The press office of the Santa See has specified that at the moment there is nothing decided and that the speculation that appear these days in some media on how the rites of the Easter week Vatican “are just hypothesis.”
The bilateral pneumonia that keeps Francisco Admitted to the Gemelli Hospital in Rome since February 14 is under control, although not yet eliminatedmechanical ventilation during the night is no longer necessary and the next medical part will be published until next week.
A gradual but slow improvement that does not invite you to wait in a hospital discharge shortly. In 2023, the pontiff Argentino presided over all Holy Week ceremonies one day after leaving the hospital for bronchitis, but this time it cannot be so.
Read more: Jorge Bergoglio, hospitalized, turns 12 as Pope Francis with an uncertain future
Therefore, in the Vatican a possible “plan B” has already been studied, as a hypothesis, which could include, if necessary, the Celebration of Holy Week rites without the Pope, Seen that it is the most intense period of the Catholic Church celebrations.
The events will begin on April 13 with the Mass of Palm Sunday, while the Vatican Holy Week (from April 17 to 21-) begins with Holy Thursday, when There are two massesone in the morning and another in the afternoon and the feet washing, an act in which Francisco He used to go to a Roman prison.
While on Good Friday there are two other celebrations, including the via Crucis in the Colosseum in the afternoon, and on Holy Saturday the vigil is celebrated, A ceremony of more than three hours.
There is also the Easter Mass of Easter Sunday, which culminates with The Urbi et Orbi blessing From the lodge of the blessings of the Basilica of San Pedro.
Also read: “Ask the Lord to bless me”: Pope Francis’s messages that inspire q’eqchi ‘
According to the alternative plan that some media have published, some have been identified Cardinals to celebrate the rites on behalf of the Popea little as was done in 2005, in the last period of life of John Paul II, when already very sick by Parkinson, the task was entrusted to his closest collaborators. Karol Wojtyla appeared only resurrection Sunday from the window of his study, but without speaking.
The delegar scheme in the cardinals is already being used in the Masses planned for jubilee And also in the Celebration of the Ashes Wednesday, when he celebrated the Apostolic Penitentiary, Angelo de Donatis.
In the Holy Week of the year that Wojtyla died, Each cardinal delegated by the Pope read greetings of John Paul II And he delivered his own homily, while the then Secretary of State, Angelo Sodano, on Easter Sunday celebrated Mass in the square and read the Urbi et Orbi message.
This time, perhaps the Pope is already recovering on those dates, so a way that could be present at some important moments, but without participating in the long ceremonies, such as with recorded messages or direct connections from the chapel of your residence.
According to some speculations, that the Vatican has labeled as a hypothesis, Francisco will order the task of celebrating in his name to some cardinals such as the Secretary of State, Pietro Parolin; the dean of the Cardenalicio College, Giovanni Battista Re; The Vicar of Rome, Bado Reina or Donatis.
While the Secretary of State, Parolin, as in 2005, would also be in charge of reading in his name the message of Urbi et Orbi, in which references to the crises and wars that the world are going through, although it will not do so from the balcony of the Basilica because that is a place only reserved for the potatoes.