a katz / Shutterstock.com
CV NEWS FEED // Pope Francis has made several changes to the Church’s calendar, deepening the connection between Marian devotion and other Church feasts.
The National Catholic Register (NCR) reports that in 2018, Pope Francis established a new feast: Mary, Mother of the Church, celebrated on the Monday after Pentecost.
“‘Mother of the Church’ is a Marian title inextricably linked with the coming of the Holy Spirit,” NCR explains. “It is the Holy Spirit who overshadows Mary at the Annunciation in Nazareth, and Mary is present again at Pentecost when the Spirit descends on the nascent Church.”
In 2019, Pope Francis made another change to the Church’s calendar, moving the feast of Our Lady of Loreto to December 10, placing it within the octave of the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception.
The Feast of Our Lady of Loreto honors the Blessed Mother in her home — the Holy House of Loreto—where she grew up, received the Annunciation, and lived with St. Joseph and Jesus in Nazareth.
The decree announcing the change explained that the Holy House of Loreto is inherently linked to the Incarnation, as it is the place where this mystery took place.
“This celebration will help all people, especially families, youth, and religious,” the decree stated, “to imitate the virtues of that perfect disciple of the Gospel, the Virgin Mother, who, in conceiving the Head of the Church, also accepted us as her own.”