Archbishop Charles J. Chaput, O.F.M. Cap. will be the main celebrant and homilist at the Ash Wednesday Mass at the Cathedral Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul, Wednesday February 14, 2018.
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 14, 2018
12:05 p.m.
Cathedral Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul
18th Street and Benjamin Franklin Parkway
Philadelphia, PA 19103
Catholics in 217 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 2018 Lenten Season begins.
The Cathedral Parish offers the Sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation on weekdays beginning at 11:30 a.m. for 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, a press audio/video mult-box clean feed will be provided in the Cathedral parking lot with multiple HD-SDI video (BNC) and mic/line (XLR) connections. Crews will need a live truck or recording device. Television cameras will not be permitted in the Cathedral. Reporters and still photographers will be permitted in the Cathedral.
Contact:Contact: Kenneth A. Gavin
Chief Communications Officer
215-587-3747 (office)