SW News: For the first time after a pandemic-triggered two-year gap, hundreds of Catholic believers thronged Jerusalem on Tuesday, May 31, to take part in the Marian procession marking the Feast of the Visitation. The procession with the image of Our Lady was led by His Beatitude Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem. This feast marks the end of May, which is typically dedicated to the Mother of God. For the first time in two years, the local faithful were welcomed inside the St Savior’s Church for Rosary and Holy Mass. Patriarch Pizzaballa was accompanied by General Vicar for Jerusalem and Palestine Mgr William Shomali.

After Holy Mass, the Patriarch led the procession carrying an icon of the Holy Mother. The streets were decorated with the flags of the Latin Patriarchate and the Custody of the Holy Land. The procession started at St Savior’s and there were two stops- one in the courtyard of the College des Freres, and the other at the Latin Patriarchate, which is inside the co-cathedral.

 

Believers walked along the streets of the Christian Quarter before making their way back to St Savior’s for the parting blessing and to appeal to the Mother of God to protect everyone in the city. It ended with a parade of scouts, who escorted the Marian statue in the old city. Last year, Pope Francis urged the faithful to pray the Rosary during May seeking an end to the Coronavirus pandemic. Thirty shrines were chosen to lead the Marian prayer each day and among them was the Basilica of the Annunciation in Nazareth, with a special prayer intention for the expectant women and the unborn. This year, too, the Holy Father sought the intercession of the Blessed Virgin to bring an end to the conflicts across the globe, including Europe, by leading the recitation of the Rosary in Rome on May 31. The prayer service took place in the Basilica of St Mary Major before the statue of the Queen of Peace which Pope Benedict XV had placed there in 1918 as a sign of people’s prayers that Mary would intercede to end World War I.