Romana

On March 23, the anniversary of the death of Bishop Álvaro del Portillo, Masses were celebrated in suffrage for the first successor of St. Josemaria in Rome and many other cities throughout the world.

In Colombia, because of calendar problems, some of the Masses were held on days other than the 23rd. In the Cathedral of Bogotá, for example, the Mass for Don Alvaro was celebrated on the 24th, as were those in Medellin and Barranquilla; in Bucaramanga, it was held on the 21st, in Cali, on the 28th; and in Manizales and Cartagena of the Indies, on the 23rd.

In Paris, Msgr. Antoine de Rochebrune, Vicar of the Prelature in France, presided over a Eucharistic concelebration for the soul of Bishop del Portillo on Saturday the 24th in the chapel of the Miraculous Medal (on the rue du Bac), a Marian invocation to which St. Josemaria had great devotion. Several hundred faithful took part. In the parish of St. Pantaleon, in Cologne, the Regional Vicar of the Prelature for Germany, Msgr. Christoph Bockamp, the pastor, Msgr. Peter von Steinitz, and a representative of the Archdiocese, Msgr. Günter Assenmacher, concelebrated.

A Mass for the eternal repose of Don Alvaro was held in the parish of St. Michael (Lane Cove), in Sydney. The principal celebrant was Msgr. George Rossman, Regional Vicar of Australia and New Zealand. He was joined by a good number of priests of the Prelature and others from the Archdiocese of Sydney.