Vatican City, Apr 10, 2018 / 10:18 am
On Tuesday papal spokesperson Greg Burke announced two new additions to Pope Francis' May calendar: A visit to the Shrine of Our Lady of Divine Love in Rome and a meeting with members of the Neocatechumenal Way.
Francis' visit to the Shrine of Divine Love will take place the afternoon of May 1. There, the pope will pray the rosary to mark the beginning of May, the month of Mary.
On May 5 he will participate in an international meeting of the Neocatechumenal Way at the University of Rome "Tor Vergata," for the movement's 50th anniversary. The Neocatechumenal Way is a Catholic community founded in 1964 in Madrid, Spain, dedicated to post- and pre-baptismal formation of Christians.
The visit to the popular Roman Shrine of Our Lady of Divine Love will be Pope Francis' first. He was scheduled to go there May 18, 2014, but three days before the scheduled visit, it was canceled to lighten his commitment-load the week before his apostolic journey to the Holy Land, according to then-papal spokesman Fr. Federico Lombardi.