Pope Benedict to visit Loreto
on October 4 on the 50th anniversary
of historic train trip by John XXIII
Adapted from the Italian service of
June 29, 2012
The shrine of Loreto is located on a 450-meter promontory a few miles inland from the Adriatic coast.
Pope Benedict XVI will visit Loreto in the province of Ancona on October 4 to mark the 50th anniversary of Blessed John XXIII's 1962 train trip to Italy's best-known Marian shrine. [6/29/12 P.S. He will be going by helicopter, not by train.]
Medal commemorating John XXIII's 5th year as Pope, highlighting his visit to Loreto and Assisi (their basilicas are seen on the obverse side of the model); and right, the 'Papa buono' on the train to Loreto, with the saturno that he often wore.
Archbishop Giovanni Tonucci, papal delegate, Archbishop and Prelate of Loreto, made the announcement today at the Basilica della Santa Casa (Holy House). [Because of the importance of the shrine, the commune of Loreto and the shrine itself are under a special prelature answerable directly to the Pope, who appoints a personal legate to act as Prelate and Archbishop, and the legate's residence is called the Apostolic Palace.]
The Apostolic Palace is a 17th-century architectural masterpiece that flanks the Basilica of the Holy House. At right, top panel, is the elaborate marble 'box' that houses the Holy House. Below, the altar side and the entrance side of the Holy House.
The church houses a 12x9meter stone and brick structure that Tradition says was Mary's house in Nazareth, transported to Europe, according to legend, by flights of angels,after the crusaders lost their last battle to the Muslim Saracens in the 13th century.
A famous image of the Madonna carved out of black cedarwood and known as Our Lady of Loreto has been venerated at the church for centuries. Pope Benedict offered the traditional Golden Rose tribute to the image andthe shrine when he was there in 2007.
Papa Roncalli had chosen Loreto as the destination for the first trip made outside Rome by a Pope for decades. He did it one week before the opening of the Second Vatican Council.
The train trip was big news in its day, even internationally, and thousands of Italian faithful turned up at the stations along the way to cheer the Pope.
Mons. Tonucci had invited Benedict XVI to come to Loreto for the occasion, and the Pope accepted.
My addendum:
It will be his second trip to Loreto as Pope. As a cardinal, he visited Loreto seven times between 1987-2002, five of them for official business as CDF Prefect (including the celebration of the 'twinning' of Loreto with Joseph Ratzinger's beloved Marian shrine of Altoetting) and twice on a personal visit of devotion (the last time with his brother Georg.
On September 1-2, 2007, Pope Benedict attended an 'Agora' of Italian Catholic youth - some half a million of whom gathered for a prayer vigil and a very moving Q&A with the Pope on Saturday night and Mass the following morning on the plain of Montarso on the Adriatic coast.
The yearly youth 'Agoras' or faith gatherings are sponsored by the Italian bishops' conference. In 2007, they expected at most 350,000 young people to show up at an event that was intended to be a dress rehearsal for WYD in Sydney one year later.
[Re-reading the coverage of the event in the items I put together in PASTORAL VISITS IN ITALY thread of the Papa Ratzinger Forum back in 2007, I realized I had almost forgotten the rave reviews received by Benedict XVI for what he achieved in Loreto by way of his ability to speak to young people - "as if he was a grandfather holding them on his lap." on e reporter said - and to challenge them. There was one totally rave review by Marco Politi, of all people, who had not a single negative thing to say in the entire article, and Filippo Di Giacomo who had infamously derided Benedict XVI for producing what he called a monumental flop - Di Giacomo actually used the English word - on his trip to Brazil earlier in 2007, especially when compared to John Paul II's trips there, wrote an article about Benedict in Loreto that was entitled "The shy theologian who is more popular than Wojtyla"! You can check out the Loreto coverage (including backgrounders about Loreto and its history as a shrine) on pp. 4-6 of the PASTORAL VISITS thread http://freeforumzone.leonardo.it/discussione.aspx?idd=6675691&p=4&tid=ccf06d095fbe473395abc8ae3eb5e71a63607e225bb8cb23712672ba39d3de49
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 30/06/2012 15:36]