Vatican City, 04 December, 2020 / 4:00 pm (ACI Africa).
Pope Francis has established the global network that promotes his monthly prayer intentions as a Vatican body.
The Holy See press office announced Dec. 3 that he had elevated the status of the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network, formerly known as the Apostleship of Prayer, through a papal decree called a chirograph, issued Nov. 17.
The pope decreed that the network, founded in France in 1844 and focused on the spirituality of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, would now be a papal institution based at the Vatican. It will be known as the “Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network” Vatican Foundation.
Introducing the change, he said that he had taken the step “with the purpose of coordinating and inspiring this spiritual movement so dear to me, providing it with a structure adequate to the times in which we live.”
He noted that in 2018 he had instituted the network as a pontifical society “to underscore the universal nature of this apostleship and the need we all have to pray more, and with heartfelt sincerity.”
