. 12, said priests around the world should use the sprinkling rather than touching the foreheads of one believer after another.

The Vatican also said Feb. 5 that the preacher of the papal household, Cardinal Raniero Cantalamessa, would offer Lenten reflections to the pope and members of the Roman Curia on most Fridays of Lent, as is normal, but the morning meetings will take place in the Vatican audience hall where greater social distancing is possible.

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Pope tells priests: Be agents of harmony, not division

Amid war, Paschal Triduum takes on deeper meaning for US Ukrainian Catholics

Holy Week is time for spring cleaning, including spiritually, pope says

Copyright © 2021 Catholic News Service/U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops

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Cindy Wooden

Catholic News Service is a leading agency for religious news. Its mission is to report fully, fairly and freely on the involvement of the church in the world today.

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