(March 30, 2009) The collection that will be made during Pope Benedict XVI’s Holy
Thursday Mass of the Last Supper on April 9th will be sent to the tiny
Catholic community in Gaza Strip. The Office of Papal Liturgical Celebrations made
the announcement on Monday as it released Pope Benedict’s Holy Week programme this
year. The 40-day Lenten period that Christians observe each year culminates with
Holy Week that celebrates the most sacred mysteries of the Christian faith, namely
the passion, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The Pope will start the Holy
Week on April 5 with the celebration of Palm Sunday in St. Peter’s Square, which marks
the triumphant entry of Jesus into Jerusalem before his death. Palm Sunday is also
marked as World Youth Day at the diocesan level, and this year’s theme is ‘We have
placed our hope in the living God.” On Holy Thursday the Pope will concelebrate the
Chrism Mass in the morning in St. Peter’s Basilica with cardinals, bishops and priests
of Rome diocese. In the evening he will celebrate the Mass of the Last Supper in
St. John Lateran basilica, during which the tradition of the Washing of the Feet ceremony
will be observed. On Good Friday, April 10, the Pope will preside over the Liturgy
of the Word in St. Peter’s Basilica in the morning. In the evening he will lead a
candle-lit Way of the Cross at Rome’s famed landmark, the Coliseum. This year, Pope
Benedict has asked Indian Archbishop Thomas Menaparampil of Guwahati to write the
meditations of the Way of the Cross. On the night of April 11, the Pope will lead
the Easter Vigil Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica. The following morning, he will celebrate
Easter Sunday Mass in St. Peter’s Square, at the end of which he will deliver his
special Easter ‘Urbi et Orbi’ message and blessing from the main balcony of St. Peter’s
Basilica.