Pope Francis celebrated the Feast of the Immaculate Conception today in St. Peter’s Basilica in the presence of newly ordained cardinals. During the Angelus, he addressed the faithful, calling on them to follow Mary’s example in complete trust and devotion to God.
Pope Francis highlighted the Annunciation as one of the most significant and beautiful events in human history. He noted that God, the Almighty, through the Archangel Gabriel, sought the cooperation of a young girl from Nazareth to allow the Incarnation of the Son of God, an event that inspires great wonder and emotion.
He compared the Annunciation to Michelangelo’s depiction of the Creation of Adam in the Sistine Chapel, where the finger of the Divine Father touches the human finger. Here, this event is repeated in the blessed moment when the Virgin Mary says “yes,” placing a girl from a small, peripheral village at the center of history. Her response decides the course of human history, offering renewed hope because humanity is placed in good hands.
He emphasized that the Virgin Mary is always at the service of God’s Word, always with the Lord to whom she is completely devoted, and in her, there is nothing that opposes His will.
Pope Francis invited the faithful to question where they place their hope – in money, power, or in God’s Grace – and to seek happiness not in the false models circulating on social media, but in the fact that God loves us in freedom and is always ready to forgive when we repent.
“She is a woman in a small peripheral village and is called for ever to the centre of history: on her answer depends the fate of humanity, which can smile and hope again, because its destiny has been placed in good hands.
Mary, then, as the Archangel Gabriel greets her, is “full of grace” , the Immaculate, entirely at the service of the Word of God, always with the Lord, to whom she entrusts herself completely. In her, there is nothing that resists His will, nothing that opposes truth and charity.
Brothers and sisters, as the opening of the Holy Door of the Jubilee approaches, let us open the doors of the heart and the mind to the Lord. He is born of Mary Immaculate: let us implore the intercession of Mary. And I will give you a piece of advice. Today it is a good day to decide to make a good Confession. If you cannot go today, this week, until next Sunday, open your heart and the Lord will forgive everything, everything, everything. And so, in Mary’s hands, we will be happier.”
After the Angelus, he called on the faithful to join him in prayer for the people of Nicaragua, for peace in Ukraine, in the Middle East, in Myanmar, and in Sudan. He also called for the death penalties in the USA to be changed, urging believers to ask the Lord to save the lives of these people:
“Today, it comes to my heart to ask you all to pray for the prisoners who are on death row in the United States. I believe there are thirteen or fifteen of them. Let us pray that their sentence be commuted, changed. Let us think of these brothers and sisters of ours and ask the Lord for the grace to save them from death.”
Pope Francis at Angelus, December 8th, 2024
