Holy Week at the Vatican this year will be very similar to last year.
All the celebrations will take place at the Altar of the Chair of Peter instead of the main altar, and with a limited number of faithful, all required to wear masks.
As in 2020, the Palm Sunday procession will be more subdued than in previous years.
This year World Youth Day at the diocesan level will not be celebrated on Palm Sunday. As of 2021 it will be celebrated on the Solemnity of Christ the King, which will be on Sunday, Nov. 21.
This year the Chrism Mass will be celebrated on Holy Thursday morning, in St. Peter's Basilica. The Roman clergy's participation will be limited.
As is his custom, the pope will not celebrate Mass of the Last Supper at the Vatican but choose a location to celebrate it with people in need.
On Good Friday evening, the pope will celebrate the Passion and later the Way of the Cross. For the second consecutive year, it will take place in St. Peter's Square instead of the Colosseum.
The meditations this year were prepared by children and adolescents, between three and 19 years old, who live in shelters or who volunteer with a parish in Rome's peripheries. The Vatican says it is a very simple text, but that its authors are fully aware of the meaning of discrimination and humiliation and of the need to foster justice and solidarity.
The pope will celebrate the Easter Vigil on Saturday evening, and on Resurrection Sunday he will impart the Urbi et Orbi blessing from inside St. Peter's Basilica.
Daniel Díaz Vizzi
TR: CT
