Romana

With the Covid epidemic now over in much of the world, at least in its worst version, in 2022 the feast of St. Josemaría was celebrated normally in many churches. However, since June 26 fell on a Sunday this year, the liturgical celebration in most cases was moved to another nearby date. The following are some of the celebrations that Romana’seditorial staff has received information about.

In the cathedral of Lugano (Switzerland), some two hundred faithful gathered to attend the Mass for St. Josemaría on June 13. Bishop Valerio Lazzeri presided at the concelebration. Four days later another Mass was concelebrated, in the Liebfrauenkirche in Zurich, by the regional vicar of Opus Dei in Switzerland, Peter Rutz, the pastor, Josef-Michael Karber, and five other priests.

In Spain, the Opus Dei website offered information about where Masses for the feast of St. Josemaría were being organized by the Prelature in over a hundred cities.

Similar information was published on the Italian website. In many cities the priest celebrating (or the principle priest in the case of concelebrations) was often the local bishop. Masses were held in Rome, Milan, Turin, Naples, Genoa, Perugia, Florence and Bari, among other places. In Rome, in the parish of St. Josemaría Escrivá, in the Laurentino neighborhood, Mass was celebrated on the morning of June 26 by the Auxiliary Vicar of the Prelature, Monsignor Mariano Fazio.

The Prelate, as the corresponding section in this bulletin mentions, had celebrated it the day before in the Church of Divine Providence in Warsaw, where he was at the time.

As in other years, in Almaty, Kazakhstan, Bishop Jose Luis Mumbiela Sierra concelebrated with the Vicar of the Prelature and other priests in the cathedral. In his homily he thanked the faithful of the Prelature for the twenty-five years of Opus Dei’s presence in the country.

On June 27, the Nuncio of His Holiness in the Philippines, Archbishop Charles John Brown, concelebrated the Mass of St. Josemaría in the Manila Cathedral with Cardinal Jose Advincula, Archbishop of Manila, and the Vicar of Opus Dei for the Philippines, Carlos Estrada, along with several other priests. In his homily, the Nuncio recalled his own presence in St. Peter’s Square at the canonization ceremony for the founder of Opus Dei in 2002, and testified to his good relationship with the members of the Prelature in the various countries where he has been the Pope’s representative. After summarizing St. Josemaría’s teachings on the universal call to holiness and the vocation of the laity, he spoke about work as a means of personal sanctification. Work, he said, associates us with creation, and when, like creation, it truly is a “work of God,” it can change people, society and the world. “Our personal effort is not enough, but it is absolutely necessary. And so, when we work with God’s grace, miracles happen. God’s grace permeates our work and our work becomes sacrifice.”