VATICAN INSIDER LOOKS AT PAPAL, CURIAL RETREATS

VATICAN INSIDER LOOKS AT PAPAL, CURIAL RETREATS

Join me on “Vatican Insider” as we approach the final stretch of the shortest month of the year, even though 2024 is a leap year and we will have a February 29. This weekend also marks the return of the Pope and Roman Curia officials to work after a retreat that began Sunday afternoon.

Papal and curia retreats have their own history and that is what I will look at in a Special I have prepared for what is normally the interview segment.  I hope you enjoy that after the news segment and a Q&A on fasting and abstinence rule for Catholics during Lent.

Here are some file photos from past retreats for the Pope and curial officials:

Pope Francis announcing the 2024 retreat at the February 18 Angelus: He told the faithful gathered in St. Peter’s Square that that afternoon, he would be starting a Lenten retreat together with his collaborators of the Curia, including all cardinals residing in Rome, heads of Dicasteries, and superiors of the Roman Curia. For the fourth year in a row, however, by invitation of the Holy Father, the retreat would focus on private, personal prayer, instead of gathering together outside Vatican City.

Here is Pope Francis getting off the bus that brought him and curial officials to Ariccia in 2014 for the first ever retreat outside of Vatican City.

Benedictine Abbot Bernardo Gianni is seen during the Lenten retreat for the Roman Curia in Ariccia, Italy, March 10, 2019. (CNS photo/Vatican Media)

The chapel at the Divine Master retreat center in Ariccia

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