During the Regina Caeli prayer on Sunday May 28, 2023, Pope Francis asked the Virgin Mary to accompany the Church as it prepares for the next Ordinary Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, which will be held in October 2023 in Rome. From the US, to Portugal, to the Philippines, Marian shrines around the world will be praying for this event this coming Wednesday, May 31.
“We ask the Virgin Mary to accompany this important stage of the Synod with her maternal protection,” Pope Francis said, as the month of May, dedicated to the Virgin Mary, comes to an end.
According to the General Secretariat of the Synod over 40 episcopal conferences have joined the initiatives. Some of the most important Marian shrines in the world will be participating such as the shrine of Our Lady of Fatima (Portugal), Our Lady of Czestochowa (Poland), Our Lady of Knock (Ireland) and more. In the Philippines, 26 Marian shrines and minor basilicas will be organizing prayers to ask Mary to accompany the Synod. In other countries, like Nicaragua, Malaysia, India, or Bosnia Herzegovina, all dioceses will be participating in this moment.
The Ordinary Assembly of the Synod of Bishops in October is the third and final phase of the synodal process, which the Church has been undertaking since 2021. This process has so far featured a diocesan and continental phase, where Catholic faithful all over the world were able to share and discern where the Holy Spirit is leading the Church today and in the future.
On March 15 the General Secretariat of the Synod issued a statement inviting all episcopal conferences, Marian shrines, and churches to pray on May 31 for the Assembly of the Synod. The prayers are supposed to involve all ecclesial vocations: lay, priests, consecrated life, etc.
This initiative is similar to the chain of prayer involving Marian shrines from around the world, to pray for the end of the pandemic. You can virtually visit all 30 of those shrines here.
And today we celebrate...