Pope to visit Marian shrine to beatify lay Italians, Spanish priest

Published: 2004-08-17

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope John Paul II will visit a popular Italian Marian shrine to beatify two lay Italians and one Spanish priest. The one-day visit to eastern Italy's Holy House of Loreto Sept. 5 will come just three days before the church's feast day of the birth of Mary. It also marks the pope's second pilgrimage in three weeks. Pope John Paul joined hundreds of thousands of pilgrims in celebration of the feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary on his Aug. 14-15 trip to Lourdes, France. The Holy House of Loreto, located south of the Italian city of Ancona near the Adriatic Sea, is venerated as the home in which the Virgin Mary was born. According to tradition, angels flew the house from Nazareth, Israel, to its current location in Loreto. On Sept. 5 the pope will celebrate an outdoor Mass and beatify three members of Catholic Action, a Christian lay association founded more than 130 years ago.

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