Pope Francis will offer midnight mass at 19pm

Pope Francis' midnight mass will begin this year at 19:30 pm, as the Italian government extends the national curfew during the Christmas period.

The pope's traditional Christmas celebration of “Mass during the night”, which takes place in St. Peter's Basilica on December 24, has begun in recent years at 21:30 pm.

For 2020, the start time of mass has been moved two hours earlier to accommodate one of Italy's coronavirus measures: a curfew requiring people to be home between 22pm and 00am, at unless they go to or from work.

Another novelty of 2020 is that Pope Francis will give the blessing of Christmas day "Urbi et Orbi" from the Basilica of San Pietro and not from the loggia on the facade of the church, which overlooks the square.

The celebration of First Vespers by the Pope and the singing of the Te Deum on 31 December for the eve of the solemnity of Mary Mother of God, will take place at the usual time of 17 pm.

Participation in all of Pope Francis' liturgies during the Christmas period will be "very limited," the Vatican press office said.

The liturgical office of the diocese of Rome issued instructions for pastors on December 9, stating that all Christmas Eve masses should be at times that allow people to return home by 22pm.

The diocese stated that the eve mass for the Nativity of the Lord can be celebrated from 16:30 pm onwards on Christmas Eve and the mass during the night can be celebrated as early as 18:00 pm

Since November, Pope Francis has held his Wednesday general audience via live streaming and without the presence of the public, in order to avoid gatherings of people. But he continued to deliver his Sunday Angelus speech from a window overlooking St. Peter's Square, where people follow him wearing masks and keeping a safe distance.

The third Sunday of Advent, also called Gaudete Sunday, was a tradition in Rome for people to bring the baby Jesus figurine from their Nativity set to the Angelus to be blessed by the pope.

For more than 50 years, it has also been a tradition for thousands of young people and their animators and catechists of an Italian association called COR to participate in the Gaudete Sunday Angelus.

This year a smaller group, together with the families of the Roman parishes, will be present in the square on December 13 "as a testimony of the desire to maintain the joy of the meeting with Pope Francis and his blessing on the statuettes during the Sunday Angelus unchanged" COR said.

COR president David Lo Bascio declared in Roma Sette, the diocesan newspaper of Rome, that "the blessing of the Child Jesus has always had the task of reminding children and young people, their families, and in a certain sense the city, that true joy comes from recognizing that Jesus was always born again in our lives ”.

"Today, when we experience all the fatigue, sadness and sometimes pain that the pandemic has caused, this truth appears even more clear and necessary," he said, "so that this 'unadorned' Christmas can allow us to better focus on. he . "