Now with dates confirmed for the week-long meeting, the presidents of national bishops’ conferences will begin to plan their attendance for October’s meeting, after Leo announced it in March.

A recent meeting of the General Secretariat of the Synod finalized October 7 to 14 as the dates, thus falling in line with the regular placement of such meetings or synods in October.

The General Secretariat was the body responsible for organizing the recent Synod on Synodality, and – though no official link was made – January’s extraordinary consistory bore classic signs of the Secretariat’s organizational influence.

Leo has tasked the General Secretariat to “offer organizational and methodological support,” while the Dicastery for Laity, Family and Life has been instructed to bear chief responsibility for preparing the event.

Given the concern expressed by many cardinals over the organizational style of January’s consistory, in which Synod style round table discussions were used to limit the time for free intervention, there are outstanding questions about how October’s meeting will unfold and whether time will be granted to air concerns.

The Vatican has been at pains to point out that the planned meeting between Leo and the bishops is not a synod, but simply an advisory or “consultative meeting.” Outside of Leo’s consistories – in January and upcoming in June – the October meeting will be the first such between a pope and only prelates for many years. The Synod on Synodality’s setup saw the participation of lay people as voting members, and at the time looked likely to be the format used in the future under Pope Francis.

October’s event, however, is a subtle reset back to the normal and proper style of a synod – although it does not claim to be one.

As announced on March 19, Leo has convened the meeting in order to discuss how best to “proclaim the Gospel to families today, in light of Amoris Laetitia” and determine the reality in local churches.

“Our era is marked by rapid changes which make it necessary, even more than ten years ago, to give particular pastoral attention to families, to whom the Lord entrusts the task of participating in the Church’s mission of proclaiming and witnessing to the Gospel,” wrote Leo in announcing the event. He also stated that it was necessary at this particular time “in light of the changes that continue to impact families.”

The meeting marks the 10-year anniversary of the document published by Pope Francis, and which proved to be one of the earliest catalysts for ensuing controversy and doctrinal confusion, due to its passage arguing for the divorced and ‘re-married’ to receive Holy Communion.

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Neither in Leo’s announcement, nor in the sparing details which have emerged about the October meeting, was any mention made of the controversy surrounding Amoris Laetitia. Similarly, no mention was made of the many requests to have Amoris formally corrected, especially since one of the Dubia signatories – Cardinal Walter Brandmüller – warned in 2015 that the interpretation of Amoris Laetitia which Francis later approved would be heretical.

Francis declared there was “no other interpretation” of Amoris Laetitia except the one provided by the Argentinian bishops of Buenos Aires allowing Communion for the divorced and remarried, and which he supported. This was then declared – in a June 2017 rescript – to be part of the Church’s magisterium.

It is precisely this silence about the controversy which has led to such interest from Vatican observers in the October conference, and speculation over whether Leo will simply ignore the problems or address them in his classically subtle style. Should the American Pope leave the issue of Holy Communion and Amoris out of the conversation, then it would appear as an severely lost opportunity to rectify the crisis identified by many, and also undermine his aim to unify the Church.

Demonstrating the still prevalent tension surrounding the text, a conglomerate of Catholics issued an open letter to Leo in September urging him to rescind a number of papal texts, including Amoris Laetitia. “We beseech you to annul Pope Francis’s June 5, 2017 rescript, which conferred special magisterial value on the heterodox interpretation of the ambiguities of Amoris laetitia, and clearly reiterate that those who are divorced and civilly remarried and living more uxorio cannot receive sacramental absolution nor, as public sinners, Holy Communion,” read the letter.

The respected American philosopher Edward Feser opined in July about Amoris and Pope Francis that “one could argue that of all his controversial acts, this was the most scandalous.” For Feser, the lines of Amoris represented an attack on Christ’s teaching against divorce. To do this “would thus implicitly either deny Christ’s divinity or, blasphemously, put one’s authority above even His,” Feser warned.

Officials at the Dicastery for Laity, Family and Life have not responded to requests from this correspondent for an interview regarding the October meeting.

According to a detailed new report issued by HRW, the Chinese state is only increasing its persecution of underground Catholics, and is doing so aided by the framework of the 2018 deal between Beijing and the Holy See regarding the appointment of bishops.

“The 2018 Holy See-China agreement on bishops has helped the Chinese government to pressure underground Catholic communities to join the official church,” HRW wrote on April 15.

Having been signed in 2018 on a provisional basis, the secretive Sino-Vatican deal’s specific details remain undisclosed: a peculiar air of mystery surrounds them. It has since been renewed a number of times, most recently in 2024 for a period of four years.

The agreement is believed to recognize the state-approved version of the Catholic Church and allows the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to appoint bishops. The Pope apparently maintains a veto power although in practice it is the CCP that has control. It also allegedly allows for the removal and replacement of legitimate bishops by CCP-approved bishops.

The secrecy of the text has been one of the oft-raised issues about the entire affair. But its chief author, Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Parolin has previously defended this aspect, attesting in 2023 that such secrecy was “because it has not yet been finally approved.”

HRW has already urged Pope Leo XIV to repeal the deal, and in releasing their report they have renewed this appeal. “Pope Leo XIV should urgently review the agreement and press Beijing to end the persecution and intimidation of underground churches, clergy, and worshipers.”

According to HRW, the deal has “facilitated repression of Catholics in China.”

One former Chinese resident told HRW that the 2018 Sino-Vatican deal “was used by the Chinese Communist Party as the most intelligent weapon to legally destroy underground churches.”

“In practice,” the anonymous source stated, “they arrested priests and bishops from the underground churches and told them: ‘The Vatican has ordered you to join the Patriotic Association.’”

This has led many Catholic clergy into the dilemma representing that of the days of persecution in the Roman Empire or in Protestant Reformation England: “join the Patriotic Association and betray their faith or refuse to join and lose their livelihood and face arrest.”

The process of “Sinicization” has long been China’s tool to enforce state-control over the practice of religion. Some have sought to defend the concept, including the current Cardinal-archbishop of Hong Kong, Stephen Chow. But, sources interviewed by HRW said that for China “Sinicization” is “about imposing Chinese Communist Party ideology on religious belief.”

Day to day life does not have to entail abduction or torture in order to lead to persecution – although that does happen. An insider who spoke to HRW commented how one priest was prevented from having any banking, phone sim cards or passports, and hence has “no means of survival and can barely make ends meet for even a day or two.”

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Pontifical charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) has also highlighted how the Sinicization is being utilized to crush non-approved faith especially amongst the young. “All this has led to a de facto ban on all religious practice and education for anyone under 18 years of age in China, thus depriving religious communities of their youth development efforts and posing an existential threat to their future,” ACN reported in the autumn.

This element is something which HRW also documented, with numerous sources attesting that the Chinese government was working hard to control the dissemination of religious education to children, including by stating that parents “must not organize … home-based religious education to instill religious ideas to their children.”

Recent legislation also implements greater state control over the travel of clergy, thus allowing the government to limit international access and any likelihood of whistleblowing. Coming into force this spring, the new rules see clergy and religious having to surrender their passports and travel documents to state officials, any anyone wishing to travel abroad for an “official overseas assignment” must submit a request for the passport and include a document approving the request.

Commenting on this, one China expert interviewed by HRW stated that as a result, “groups must not have any relations with foreign churches or entities because that is seen as a national security issue. The Holy See, and the Catholic Church represents a target [of persecution.]”

Clergy who have resisted China’s efforts to force them into the schismatic, state-approved church have been subject to abductions, forced arrest and indoctrination. Locals are bribed with financial rewards in return for reporting Underground house-churches to the authorities.

Speaking to Bitter Winter an Underground priest attested to the loyalty of Catholics to Rome rather than to Communism: “We endure suffering due to our unwavering loyalty to Rome and the Church and our refusal to submit to bishops who prioritize allegiance to the CCP over fidelity to the Pope.”

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Bitter Winter described a renewed crackdown on religious venues last spring as having “reached alarming proportions,” after a series of police raids on Underground Church places of worship led to nearly all of them being closed in spring 2025.

The late Pope Francis and Cdl. Parolin repeatedly and firmly defended the deal, with Parolin doing so as recently as this month. China expert Steven Mosher has previously described the deal as an action which was “perhaps the most controversial of a papacy dogged by controversy.”

Now, according to HRW, “the Chinese government’s rights violations against Catholics contravene the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights and violate the rights to freedoms of religion and belief, expression, association, and movement, among other rights.”

Nor is HRW alone in its assessment of the Sino-Vatican deal’s impact on the Underground Church and Catholic wishing to be faithful to Rome.

Numerous China experts and Catholic prelates abroad have criticized the deal, and the emeritus bishop of Hong Kong Cardinal Joseph Zen has described the agreement as an “incredible betrayal” of China’s Catholics and accused the Vatican of “selling out” Chinese Catholics.

Indeed, shortly before his demise, the late Cardinal Dominik Duka, O.P. warned that “the Holy See’s unbalanced diplomatic policy towards the Chinese regime can damage the Catholic Church itself.” Duka warned that the “Catholic Church can be perceived as collaborationist, especially if it is true that the text of the agreement remains secret and only troubling information leaks to the public.”

The U.S. Congressional-Executive Commission on China stated its 2020 report that the increased religious persecution witnessed in China was “of an intensity not seen since the Cultural Revolution.” The Commission described the abuse as a direct consequence of the deal, and former U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo notably slated the deal in September 2020, writing that “it’s clear that the Sino-Vatican agreement has not shielded Catholics from the Party’s depredations, to say nothing of the Party’s horrific treatment of Christians, Tibetan Buddhists, Falun Gong devotees, and other religious believers.”

HRW sent a copy of its report to the Vatican and the Chinese government, but has received no comment from either.

The Church’s liturgical life is intimately linked to the practice of the faith, as summarized by the phrase “lex orandi, lex credendi” – the la…

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Neri, beloved by many in the city as one of the great Apostles of Rome, had already popularized the seven churches pilgrimage in the Eternal City, visiting the seven main basilicas. But the Maundy Thursday version became a particular way in which to accompany Christ on the seven final places He visited leading up to His death.

The seven locations as recorded in the Gospels are:

1. Christ prays in the Garden of Gethsemane, before being arrested by the soldiers.

2. Christ is taken to Annas, father-in-law of the High Priest Caiaphas. annas questions Him of His teaching, and Christ is struck in the face by an attendant.

3. Christ is taken before Caiaphas, who accuses Christ of blasphemy and rents his garments upon doing so.

4. Christ is brought to Pontius Pilate and questioned if he is a king.

5. Christ is taken then to Herod, who questions him, mocks him by dressing him in a white garment and sends him away.

6. Christ is brought back before Pilate once again. Pilate asks the Jews what to do with Him, and then washes his hands as he frees Barabbas.

7. Christ is crucified on Mount Golgotha and dies.

Keen to harness the devotion to the crucified Lord, Neri thus developed the custom of visiting any seven churches around Rome, and their various Altars of Repose, in order to pray before the Blessed Sacrament and keep Christ company as the Passion begins.

Interspersed with some of Dom Prosper Gueranger’s commentary for Maundy Thursday evening reproduced below are a series of images taken during the seven churches visitation made by Per Mariam during the Triduum in Rome last year.

Commentary by Dom Gueranger on Maundy Thursday evening

Judas has left the cenacle, and, profiting by the darkness, has reached the place where the enemies of his Savior are assembled. Jesus then turns to His faithful apostles, and says to them: “Now is the Son of Man glorified.” Yes, His Passion is to be followed by triumph and glory; and the Passion has already begun, for Judas has commenced his work of betraying Him.

Meanwhile, the apostles, forgetting the trouble into which they had been thrown by Jesus’ telling them that one of the twelve was about to betray Him, begin to dispute among themselves, which of them should seem to be greater. They have not forgotten the words spoken by Jesus to Peter, when He made him the rock on which He would build His Church; and here at the supper, they have seen the divine Master wash the feet of Peter first. On the other hand, John’s affectionate familiarity with Jesus, during this same supper, has made some of them argue that he who was most loved would be most honoured.

Jesus puts an end to this dispute, by giving to these future pastors of His Church a lesson of humility. There shall, it is true, be a head among them, but, says our Redeemer, “let him that is the greater among you, become as the younger; and he that is the leader, as he that serveth.” He bids them look at Him: He is their Master, and yet, says He, “I am in the midst of you, as he that serveth.”

Then turning towards Peter, thus addresses him: “Simon, Simon! behold Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and thou, being once converted, confirm thy brethren.” This last interview is, as it were, our Savior’s testament; He provides for His Church, before leaving her. The apostles are to be Peter’s brethren, but Peter is to be their head. This sublime dignity is to be enhanced by the humility of him that enjoys it: he shall be “the servant of the servants of God.” The apostolic college is to be exposed to the fury of hell; but Peter alone is to confirm his brethren in the faith. His teaching shall ever be conformable to divine truth; it shall ever be infallible: Jesus has prayed that it may be so. Such a prayer is all-powerful; and thereby, the Church, ever docile to the voice of Peter, shall forever maintain the doctrine of Christ.

Jesus, after having provided for the future of His Church by the words He addressed to Peter, thus speaks affectionately to all the eleven: “Little children! yet a little while I am with you. Love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one for another.” Peter says to him: “Lord! whither goest Thou?” “Whither I go,” answers Jesus, “thou canst not now follow Me; but thou shalt follow hereafter.” “Why cannot I follow thee now?” again asks Peter: “I will lay down my life for Thee.” “Wilt thou,” replies Jesus, “lay down thy life for Me? Amen, amen, I say to thee: the cock shall not crow, till thou deny Me thrice.”

Peter’s love for Jesus had too much of the human about it, for it was not based on humility. Presumption comes from pride: it almost always results in a fall. In order to prepare Peter for his future ministry of pardon, as also to give us a useful lesson, God permits that he, who was soon to be made prince of the apostles, should fall into a most grievous and humiliating sin.

But let us return to the instructions contained in the last words spoken by our Jesus before He leaves His disciples:

“I am the way, the truth, and the life. If you love Me, keep My commandments. I will ask the Father, and He shall give you another Paraclete, that He may abide with you forever. I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you. Peace I leave with you, My peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, do I give unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, nor let it be afraid. If you loved Me, you would indeed be glad, because I go to the Father. I will not now speak many things with you, for the prince of this world cometh, and in Me he hath not anything. But that the world may know that I love the Father, and as the Father hath given Me commandment, so do I: arise, let us go hence.”

Deeply impressed by these words, the disciples arise, and, after the hymn of thanksgiving has been said, they accompany Jesus to Mount Olivet.

He continues His instructions as they go along. He takes occasion from their passing by a vine to speak of the effect produced by divine grace, in the soul of man.

“I am the true vine,” He says, “and my Father is the husbandman. Every branch in Me, that beareth not fruit, He will take away, and every one that beareth fruit, He will purge it, that it may bring forth more fruit. Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abide in the vine; so neither can you, unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches: he that abideth in Me, and I in him, the same beareth much fruit: for without Me you can do nothing. If any one abideth not in Me, he shall be cast forth as a branch, and shall wither, and they shall gather him up, and cast him into the fire, and he burneth. You have not chosen Me: but I have chosen you, and have appointed you, that you should go, and should bring forth fruit, and your fruit should remain.”

He next speaks to them of the persecutions that await them, and of the hatred the world will have of them. He renews the promise He had made them of the holy Spirit, the Comforter, and tells them that it is to their advantage that He Himself should leave them. He assures them that they shall obtain whatever they ask of the Father in His name. “The Father,” He adds, “loveth you, because you have loved me, and have believed that I came from God. I come forth from the Father, and am come into the world; again I leave the world, and I go to the Father.”

The disciples say to Him: “Now we know that Thou knowest all things, and Thou needest not that any man should ask Thee. By this we believe that Thou camest forth from God”. “Do you now believe?” answers Jesus: “Behold! the hour cometh, and it is now come, that you shall be scattered every man to his own, and shall leave Me alone. All you shall be scandalized in Me this night; for it is written: ‘I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock shall be dispersed.’ But after I shall be risen again, I will go before you into Galilee.”

Peter again protests that he will be faithful to his Master; the rest may abandon Him, if they will, but he will keep with Him to the last! It should, indeed, be so, for he has received so much more from Jesus than the others have: but he is again humbled by being told of his coming speedy fall. Jesus then calmly raising up his eyes to heaven, says:

“Father! the hour is come; glorify Thy Son, that Thy Son may glorify Thee. I have finished the work which Thou gavest Me to do; I have manifested Thy name to the men whom Thou hast given Me. They have known that I came out from Thee, and they have believed that Thou didst send Me. I pray for them; I pray not for the world. And now I am not in the world, and these are in the world, and I come to Thee. Holy Father! keep them in Thy name, whom Thou hast given Me; that they may be one, as We also are. While I was with them, I kept them in Thy name. Those whom Thou gavest Me, have I kept; and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition, that the Scripture may be fulfilled. I have given them Thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, as I also am not of the world. I pray not that Thou shouldst take them out of the world, but that Thou shouldst keep them from evil. Not for them only do I pray, but for them also who, through their word, shall believe in Me: that they all may be one, as Thou, Father in Me, and I in Thee: that they also may be one in Us: that the world may know that Thou hast sent Me. Father, I will that where I am, they also, whom Thou hast given Me, may be with Me; that they may see the glory which Thou hast given Me, because Thou hast loved Me before the creation of the world. Just Father! the world hath not known Thee; but I have known Thee, and these have known that Thou hast sent Me. And I have made known Thy name to them, and will make it known, that the love, wherewith Thou hast loved Me, may be in them, and I in them.”

Such are the outpourings of the loving Heart of our Jesus, as He crosses the brook of Cedron, and ascends, with His disciples the Mount of Olives. Having come as far as Gethsemani, He goes into a garden, whither He had often led His apostles and rested there with them. Suddenly, His Soul is overpowered with grief; His human Nature experiences, as it were, a suspension of that beatitude which results from its union with the Divinity. This His Humanity will be interiorly supported even to the very last moment of His Passion; but it must bear everything that it is possible for it to bear.

Jesus feels such intense sadness, that the very presence of His disciples is insupportable; He leaves them, taking with Him only Peter, James, and John, who, a short time before, had been witnesses of His glorious Transfiguration: will they show greater courage than the rest, when they see their divine Master in the hands of His enemies? His words show them what a sudden change has come over Him. He whose language was, a few moments before, so calm, His look so serene, and His tone of voice so sweet, now says to them: “My soul is sorrowful even unto death: stay you here, and watch with Me.”

He leaves them, and goes to a grotto, which is about a stone’s throw distant. Even to this day it exists, perpetuating the memory of this terrible event. There does our Jesus prostrate Himself and pray saying: “Father! all things are possible to Thee. Remove this chalice from Me: but not what I will, but what Thou wilt.”

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While He is thus praying, a sweat of Blood flows from His Body and bathes the ground. It is not merely a swooning, it is an agony, that he suffers. God sends help to His sinking frame, and it is an angel that is entrusted with the office. Jesus is treated as man; His Humanity, exhausted as it is, is to receive no other sensible aid than that which is now brought Him by an angel (whom tradition affirms to have been Gabriel). Hereupon He rises, and again accepts the chalice prepared for Him. But what a chalice! Every pain that body and soul can suffer; the sins of the whole world taken upon Himself, and crying out vengeance against Him; the ingratitude of men, many of whom will make His sacrifice useless: Jesus has to accept all this, and at the very time when He seems to be left to His human Nature. The power of the Divinity, which is in Him, supports Him: but it does not prevent Him from feeling every suffering, just as though He had been mere Man. He begins His prayer by asking that the chalice may be taken from Him: He ends it by saying to His Father: “Not My will, but Thine be done!”

Jesus then rises, leaving the earth covered with the Blood of His agony: it is the first blood shedding of His Passion. He goes to His three disciples, and, finding them asleep, says to them: “What! could you not watch one hour with Me?” This is the beginning of that feature of His sufferings which consists in His being abandoned. He twice returns to the grotto, and repeats His sorrowful, but submissive, prayer; twice He returns to His disciples, whom He had asked to watch near Him, but at each time finds them asleep.

At length, He speaks to them saying: “Sleep ye now, and take your rest! Behold, the hour is at hand, and the Son of Man shall be betrayed into the hands of sinners.” Then resuming the energy of His divine courage, He adds: “Rise! let us go! Behold, he is at hand that will betray Me.”

While He is speaking these last few words, a numerous body of armed men enter the garden with torches in their hands. Judas is at their head. The betrayal is made by a profanation of the sign of friendship. “Judas! dost thou betray the Son of Man with a kiss?”

These piercing words should have made the traitor throw himself at his Master’s feet, and ask pardon; but it was too late: he feared the soldiers. But the servants of the high priest cannot lay hands on Jesus, unless He, their Victim, permit them to do so. With a single word, He casts them prostrate on the ground. Then permitting them to rise, He says to them with all the majesty of a King: “If you seek Me, let these go their way. You are come out, as it were against a thief with swords and clubs. When I was daily with you in the temple, you did not stretch forth your hands against Me: but this is your hour, and the power of darkness.”

Then turning to Peter, who has drawn and used his sword, He says to him: “Thinkest thou that I cannot ask My Father, and He will give Me presently twelve legions of angels? How then shall the Scriptures be fulfilled?”

And now, Jesus permits Himself to be led. Whereupon, His apostles run away in fear. Peter and another disciple follow Him, but as far off as they can. The soldiers lead Jesus by the same road, along which He had passed on the previous Sunday, when the people met Him with palm and olive branches in their hands. They cross the brook Cedron; and there is a tradition of the Church of Jerusalem that the soldiers, as they passed the bridge, threw Jesus into the water. Thus was fulfilled the prophecy of David: He shall drink of the torrent in the way.

They reach the City walls. The gate is opened, and the divine Prisoner enters. It is night, and the inhabitants know not the crime that has been committed. It is only on the morrow, that they will learn, that Jesus of Nazareth, the great Prophet, has fallen into the hands of the Chief Priests and Pharisees. The night is far advanced; but many hours must elapse before the dawn of day. The enemies of Jesus have arranged to take him, in the morning, to Pontius Pilate, and accuse him as being a disturber of the peace: but in the meanwhile, they intend to condemn him as guilty in matters of religion I Their tribunal has authority to judge in cases of this nature, only they cannot pass sentence of death upon a culprit, how guilty soever they may prove him. They, consequently, hurry Jesus to Annas, the father in-law of the High Priest Caiphas. Here is to take place the first examination. These blood-thirsty men have spent these hours in sleepless anxiety. They have counted the very minutes since the departure of their minions for Mount Olivet. They’re not without some doubt as to whether their plot will succeed. At last, their Victim is brought before them, and he shall not escape their vengeance!

Here let us interrupt our History of the Passion, till the morrow shall bring us to the solemn hour, when the great Mystery of our instruction and salvation was accomplished. What a day is this that we have been spending! How full of Jesus’ love! He has given us his Body and Blood to be our Food; he has instituted the Priesthood of the New Testament; he has poured out upon the world the sublimest instructions of his loving Heart.

We have seen him struggling with the feelings of human weakness, as he beheld the Chalice of the Passion that was prepared for him; but he triumphed over all, in order to save us. We have seen him betrayed, fettered, and led captive into the holy City, there to consummate his Sacrifice.

Let us adore and love this Jesus, who might have saved us by one and the least of all these humiliations; but whose love for us was not satisfied unless he drank, to the very dregs, the Chalice he had accepted from his Father.

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Father Thomas’ commentary on the Annunciation as recorded in St. Luke’s Gospel, is both succinct and rich in beauty. It is taken from his book “St Luke’s Gospel - A Commentary for Believers” published in 2021 by Arouca Press, and is reproduced here with kind permission of the author.

(Readers in the U.S. can purchase a copy here, while those in the U.K. can find it here)

The relevant passages from St. Luke’s Gospel (1: 26-38) are presented first, before Fr. Thomas’ commentary afterwards:

And in the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God into a city of Galilee, called Nazareth, To a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin’s name was Mary. And the angel being come in, said unto her: Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women. Who having heard, was troubled at his saying, and thought with herself what manner of salutation this should be. And the angel said to her: Fear not, Mary, for thou hast found grace with God.

Behold thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and shalt bring forth a son; and thou shalt call his name Jesus. He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the most High; and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of David his father; and he shall reign in the house of Jacob for ever. And of his kingdom there shall be no end. And Mary said to the angel: How shall this be done, because I know not man? And the angel answering, said to her: The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the most High shall overshadow thee. And therefore also the Holy which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.

And behold thy cousin Elizabeth, she also hath conceived a son in her old age; and this is the sixth month with her that is called barren: Because no word shall be impossible with God. And Mary said: Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it done to me according to thy word. And the angel departed from her.

Extract from Fr. Thomas Crean’s “A Commentary for Believers”

The Blessed Virgin was already espoused, that is, married to St Joseph. If she is sometimes spoken of as simply ‘betrothed’ to him, this is to show the purity of their marriage. It is reasonable also to suppose that she was already living in the house of St Joseph, so that no imputations would be cast upon her once she had conceived her Child.

St Gabriel does not need to say to her, Fear not, as soon as he appears, as he had done to Zachary. Living in perfect union with the Creator, Mary is not frightened by the sight of one of His servants. He says, Fear not, only once he has greeted her with high praise. Since she lives habitually in the thought of her own nothingness before God, this praise was able to trouble her.

In speaking to St Joseph, the angel says that Jesus will save his people from their sins. Why does he not say this to our Lady? Perhaps because she had no sins, and thus he would have been saying something that was less pertinent to her. Instead, he tells her three times that her Son will be a king: He will have the throne of David, reign in the house of Jacob, and have dominion with no end. Implicit in this is the promise of her own queenship: in the Old Testament, which foreshadowed the New, it was always the mother of the king who was the queen.

Our Lady knew from the Scriptures that the Messias was to be born of a Virgin. Why then does she remind the angel of her vow of virginity, saying I know not man, as if this were a difficulty? Perhaps because the prophecy of Isaias had not said how the virgin would conceive and bear; perhaps too, so that the angel might ratify the word of the prophet. The Law taught that two witnesses were sufficient to establish any truth.

“The Holy which shall be born of thee”: we could also translate the angel’s words: “The one who shall be born of thee in a holy way”, and miraculously. In this way, the answer would correspond more closely to the question, as an assurance that not even in giving birth would she lose her virginity.

Mary did not doubt St Gabriel’s words, as Zachary had done. Therefore, he rewards her faith with a secondary proof: God’s power as manifested in Elizabeth’s conception. She does not need this proof, since her faith rests on the word of God alone: but it is a gracious gift to her.

In the Old Testament, the angel of the Lord departs from Gedeon and Manue with fire; from Mary he departs quietly, as befits a servant.

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Father Daniel Pellizzon, of the Archdiocese of Buenos Aires, is returning to Argentina to become parish priest of the church of San Cayetano de Belgrano near the center of the city of Buenos Aires itself.

News of the move, though not announced by any official channels of the Holy See, was shared by the parish church in late November. Announcements of Pellizzon’s welcome Mass as the new parish priest were made at the start of February, with the opening Mass being on March 1.

The priest has been made a Monsignor, a fairly customary way of a parting diplomatic gift following the conclusion of close service to the Pontiff and Holy See. Indeed it is customary for the Pope to choose his own secretaries – or bring those he already had as a cardinal – rather than keeping those of his predecessor, but Pellizzon’s departure remains notable due to who he is.

Pellizzon is not widely known to much of the Anglosphere, but he should be, given his close links to the late Pope Francis and Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernández – the cardinal being one of the most controversial figures introduced to the Vatican under the last pontificate.

Pellizzon was ordained in November 2018, and has long had a very close relationship with Fernández, as well as with Pope Francis.

The Argentinian priest was private secretary for Fernández during the latter’s nine years as rector of the Catholic University of Argentina – something which was notably glossed over in English reports in July 2023 – and was also the Archbishop’s Master of Liturgical Ceremonies for key events.

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Prior to his priestly life, Pellizon also worked with Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio during his time as Archbishop of Buenos Aires, helping him organize his personal archive. Consequently he received a personal letter of congratulations from Pope Francis at his 2018 ordination – a Mass at which Archbishop Fernández gave the homily.

Pellizon spent four years as a priest in San Cayetano Shrine in Liniers, before moving to a new church in February 2023. However that was a short-lived assignment since he was named as private secretary to Pope Francis in July 2023, and arrived in August.

The timing of this move to Rome was closely arranged to marry up with that of his other long-time close friend and collaborator, Fernández. Fernández was named as prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in July 2023 and arrived just a few weeks later.

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