2023-06-02 18:46:53
We revealed it last week, it is now official. Pope Francis celebrated a great mass open to the public in the legendary Vélodrome stadium in Marseille (Bouches-du-Rhône) on September 23, the diocese said on Friday in a statementconfirming information from Provence. The principle of a public Mass had already been announced at the end of March by the diocese of Marseilles, but its exact place still remained to be determined since it takes place right during the Rugby World Cup In France. Its organizers were reluctant to let it take place at the Vélodrome.
Finally, a meeting between Mayor Benoît Payan, representatives of the Ministry of the Interior, that of Sports, the diocese of Marseille and the organizers of the competition made it possible to finalize and confirm the holding of this event in this enclosure which can to welcome more than 67,000 people, explains the regional daily. Mass will be at 4:45 p.m. For Cardinal Jean-Marc Aveline, Archbishop of Marseille, “when the Pope celebrates Mass at the Vélodrome stadium, a place that brings together Marseille in all its diversity, it will be as if he were going to the home of every Marseillais”.
A first
Pope, 86 years oldis expected in Marseille to conclude the Mediterranean Meetings, which will be attended by around sixty representatives of churches from the five shores of the Mediterranean (North Africa, the Balkans, Latin Europe, the Black Sea and the Middle East) as well as around sixty young people from all these countries, from 18 to 24 September.
This papal visit will include three stages, “an ecumenical and interreligious prayer at Notre-Dame-de-la-Garde in memory of migrants who disappeared at sea, a meeting with young people and bishops from the Mediterranean, and a mass open to all, Marseilles and pilgrims who came from elsewhere to pray with him,” the diocese detailed in March.
This visit by the pope to France will be a first since that of his predecessor Benedict XVI in 2008. Pope Francis certainly visited Strasbourg in 2014, but it was during a visit to the European institutions.
The diocese already inundated with requests
The organization of this event, a popular highlight of this papal visit, will take place in the middle of the Rugby World Cup in France, during which the lawn of the Vélodrome will host six meetings in total. Two days before the papal visit, the Blues will face Namibia there on September 21. Then, on October 1, it will be the clash between the South African world champions and Tonga.
In terms of security, “the fact that this is happening during the Rugby World Cup is an additional element of complexity but it is not insurmountable”, had declared at the Parisian the Prefect of Police of Marseille Frédérique Camilleri. “There is the desire that each of the two events be treated with appropriate but very high level security measures anyway. The objective is that in both cases security is present but not oppressive. »
According to La Provence, the diocese is already inundated with requests from all the parishes of France for this mass and would already have enough to fill the stadium. The terms and conditions for obtaining a (free) ticket to attend are not yet known.
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