A 'Worldwide Eucharistic Adoration' will be held on Sunday, 2 June, as part of the Year of Faith, an event that has already attracted four million people. On 15-16 June, the days of "Believing May They Have Life" will include a silent candlelight procession to call attention to the issue of human life and its intangible value.

Vatican City (AsiaNews) - "Thousands and thousands" of cathedrals, monasteries, and parishes will tune in "for the first time in history" on the afternoon of Sunday, 2 June, Rome time, to join Pope Francis in Eucharistic adoration.

The service will begin at 5 pm in St Peter's Basilica in Rome, which corrisponds to 5 am in the Cook Islands, Samoa and Honolulu, and 3 pm in Reykiavik, Iceland. Dioceses in the southern hemisphere such as those in South Africa, Chile and New Zealand will join as well.

Vietnamese dioceses will join Rome at 22 pm local time, whilst all the churches in Korea will join at midnight. In Oceania, the dioceses of Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, as well as Agaña in Guam, will mark the event at 1 or 2 am, 3 June.

Dioceses in the Galapagos Islands and the heart of the Amazon rainforest, as well as the Churches where Catholic are few in numbers like in Norway, Bangladesh, Iraq, Burkina Faso, Russia, Japan, etc, will also tune in to St Peter's Square.

The same will happen to the dioceses of the United States and Canada as well as those of Latin America, from Peru and Argentina to Nicaragua, Colombia, Honduras, Ecuador and Mexico.

All the dioceses of Asia, from India to Taiwan, from Singapore to the Philippines as well Israel, whatever their time zones, will be one with to Rome.

"It will be an hour of prayer full of fellowship and support to the faith of all", a 'Worldwide Eucharistic Adoration' for the Year of Faith, this according to Archbishop Rino Fisichella and Archbishop José Octavio Ruiz Arenas, respectively president and secretary of the Pontifical Council for Promoting the New Evangelization, who presented the event today in the Vatican.

The two prelates also presented a second event, the 'Day Celebrating the Evangelium Vitae', titled 'Believing May They Have Life', centred on the promotion, respect and defence of the dignity of human life.

Pope Francis expressed the intentions for this hour of prayer, this was:

"1. For the Church spread throughout the world and united today in the adoration of the Most Holy Eucharist as a sign of unity. May the Lord make her ever more obedient to hearing his Word in order to stand before the world 'ever more beautiful, without stain or blemish, but holy and blameless.' That through her faithful announcement, the Word that saves may still resonate as the bearer of mercy and may increase love to give full meaning to pain and suffering, giving back joy and serenity."

2. For those around the world who still suffer slavery and who are victims of war, human trafficking, drug running, and slave labour. For the children and women who are suffering from every type of violence. May their silent scream for help be heard by a vigilant Church so that, gazing upon the crucified Christ, she may not forget the many brothers and sisters who are left at the mercy of violence. Also, for all those who find themselves in economically precarious situations, above all for the unemployed, the elderly, migrants, the homeless, prisoners, and those who experience marginalization. That the Church's prayer and its active nearness give them comfort and assistance in hope and strength and courage in defending human dignity."

Equally, the various events associated with the Year of Faith, "which have attracted so far some 4.3 milllion pilgrims," will include a two-day "meeting for the Evangelium Vitae" on 15-16 June. On this occasion, Pope Francis will celebrate Mass on Sunday, 16 June, at 10.30 am with all the "people of life".

The meeting will offer, among other things, a catechesis in various churches of Rome on Saturday morning with the participation of people from 15 different language groups.

The same evening at 8.30 am, a "silent candlelight procession will be held in Via della Conciliazione on the issue of human life and its intangible value. It will end in St Peter's Square with important testimonies. So far, significant groups have pledged their participation, from Italy, USA, Germany, Japan, Hungary, Romania, Spain, France, Canada, New Zealand, Argentina, Great Britain, Belgium, Slovakia, Costa Rica, Portugal and Australia."

"There will be families, bishops' conferences, dioceses, parishes, religious orders, seminarians, humanitarian and health organisations like the Order of Malta, Church movements, university groups, associations ranging from Unitalsi to the Red Cross, and pro-life groups as well as many people interested in the promotion and defence of life unaffiliated with any particular association or religion."

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