The Vatican Press Office announced Saturday that Cardinal Nicolás de Jesús López Rodríguez, archbishop of Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, will be the papal envoy for the celebrations.
The centenary celebration is scheduled for Aug. 14 in Tegucigalpa, Honduras.
The first Mass on the American continent took place during the fourth and last trip of Christopher Columbus, who landed on Honduran soil on July 30, 1502, on Guanaja Island.
On Aug. 14 of that year the expedition arrived in Punta de Caxinas, today Punta de Castilla. It was here that the first Mass was celebrated.
The celebrations are an opportunity to «recall the origins of our being Christian,» the nation´s bishops explained in a letter.
