Tuesday, March 23, 2021

Private Masses at St. Peter's Basilica Ended


On Monday, March 21, 2021, St. Peter's Basilica officially ended private masses being celebrated in side chapels in the massive church. Apparently there are around 45 side chapels and in the morning many of them were used by various priests to celebrate Mass, but no longer.

There will now only be a few masses said throughout the day at the Basilica, all in Italian. There are some exceptions but this is the main gist of what is happening. When I first heard about this, I thought it was related to Covid, but apparently it's not. It's a new "permanent" change.

Most of the people commenting on this seem to view it negatively.


You can check out the article CNA's Courtney Mares' article on it here: https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/private-mass-restrictions-come-into-force-at-st-peters-basilica

I have only been to the Vatican once while on a European tour. I was only there for a few hours and didn't really get a chance to see a lot, which was unfortunately. You really need several days in the Vatican to even scratch the surface. I wasn't aware of the number of Masses that typically took place during the day.

I can't see how this will be a good thing. In a similar line to the above tweet, many are saying it will turn the Vatican into a "museum". That's the last thing we need.

The Church cannot give people a reason to separate the Catholic Church from the beauty created within the Church. That's actually one of the problems in our society, people appreciate all the beauty emanating from the Church but don't give her credit. We can't encourage that.

Hopefully this will be changed back. It's called permanent, but it can be undone and hopefully will be.

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