The Grand Master’s calendar - Winter 2017

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Investiture on January 11, 2017 - Rome Cardinal Edwin O’Brien, along with Cardinals Blase J. Cupich (to his left) and Donald Wuerl, respectively Archbishops of Chicago and Washington D.C., as well as the Governor General of the Order, Agostino Borromeo, and the Chancellor Alfredo Bastianelli. Behind them, the new members: Father John Bateman (Secretary of the Grand Master, at the top left in the picture), Father Austin Vetter, the Very Reverend Father Peter Harman, rector of the Pontifical North American College in Rome, and Father John Cush. Copyright: PNAC Photo Service

In November, the Grand Master celebrated two Investiture ceremonies in the United States: on November 5 in Boston and on November 18 in New York. On December 3 in Anagni (Italy), Cardinal O’Brien received the International Boniface VIII Prize “... for a culture of Peace”, City of Anagni 2016 and the International Prize “Misericordes sicut Pater” for his work as Grand Master of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre and his intense episcopal activity.

Again in the United States in December, the Grand Master presided at Mass in Shreveport, Louisiana, for the 150th anniversary of the apparition and the miracle of Saint John Berchmans, a seventeenth century Belgian Jesuit who appeared supernaturally to a dying American novice who was then miraculously healed. During the liturgy it was possible to venerate the relic of the heart of the Saint. On that occasion, he met a delegation of members of the Order.

On his return to Rome, Cardinal O’Brien participated in the celebrations of the Christmas season in the Vatican with the Holy Father. After the holidays, he celebrated the Investiture of four new members of the Order at the North American Pontifical College in Rome on January 11 in the presence of Cardinal Blase Joseph Cupich from Chicago and Cardinal Donald William Wuerl from Washington D.C., and on January 19, he was one of the co-consecrating bishops at the episcopal consecration ceremony of Msgr. Adam Parker.

In the coming months, the Grand Master will celebrate Investiture ceremonies in Sweden (11 February), in Palermo (February 18), and South Africa (March 18).


(January 30, 2017)