Staff Report

On Sunday, June 2, Pope Francis will preside over an hour of eucharistic exposition in Rome at 5:00 p.m. Italian time. The pope has asked all Catholics to join him in prayer to celebrate the feast day of the Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ, what is also known as Corpus Christi.

The Cathedral of St. Peter in Chains has Mass at scheduled at 11 a.m. on Sunday so will be unable to join the pope at the exact time of exposition. Archbishop Dennis M. Schnurr has decided to join Pope Francis in spirit and preside over an hour of eucharistic adoration at 3:30 p.m.

As requested by Pope Francis, parishes all over the archdiocese will also be celebrating an hour of eucharistic adoration shortly after their last morning Mass, according to Karen Kane of the archdiocesan Worship Office.

The hour of eucharistic exposition held at the cathedral will involve hymns, prayers and scripture readings throughout the holy hour.

“It is a wonderful way for people to take time out to pray for the needs of the world, the church, families and parish communities,” Kane said. “It is an opportunity to join together as one in union with Christ, the rest of the world.”

—-

More information Vatican organizing worldwide, simultaneous eucharistic

By Cindy Wooden Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Vatican officials are making strategic phone calls to some of the world’s most far-flung dioceses, trying to verify that in each of the world’s inhabited time zones there will be an organized hour of eucharistic adoration coinciding with 5-6 p.m. Rome time June 2.

The Vatican is trying to organize a global hour of prayer around the Eucharist “for the first time in the history of the church,” said Archbishop Rino Fisichella, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting New Evangelization, the office organizing events for the Year of Faith.

Pope Francis will preside over adoration and benediction in St. Peter’s Basilica beginning at 5 p.m. June 2, the date most dioceses in the world celebrate the feast of the Body and Blood of the Lord.

To celebrate at the same time as the pope, Catholics in Mumbai would begin at 8:30 p.m., those in New York would begin at 11 a.m., in Seattle at 8 a.m., in Honolulu at 5 a.m. and at 1 a.m. June 3 in Sydney.

In at least two time zones — Greenwich Mean Time minus 10 hours and GMT minus 2 hours — there is little hope for participation, the archbishop said; both time zones cover vast areas of uninhabited ocean.

Archbishop Fisichella said the worldwide adoration would “witness to the profound piety found in the church for the Eucharist,” the mystery of the real presence of Christ’s body and blood, which unites and nourishes all Catholics.

While dioceses are free to organize the hour of prayer and adoration as they please, he said Pope Francis has chosen a specific prayer intention for each half hour of the service. The first, Archbishop Fisichella said, will be for the church and its mission of mercy; the second for the needs of those who suffer, including victims of war, the unemployed, the sick, immigrants and prisoners.