Pope Speaks About Childhood and Early Mornings as an Altar Boy in Unscripted Visit With Campers
Leo shared the memories during an unscripted visit with the children of Vatican employees who are attending the Holy See's summer camp. They were joined by other children, including Ukrainian young people who are attending summer programs run by Italy's Caritas charity. The visit, which was not announced in advance, took place in the Vatican's main audience hall, which was decked out with huge inflatable bouncy castles for the estimated 600 kids. One of the young campers, Giulia, asked Leo if he used to go to Mass as a child. The former Robert Prevost, who grew up the youngest of three brothers in the south Chicago suburb of Dolton, said the family always went to Mass on Sundays. 'But starting from when I was around 6 years old, I was also an altar boy in the parish. And so before going to school–it was a parochial school–there was Mass at 6:30 a.m.,' he said, emphasizing how early it was. 'And Mom would wake us up and say 'We're going to Mass!' Because serving Mass was something we liked because starting from when I was young they taught us that Jesus was always close to us.'
Leo, who was born in 1955, recalled that at the time Mass was celebrated in Latin. He said he had to learn it to serve Mass even before he made his First Communion, one of the key sacraments in the church. 'It wasn't so much the language that it was celebrated in, but the experience of getting to know other kids who served the Mass together, the friendship and this closeness with Jesus in the church,' he said. Leo's brother, John Prevost, has said his little brother knew from a very young age that he wanted to be a priest. Young Robert used to pretend to celebrate Mass using their mother's ironing board as an altar and Necco candies–a once-popular sweet–as Communion wafers. History's first American pope spoke in Italian, but he switched to English to address a group of Ukrainian children, some of whom held up Ukrainian flags and snagged Leo autographs. He spoke about the benefits of meeting people from different backgrounds, languages, and lands. It was one of the first times Leo has spoken unscripted at length in public, responding to questions posed to him by the children. He has tended to stick to his prepared texts for his audiences so far in his young pontificate.
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Al Arabiya
3 days ago
- Al Arabiya
Pope Speaks About Childhood and Early Mornings as an Altar Boy in Unscripted Visit With Campers
Pope Leo XIV spoke publicly about his childhood in Chicago for the first time as pontiff Thursday, recalling that from the age of six he used to get up early to serve as an altar boy at the 6:30 a.m. Mass before going to school. Leo shared the memories during an unscripted visit with the children of Vatican employees who are attending the Holy See's summer camp. They were joined by other children, including Ukrainian young people who are attending summer programs run by Italy's Caritas charity. The visit, which was not announced in advance, took place in the Vatican's main audience hall, which was decked out with huge inflatable bouncy castles for the estimated 600 kids. One of the young campers, Giulia, asked Leo if he used to go to Mass as a child. The former Robert Prevost, who grew up the youngest of three brothers in the south Chicago suburb of Dolton, said the family always went to Mass on Sundays. 'But starting from when I was around 6 years old, I was also an altar boy in the parish. And so before going to school–it was a parochial school–there was Mass at 6:30 a.m.,' he said, emphasizing how early it was. 'And Mom would wake us up and say 'We're going to Mass!' Because serving Mass was something we liked because starting from when I was young they taught us that Jesus was always close to us.' Leo, who was born in 1955, recalled that at the time Mass was celebrated in Latin. He said he had to learn it to serve Mass even before he made his First Communion, one of the key sacraments in the church. 'It wasn't so much the language that it was celebrated in, but the experience of getting to know other kids who served the Mass together, the friendship and this closeness with Jesus in the church,' he said. Leo's brother, John Prevost, has said his little brother knew from a very young age that he wanted to be a priest. Young Robert used to pretend to celebrate Mass using their mother's ironing board as an altar and Necco candies–a once-popular sweet–as Communion wafers. History's first American pope spoke in Italian, but he switched to English to address a group of Ukrainian children, some of whom held up Ukrainian flags and snagged Leo autographs. He spoke about the benefits of meeting people from different backgrounds, languages, and lands. It was one of the first times Leo has spoken unscripted at length in public, responding to questions posed to him by the children. He has tended to stick to his prepared texts for his audiences so far in his young pontificate.
Al Arabiya
4 days ago
- Al Arabiya
Cardinal Luis Pascual Dri, Argentine Friar Held Up by Pope Francis as Model Confessor, Dies at 98
Cardinal Luis Pascual Dri, the Argentine priest whom Pope Francis held up as the model confessor, has died in Buenos Aires at age 98, the Vatican said Wednesday. Dri, a Capuchin friar, died Monday in the Argentine capital, where his funeral was being celebrated Wednesday, the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano said. Dri was made a cardinal by Francis in 2023 at the age of 96 in recognition of his lifetime of work hearing confessions of the faithful and dispensing merciful absolutions. Up until his death, he worked as the confessor at the Our Lady of Pompeii parish in Buenos Aires. Francis frequently referred to Dri during his pontificate and held him up as a model confessor for other priests, urging them to always be merciful in the confessional. For Francis, the sacrament of reconciliation was particularly important, and he urged priests to always pardon those who seek forgiveness. He once quoted Dri as saying he was so willing to dispense absolutions because 'God himself gave me a bad example in forgiving all his sins.' Pope Leo XIV, who was made a cardinal during the same consistory as Dri, issued a message of condolences Wednesday signed by the Vatican secretary of state. In it, he recalled Dri as 'a devoted pastor who was so dear to Pope Francis and who for so many years gave his life to the service of God and the church as a confessor.'
Arab News
27-06-2025
- Arab News
Vatican unveils last of restored Raphael Rooms after 10-year cleaning that yielded new discoveries
VATICAN CITY: The Vatican Museums on Thursday unveiled the last and most important of the restored Raphael Rooms, the spectacularly frescoed reception rooms of the Apostolic Palace that in some ways rival the Sistine Chapel as the peak of high Renaissance artistry. A decadelong project to clean and restore the largest of the four Raphael Rooms uncovered a novel mural painting technique that the superstar Renaissance painter and architect began but never completed. Raphael used oil paint directly on the wall, and arranged a grid of nails embedded in the walls to hold in place the resin surface onto which he painted. Vatican Museums officials recounted the discoveries in inaugurating the hall, known as the Room of Constantine, after the last scaffolding came down. The reception room, which was painted by Raphael and his students starting in the first quarter-century of the 1500s, is dedicated to the fourth-century Roman emperor Constantine, whose embrace of Christianity helped spread the faith throughout the Roman Empire. 'With this restoration, we rewrite a part of the history of art,' Vatican Museums director Barbara Jatta said. Pope Julius II summoned the young Raphael Sanzio from Florence to Rome in 1508 to decorate a new private apartment for himself in the Apostolic Palace, giving the then-25-year-old a major commission at the height of his artistic output. Even at the time, there were reports that Raphael had wanted to decorate the rooms not with frescoes but with oil paint directly on the wall, to give the images greater brilliance. The 10-year restoration of the Room of Constantine proved those reports correct, said Fabio Piacentini, one of the chief restorers. Vatican technicians discovered that two female figures on opposite corners of the hall, Justice and Courtesy, were actually oil-on-wall paintings, not frescoes in which paint is applied to wet plaster. They were therefore clearly the work of Raphael himself, he said. But Raphael died on April 6, 1520, at the age of 37, and before the hall could be completed. The rest of the paintings in the room were frescoes completed by his students who couldn't master the oil technique Raphael had used, Jatta said. During the cleaning, restorers discovered that Raphael had clearly intended to do more with oil paints: Under the plaster frescoes, they found a series of metal nails they believed had been drilled into the wall to hold in place the natural resin surface that Raphael had intended to paint on, Piacentini said. 'From a historical and critical point of view, and also technical, it was truly a discovery,' he said. 'The technique used and planned by Raphael was truly experimental for the time, and has never been found in any other mural made with oil paint.' The final part of the restoration of the room was the ceiling, painted by Tommaso Laureti and featuring a remarkable example of Renaissance perspective with his fresco of a fake tapestry 'Triumph of Christianity over Paganism.' The Raphael Rooms were never fully closed off to the public during their long restoration, but they are now free of scaffolding for the many visitors flocking to the Vatican Museums for the 2025 Jubilee.
