The Church Alive

by Joseph Malzone  |  09/13/2025  |  Liturgy and Worship Reflections

Last week I attended the canonization Mass of now Saints Carlo Acutis and Pier Giorgio Frassati. St. Peter's Square was packed with hundreds of thousands of people, most of them young people from all over the world, waving their country's flag back and forth in the air.

The Mass began with a procession of the Cardinals in attendance, followed by Pope Leo, who, as the vicar of Christ with the biblical authority to bind and loose, is the only one who can definitively declare that a soul has entered Heaven. The Mass was structured much the same as any other Mass, but with the Rite for Canonization, sung with the Litany of Saints, placed into the liturgy of the word. Pope Leo beautifully led the faithful in singing the parts of the Mass in Latin, the official language of the Church.

After the Mass had concluded, he was driven amongst the people in his papal car, with him being just a couple of feet from where I was standing.

The photo included here is a photo I took at the Canonization Mass.