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Pope Francis looked over an empty St. Peter's Square after leading a livestream of the recitation of the Angelus from the library of the Apostolic Palace March 22. The pope will give an extraordinary blessing "urbi et orbi" (to the city and the world) at noon St. Louis time March 27 in an "empty" St. Peter's Square because all of Italy is on lockdown to prevent further spread of the coronavirus.
Pope Francis looked over an empty St. Peter's Square after leading a livestream of the recitation of the Angelus from the library of the Apostolic Palace March 22. The pope will give an extraordinary blessing "urbi et orbi" (to the city and the world) at noon St. Louis time March 27 in an "empty" St. Peter's Square because all of Italy is on lockdown to prevent further spread of the coronavirus.
Photo Credit: Vatican Media

Pope to give extraordinary ‘urbi et orbi’ blessing March 27

Possibility of a plenary indulgence available for Catholics who participate at noon (St. Louis time)

VATICAN CITY — In response to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, Pope Francis said he will give an extraordinary blessing “urbi et orbi” (to the city and the world) at 6 p.m. Rome time March 27.

The formal blessing — usually given only immediately after a new pope’s election and on Christmas and Easter — carries with it a plenary indulgence for all who follow by television, internet or radio, are sorry for their sins, recite a few prescribed prayers and promise to go to confession and to receive the Eucharist as soon as possible.

After reciting the Angelus prayer March 22 from the library of the Apostolic Palace, Pope Francis announced his plans for the special blessing, which, he said, would be given in an “empty” St. Peter’s Square because all of Italy is on lockdown to prevent further spread of the virus. The blessing will be livestreamed at www.vaticannews.va.

With the public joining him only by television, internet or radio, “we will listen to the word of God, raise our prayer (and) adore the Blessed Sacrament,” he said. “At the end, I will give the benediction ‘urbi et orbi,’ to which will be connected the possibility of receiving a plenary indulgence.”

Archbishop Robert J. Carlson invited parishes in St. Louis to ring their church bells at noon in unity with the pope.

“To the pandemic of the virus we want to respond with the universality of prayer, compassion and tenderness,” he said. “Let’s stay united. Let us make those who are alone and tested feel our closeness,” as well as doctors, nurses, other healthcare workers and volunteers.

Pope Francis also expressed concern for “authorities who have to take strong measures for our good” and the police and soldiers maintaining public order and enforcing the lockdown.

Indulgences

An indulgence is an ancient practice of prayer and penance for the remission of the temporal punishment a person is due for sins that have been forgiven. In Catholic teaching, a person can draw on the merits of Jesus and the saints to claim the indulgence for themselves or offer it on behalf of someone who has died.

“To the pandemic of the virus we want to respond with the universality of prayer, compassion and tenderness,” Pope Francis said. “Let’s stay united. Let us make those who are alone and tested feel our closeness,” as well as doctors, nurses, other healthcare workers and volunteers.

Pope Francis also expressed concern for “authorities who have to take strong measures for our good” and the police and soldiers maintaining public order and enforcing the lockdown.

An indulgence is not a quick ticket to heaven, as St. John Paul II once said; rather, it is an aid for the real conversion that leads to eternal happiness.

Sins are forgiven through the sacrament of penance, but then there is a kind of punishment still due the sinner, the late pope explained during a general audience in 1999.

God’s fatherly love “does not exclude chastisement, even though this always should be understood in the context of a merciful justice which reestablishes the order violated,” he said.

The pope had said the “temporal” punishment that remains after forgiveness is a grace aimed at wiping away the “residues of sin,” offering the reformed sinner the chance of complete healing through “a journey of purification” that can take place in this life or in purgatory.

By God’s grace, participation in a prayer or action that has an indulgence attached to it brings about the necessary restoration and reparation without the suffering that would normally accompany it. It frees a person from the punishment their sinfulness warrants as it is a remission of the temporal punishment a person is due for sins that have been forgiven.

The granting of an indulgence by the Church is “the expression of the Church’s full confidence of being heard by the Father when, in view of Christ’s merits and, by his gift, those of Our Lady and the saints, she asks him to mitigate or cancel the painful aspect of punishment by fostering its medicinal aspect through other channels of grace,” the late pope said.

An indulgence, then, is the result of the abundance of God’s mercy, which he offers to humanity through Jesus Christ and through the Church, he said.

But this gift cannot be received automatically or simply by fulfilling a few exterior requirements nor can it be approached with a superficial attitude, St. John Paul said.

The reception of an indulgence depends on “our turning away from sin and our conversion to God,” he said.

That is why there are several conditions for receiving an indulgence on March 27:

— A spirit detached from sin.

— Sacramental confession as soon as possible.

— Eucharistic communion as soon as possible.

— Prayer for the Holy Father’s intentions.

— Being united spiritually through the media to the pope’s special prayer and blessing on March 27.

Those who are sick and their caregivers can also unite themselves spiritually whenever possible through the media to the celebration of Mass or the recitation of the Rosary or the Stations of the Cross or other forms of devotion, according to Cardinal Mauro Piacenza, head of the Apostolic Penitentiary, a Vatican court that deals with matters of conscience and with indulgences.

If this is not possible, “they are asked to recite the Creed, the Lord’s Prayer and an invocation to Mary,” he told Vatican News March 21.

“All others — those who offer prayers for the souls of the dead, those who suffer and plead for an end to the pandemic — are asked, where possible, to visit the Blessed Sacrament or to participate in eucharistic adoration. Alternatively, (they can) read the Holy Scriptures for at least half an hour or recite the rosary or the Way of the Cross,” he said.

The faithful can claim the indulgence for themselves or offer it on behalf of someone who has died.

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