Church of St. Anne in the VaticanA special Mass for Mother Mary Angelica will be held at the Church of St. Anne in the Vatican on Friday to coincide with her funeral Mass taking place in Alabama.
The National Catholic Register is reporting on the Mass, organized by EWTN’s Rome bureau, which will take place at 6:00 p.m. local time in Rome to coincide with the 11:00 a.m. (CT) funeral Mass at the Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament in Hanceville, Alabama.
One of the most notable attendees at the Mass in Rome will be Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi who was personally invited to Mother’s funeral by EWTN CEO Michael Warsaw but was unable to make the trip.
Father Lombardi, who was a longtime employee and director of Vatican Radio, met Mother Angelica during one of the first meetings of Catholic radio stations which is held annually at EWTN.
During the course of the meeting, “someone had kindly taken me to the shrine to greet Mother,” Fr. Lombardi explained.
He called his brief encounter with Mother “proof that faith and love of God are the true engine that drives our communication — more so than technique and ‘professionalism.’”
Upon learning of her passing on Easter Sunday, March 27, Father Lombardi called Mother Angelica “a great witness and a missionary apostle,” and expressed his hope “that she prays for us more than we for her.”
Msgr. Dario Vigano, prefect of the Secretariat for Communications, has also pledged his prayers for the repose of Mother Angelica’s soul.
Philadelphia’s Archbishop Charles J. Chaput will preside over the Solemn Funeral Mass for Mother Angelica on Friday. The event will be broadcast live at 12 noon EST.
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