Whispers in the loggia: De Washington A California, Un Santo Para Los Estados

And now, the most historic moment of this Opening Day – for the first time ever, a Canonization Mass on US soil as the Pope raises Blessed Junipero Serra to sainthood (worship aid).

Before a crowd of 30,000 on the campus of the Catholic University of America in Washington, the rite – the lone Eucharist to be concelebrated with the bulk of the Stateside bishops – is the first of three large liturgies scheduled for the visit, the others to be Friday evening's Mass at Madison Square Garden in New York and Sunday afternoon's closing of the World Meeting of Families on Philadelphia's Benjamin Franklin Parkway, its crowd projected towards a million.

The 18th century missionary who played the lead role in the establishment of the Franciscan missions of California, Serra's canonization without the usually required second miracle was Francis' personal initiative in tribute to Saint Junipero's effectiveness in and dedication to evangelization as sketched out by Papa Bergoglio in Evangelii gaudium, the late 2013 text that is the governing manifesto of his pontificate.

Here again, the livefeed... Pope's text to appear upon delivery:


by Rocco Palmo via Whispers in the Loggia