Catholics throughout the Philadelphia region mark the beginning of Lent

Bishop John J. McIntyre, Auxiliary Bishop of Philadelphia, will be the principal celebrant for Ash Wednesday Mass at the Cathedral Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul. Reverend Gerald Dennis Gill, Rector and Pastor of the Cathedral Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul, will be the homilist.

Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of the Season of Lent for Christians throughout the world. Lent is a 40-day penitential time of prayer, fasting and almsgiving from Ash Wednesday through Holy Thursday in preparation for the Easter celebration.

Wednesday, February 10, 2016
12:05 p.m.
Cathedral Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul
18th Street and Benjamin Franklin Parkway
Philadelphia, PA 19103

Catholics in 219 parishes across the five-county Archdiocese will attend Mass or a Liturgy of the Word and receive blessed ashes on their foreheads, marked in the sign of a cross, reminding them to repent and believe in the Gospel as the 2016 Lenten Season begins.

Beginning next week, the Cathedral Parish will offer the Sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation each Wednesday evening beginning at 7:00 p.m. for the duration of the Lenten Season in addition to other scheduled times. Likewise, individual parishes throughout the Archdiocese may have alternative dates and times for this Sacrament in addition to already scheduled times.                                            

The Bishops of the United States prescribe, as a minimal obligation, that all persons who are fourteen years of age and older are bound to abstain from eating meat on Ash Wednesday, all the Fridays of Lent and Good Friday. Further, all persons eighteen years of age and older, up to and including their fifty-ninth birthday, are bound to fast by limiting themselves to a single full meal on Ash Wednesday and on Good Friday, while the other two meals on those days are to be light.

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Editor’s Note: For Ash Wednesday Mass in the Cathedral, an audio and video mult-box feed will be provided. Crews will need a bnc connector and recording deck or a live truck. Television cameras will not be permitted in the Cathedral. Reporters and still photographers will be permitted in the Cathedral.

Contact:

Jhoselyn Martinez
Communications Specialist
215-587-3747 (office)