Benedict XVI to attend the beatification of Paul VI

Vatican City, 17 October 2014 (VIS) – Benedict XVI will attend the beatification of Paul VI in St. Peter's Square this Sunday, according to the director of the Holy See Press Office, Fr. Federico Lombardi, S.J. The Pope emeritus was made a cardinal by the new blessed, and the ceremony will be attended by another two cardinals created by the pontiff, author of “Populorum Progressio”: Paulo Evaristo Arns, archbishop emeritus of Sao Paulo, Brazil, and William Wakefield Baum, major penitentiary emeritus.

A press conference was held this morning in the Holy See Press Office to present the figure of the new blessed and his relevance to the contemporary Church. The speakers were Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, prefect emeritus of the Congregation for Bishops; Fr. Pierantonio Lanzoni, episcopal delegate for the promotion of the memory of Paul VI in the diocese of Brescia, where the pontiff was born in the town of Concesio in 1897; Fr. Antonio Marrazzo, C.SS.R., postulator of the cause for beatification and Fr. Davide Milani, spokesperson for the diocese of Milan, where Cardinal Montini was archbishop between 1954 and 1963. This afternoon, Cardinal Paul Poupard, president emeritus of the Pontifical Council for Culture and Fr. Angelo Maffeis, president of the Paul VI Institute in Brescia, will speak on Vatican Radio, accompanied by Fausto Montini, Paul VI's nephew.

Thousands of pilgrims will attend the beatification and the events linked to it, the first of which will take place tomorrow, Saturday 18, in the Roman Basilica of the Twelve Apostles, when Cardinal Angelo Scola, current archbishop of Milan, will preside at Vespers. At 10.30 a.m. on Sunday, in St. Peter's Square, the mass of beatification will be celebrated by Pope Francis and at 9.30 a.m. on Monday 20, in the Basilica of St. Paul Outside-the-Walls, Cardinal Angelo Scola will celebrate a mass of thanksgiving for the faithful of the dioceses of Milan and Brescia.