The addition of a new feast to the universal calendar – Our Lady of Loreto on December 10 – is a reminder of the growing Marian enrichment of the Roman Missal.
Pope Francis famously began his pontificate with a visit to the Madonna Salus Populi Romani at St Mary Major in Rome, and he visits the icon on the occasion of every papal trip. So that he would honour the “flying” house of Loreto seems both endearing and fitting.
The new calendar after Vatican II moved, subtracted and enhanced some Marian feasts. For example, St John XXIII chose to open the Second Vatican Council on the feast of the divine maternity of Mary (October 11). That no longer exists, but was transferred and given a major upgrade; it’s now Mary, Mother of God, and completes the octave of Christmas on January 1. (October 11, by the way, is now the feast of St John XXIII.)
