As each year at the beginning of Lent, Pope Francis and his advisors will dedicate several days to participate in a series of spiritual exercises.
Due to the pandemic they will be performed individually rather than as a group, and take place in the Vatican. They began on Sunday afternoon and will continue until Friday.
Pope Francis introduced the practice of holding the spiritual exercises outside of the Vatican. Previously his team shared a bus to travel to the outskirts of Rome to a house run by the Society of St. Paul.
For nearly five days they stayed in isolation, meditating and listening to the reflections of a preacher, although they weren't always easy to understand, not even for the Pope.
POPE FRANCIS
It made me laugh when you said someone in only reading the titles of the meditations, couldn't understand what the goal was. I was also a little disoriented in the first meditation, but later I understood the message. Thank you.
The last time Pope Francis carried out the spiritual exercises here was in 2019. In 2020 he stayed in the Vatican due to a cold, although the Holy See said it was not coronavirus. In 2021 and 2022, the trip was suspended as a safety measure against COVID-19.
JRB
TR: JM
