ALLENTOWN, Pa. — The Allentown Diocese has announced it will celebrate a special memorial Mass and special Vespers for Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, who died Saturday.
- Allentown Diocese Bishop Alfred Schlert will lead a special Vespers service at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Cathedral of St. Catharine of Siena, 1825 W. Turner St., Allentown.
- The bishop also will be main celebrant and homilist for a Mass at 12:15 p.m. Thursday in the cathedral.
- Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI died Saturday in Rome. He was 95.
Allentown Bishop Alfred Schlert will lead a special Vespers service for the pope emeritus at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Cathedral of St. Catharine of Siena, 1825 W. Turner St., Allentown.
The bishop also will be the main celebrant and homilist for a Mass at 12:15 p.m. Thursday in the cathedral.
The diocese said in a news release that all are invited to attend both the Vespers and the Mass. The Mass also will be livestreamed on the diocese news website, www.ad-today.com, and on the diocese’s YouTube and Facebook channels.
The date of the memorial Mass coincides with the date of Benedict's funeral in Rome. Pope Francis will celebrate the funeral Mass in St. Peter’s Square on Thursday, an unprecedented event in which a current pope will celebrate the funeral of a former one.
"The Diocese of Allentown joins the Universal Church in praying for the repose of the soul of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI," Schlert said. “May his love for Christ and His Church bring him to Eternal Life.”
Schlert had previously recalled Pope Benedictas "a gentle, affable shepherd" and a "champion of clarity" on church teaching.
Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI was a shy German theologian who tried to reawaken Christianity in a secularized Europe but will forever be remembered as the first pontiff in 600 years to resign from the job.
“Together with Catholics and all men and women of good will, the priests, deacons, religious men and women, seminarians, and the lay faithful of our Diocese mourn the loss of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI."<br/>Allentown Diocese Bishop Alfred Schlert
“Together with Catholics and all men and women of good will, the priests, deacons, religious men and women, seminarians, and the lay faithful of our Diocese mourn the loss of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI,” Schlert said.
Benedict stunned the world on Feb. 11, 2013, when he announced, in his typical, soft-spoken Latin, that he no longer had the strength to run the 1.2 billion-strong Catholic Church that he had steered for eight years through scandal and indifference.
