Sunday after Easter -- Double Canonization Ceremony (April 27, 2014)

from online edition of the Catholic Register newspaper dot-org: Canonization of two popes: The double canonization ceremony of Blessed John XXIII and Blessed John Paul II, scheduled for April 27, is almost certain to draw crowds larger than the more than one million who attended the latter’s beatification in May 2011. By choosing to declare the sanctity of both men on the same day, Pope Francis may be trying to emphasize fundamental continuities between two popes widely seen as respectively liberal and conservative, especially with regard to reforms ushered in by the Second Vatican Council. Blessed John opened the council in 1962, and Blessed John Paul attended all four sessions as a bishop. The ceremony could thus serve as an occasion for Pope Francis to expound on his own understanding of Vatican II and its legacy for the Church. o Papal trip to the Holy Land: Pope Francis announced he will visit the Holy Land from May 24-26 with stops in Israel, Jordan and the Palestinian territories. Pope Francis has said a Holy Land visit will include a meeting with Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople, considered first among equals by Orthodox bishops. The trip will be Pope Francis’ second outside of Italy, following his visit to Brazil in July 2013, and the first planned during his pontificate. The destination is fitting for a Pope whose relations with Jews have been exceptionally warm and who has made peace in the Middle East a priority of his geopolitical agenda. While a three-day papal visit will be unusually brief for such a prominent destination, it is appropriate for Pope Francis, who has a heavy agenda of reform at home and the media flair to reach the world without leaving the Vatican. http://www.catholicregister.org/news/international/item/17453-how-2014-is-shaping-up-at-the-vatican