Washington D.C., Feb 28, 2013 / 02:11 am
Students at American Catholic universities are observing the end of Pope Benedict XVI's papacy with special Masses, prayers and acts of charity.
At Franciscan University of Steubenville, Ohio, "Christ the King Chapel was filled to overflowing" during a holy hour on Feb. 22, the Feast of the Chair of St. Peter, said Tom Sofio, a public relations official.
Sofio told CNA that hundreds of students attended the holy hour – which was held "in thanksgiving for Pope Benedict's papacy and to pray for the new pope" – as well as the subsequent Mass celebrated by Steubenville Bishop Jeffrey Monforton.
In addition, he said, almost 130 students enrolled in the university's study abroad program in Austria re-arranged their schedules and traveled by buses on a 16-hour overnight trip to Rome for the Pope's final audience on Feb. 27.