Pope Leo: Blessed Virgin Mary, watch over this humanity

Within 100 years of the proclamation of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception, the tradition of sending flowers to the statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the Piazza di Spagna in Rome had begun with Pope Pius XII. A few years later in 1958, Pope Saint John XXIII went to Piazza di Spagna and placed a basket of white roses at the foot of the statue.

Continuing this decades-old practice started by his predecessors, Pope Leo XIV marked 8 December—the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception—with a visit to the Piazza di Spagna.

A moment for Mary

As the Holy Father arrived in the Piazza di Spagna, the choir and assembly sang a Marian hymn entitled “You rise more beautiful than the dawn”. The Vicar of Rome, Cardinal Baldassare Reina and the Mayor of Rome, Roberto Gualtieri, welcomed the Pope as he arrived.

After an opening prayer, Pope Leo offered a bouquet of flowers at the base of the 12 meter (39-foot) tall column of the Immaculate Virgin and the choir prayed the Litany of the Blessed Virgin Mary in song.