Holy Thursday Archives

Vatican can’t blame the media for spin cycles around Becciu

Apr 4, 2021

If you stand on a balcony and chuck a brick over the side, and that brick ends up hitting somebody in the street, it’s no defense to blame the law of gravity. Similarly, if you build a PR bomb and take no steps to defuse it, you don’t get to blame the media for the blast.

By John L. Allen Jr.

Pope celebrates Holy Thursday Mass with cardinal he fired

Apr 1, 2021

In a surprise move, Pope Francis on Holy Thursday celebrated the Mass of the Lord’s Supper at the private apartment of Cardinal Angelo Becciu, who resigned from his post earlier this year at the pope’s request.

By Elise Ann Allen

Holy Thursday service held at fire-ravaged Notre Dame

Apr 1, 2021

A Holy Thursday service in Paris was held at Notre Dame cathedral, which is still under construction after it was ravaged by flames just days before Easter in 2019, its spire crumbling in a shocking blaze.

By Associated Press

Celebrating Holy Thursday Mass, Cardinal Re calls for prayers to end pandemic

Apr 1, 2021

With Pope Francis not in attendance, on Thursday the dean of the College of Cardinals celebrated the Mass of the Lord’s Last Supper in an eerily empty St. Peter’s Basilica, describing this liturgy as a reminder of “how much we have been loved.”

By Inés San Martín

Pope says priests, along with doctors and nurses, are pandemic’s ‘saints next door’

Apr 9, 2020

ROME – Celebrating one of the most unusual Holy Thursday Masses of all time, which took place in a nearly empty St. Peter’s Basilica, Pope Francis remembered priests living and dead amid the coronavirus pandemic, saying they along with doctors and nurses represent the “saints next door” during the crisis.

By Elise Ann Allen

COVID-19 denies Eucharist to Catholics Holy Thursday, the day of its origin

Apr 9, 2020

For most Catholics, Holy Thursday 2020 will be a Eucharist-free one.

By Chaz Muth

Pilgrims say bare marble of ‘Holy Stairs’ brings them closer to Christ

Apr 19, 2019

For pilgrims flocking to Rome’s famed Scala Santa this week as they commemorate the events leading up to Jesus’ crucifixion and death, the opportunity to climb the relic on the bare marble for the first time in 300 years is something many said has brought them closer to God.

By Elise Harris

Be servants to one another, pope tells prisoners before washing feet

Apr 18, 2019

Jesus’ gesture of washing his disciples’ feet, an act once reserved to servants and slaves, is one that all Christians, especially bishops, must imitate, Pope Francis told hundreds of inmates and prison employees on Holy Thursday.

By Junno Arocho Esteves