Monday, April 11, 2011

JP2's Feast Date

Rome Reports has reported that the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments has issued a decree, assigning October 22 as the Feast Day for soon-to-be Blessed Pope John Paul II.


I wondered about this. If they followed the tradition of his date of death (April 3), it would be an "inconsistent" feast, only really being able to be celebrated when Easter is extraordinarily early (since the days of Lent, Holy Week, the Triduum, and the Octave of Easter would all take precedence over the commemoration of his feast).

The last line of the video is also interesting. "Until John Paul II is canonized, his memory can only be celebrated in Rome and in Poland".

3 comments:

ProudCatholic said...

When beatified, the beatified soul is only entitled to a feast day in his/her home diocese. I guess he qualified for 2, one his homeland of Poland and one as Pope. Once canonized the saint is entitled to a universal feast day celebrated by the whole Church. Is it possible that they could have one feast date as a Blessed and change it upon canonization? If not, I wonder why Oct. 22 was chosen.

Father Jay Toborowsky said...

October 22 (1978) was the date of his installation Mass. October 16 might have been the other option, though it is already the feast day St. Hedwig.

Fr. James Weldon said...

It is also my birthday!!