Vatican counts down to launch pope’s message in satellite

POPE Francis’ message of hope and peace for the troubled world is about to lift off into space.

The Spei Satelles, Latin for “Satellites of Hope,” will carry a record of the Pope’s Statio Orbis of March 27, 2020—held at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic—into orbit around the earth.

The SpeiSat 3U cube satellite (cubsat) will launch on June 10 from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, which will place it in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) at an altitude of 525 kilometers.

Peaceful payload

THE cubesat—about the size of an American football—will house a nanobook version of Pope Francis’s Why book containing images and words from the Statio Orbis.

The nanobook that was created by the Polytechnic University of Turin, is about the size of the tip of a pen, and can only be read by highly-advanced nanotechnology reading devices.

Yet, anyone with an amateur UHF-band radio can pick up a broadcast beamed from the satellite on 437.5 MHz to hear excerpts from the pope’s book as it passes overhead.

Hope and action

THE initiative also offers an invitation for people to get involved, and live out the Gospel message of hope in their own lives.

According to a press release, the website www.speisatelles.org gives people the chance to follow the mission’s progress, and have their name inscribed in a dedicated memory chip aboard SpeiSat.

“In order to obtain a virtual boarding pass, those interested will be asked to pledge to do a work of mercy on behalf of peace and hope,” read the statement. “Each person involved can, thus, become a concrete seed of hope in their daily lives.”

The satellite could potentially stay in orbit for up to 12 years, but the radio transmitter will continue to broadcast for only six months to a year due to batteryinduced limitations.

Representation of the nanobook

Prophetic icon of hope

THE headquarters of Vatican News-Vatican Radio hosted a press conference on Monday to present the initiative, exactly three years after the momentous papal prayer was held in St. Peter’s Square.

PALM SUNDAY A boy holds a palaspas (palm fronds) next to a lechon stall outside the Our Lady of Light Parish in Cainta, Rizal. Palm Sunday is a Christian feast that falls on the Sunday that signals the start of the Holy Week that ends on Easter Sunday. The feast commemorates Christ’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem and being greeted by the people waving palm branches. It is a reminder of the welcoming of Jesus into the people’s hearts and of their willingness to follow him. BERNARD TESTA

Posters near Vatican urge pope to stop Latin Mass crackdown

ROME—Posters calling on Pope Francis to stop his crackdown on the old Latin Mass were plastered near the Vatican last week, in the latest display of conservative opposition to the pontiff.

The posters featured images of Pope Benedict XVI and St. John Paul II and quoted from their texts speaking positively about the old rite, which Francis has sought to restrict.

The posters were put up primarily in the Prati residential neighborhood near St. Peter’s Square.

They were referring to Francis’s decision in 2021 to overturn one of Benedict’s signature liturgical decisions and reimpose restrictions on celebrating the old Mass.

Francis said he had to act because the spread of the old rite was dividing parishes.

He said Benedict’s decision to liberalize its use in 2007 had been exploited by people opposed to the modernizing reforms of the Second Vatican Council, the 1960s meetings that allowed for Mass in the vernacular, not just Latin.

The poster initiative, which is due to last 15 days, was organized by a group of pro-Latin Mass activists and bloggers who said they feared Francis’s ultimate aim was to forbid the ancient rite entirely.

After Francis’s initial decree restricting the celebration, the Vatican’s liturgy office has issued two subsequent clarifications making it tougher to celebrate it widely.

In a statement, the traditionalist groups said they were being unjustly marginalized and rejected by the Catholic hierarchy for merely expressing their steadfast faith.

They said they were taking action “out of love for the pope, so that he might be paternally opened to understanding those liturgical peripheries that no longer feel welcome in the church.”

The initiative was a reflection of the growing opposition to Francis from some traditionalist quarters in the Catholic Church who remain nostalgic for the doctrinaire papacy of Benedict.

While only a fraction of Catholics go to old Latin Masses, Francis’s crackdown has become a rallying cry for other conservatives opposed to his progressive bent.

The Vatican’s Dicastery for Communication—the parent organization of Vatican News—is promoting the initiative in collaboration with the Italian Space Agency, the National Research Council, the Polytechnic University of Turin, the Instituto para el Diálogo Global y la Cultura del Encuentro, the Salesian University Institute Venice, and the Digital Apostolate of the Archdiocese of Turin.

Fr. Luca Peyron, who leads the Digital Apostolate of Turin, told reporters that the SpeiSat carries a prophetic message of hope, spread through the marvels of advanced technology.

“Even though the nanobook cannot be read with the naked eye,” he said, “it will be there, orbiting our planet. It, thus, becomes a sign and an icon, just like Pope Francis as he stood alone in that empty St. Peter’s Square.” Devin Watkins/Vatican News