VATICAN CITY, DEC. 22, 2011 (Zenit.org).- The Vatican published the list of liturgical celebrations that will be presided over by Benedict XVI during the Christmas period.
On Saturday, Christmas Eve, he will celebrate the Christmas Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica, starting at 10 pm.
On Christmas day, at noon, from the central balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica he will deliver his Christmas message and give the traditional blessing «urbi et orbi» (to the city of Rome and the world).
On Jan. 1, the solemnity of Mary, Mother of God, and the World Day of Peace, the Pope will preside over Mass in St. Peters’s Basilica at 9:30 am.
He will also celebrate a Mass in St. Peter’s on Jan. 6, the feast of the Epiphany. During that Mass he will perform episcopal ordinations, consecrating two bishops: Monsignor Charles Brown, the newly appointed nuncio to Ireland, who will be titular archbishop of Aquileia; and Monsignor Marek Solczyński, nuncio to Georgia and Armenia, who will become the titular archbishop of Mauritania.
The final celebration in this period will be the Feast of the Baptism of Our Lord, on Jan. 8, which will be held in the Sistine Chapel, where the Pope will also baptize a group of children.
