Pope Francis again decided to resign from the joint Lenten retreats for cardinals and employees of the Roman Curia.
On January 16, the director of the Vatican Press Office, Matteo Bruni, announced that “the Holy Father invites cardinals residing in Rome, heads of dicasteries and superiors of the Roman Curia to personally experience a period of withdrawal, to cease their professional activities to suspend and withdraw.” for prayer during the first week of Lent, from Sunday afternoon, February 18 to Friday afternoon, February 23. During this time, Pope Francis will suspend all gatherings, including the weekly general audience.
The pope’s decision means that the joint retreat of the Holy Father and the Curia has been canceled for the fourth time in a row. The cardinals themselves will organize individual retreats to begin the forty-day Lent period.
Vatican retreat
Retreats in the Roman Curia are a tradition dating back to 1929. Pope Pius XI first ordered an Advent retreat, led by a priest chosen by the papal house, usually a Jesuit.
Pope Paul VI decided that the weeklong retreat would take place during Lent instead of Advent. Pope John Paul II continued this tradition by bringing preachers from all over the world to the Vatican.
During Lent in 2014, Pope Francis introduced the practice of taking Curia officials to a retreat center in Ariccia, a town near Rome on Lake Albano. However, retreats have not formally taken place since 2021, when the COVID-19 pandemic forced the restriction of social contacts.
Perhaps the most memorable Lenten retreat at the Curia took place in the Jubilee year of 2000, when St. Pope John Paul II asked Vietnamese Archbishop Nguyen of Thuan, then president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, to deliver Lenten teachings.
The late cardinal, who spent thirteen years of his life in a communist concentration camp in Vietnam – nine of them in solitary confinement – shared his daily struggles and personal meditations, which he later collected in one of his most popular books, “Testimony of Hope.”
Source: Do Rzeczy
Roy Brown is a renowned economist and author at The Nation View. He has a deep understanding of the global economy and its intricacies. He writes about a wide range of economic topics, including monetary policy, fiscal policy, international trade, and labor markets.
