Virtual Visits Catholic Holy Sites Online

(CNS photo/Debbie Hill) 

 Destination:  There are several places important to Catholics that are offering some kind of virtual visit or live streaming service. Many of these online sites are also appealing for donations since lockdowns and restrictions have seriously reduced a major source of income from pilgrimages and tourism.

Online Masses may be available at some of these places. Check the individiual websites.

Photo: A worshipper wearing a protective mask lights a candle as she visits the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem's Old City May 26, 2020, the day it reopened after being closed during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Where to go: 

• The Franciscan Custody of the Holy Land oversees 55 sanctuaries in Israel, the Palestinian territories and Jordan. Visitors at www.custodia.org/en/sanctuaries can get a more in-depth look at these sacred places, especially the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem and the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, revered as the site of Jesus’s tomb, in Jerusalem.

• The Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima in Portugal offers a livestream of the chapel and live daily broadcasts of praying the rosary and Mass at www.fatima.pt/en/pages/online-transmissions. The same link also provides a gallery of pictures, videos and “sounds,” including an audio library of Marian hymns.

• The website of the Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi offers a huge list of online opportunities, all in Italian, but still visually enriching, like a livestream of the tomb of St. Francis with an option of sending a prayer petition at www.sanfrancescopatronoditalia.it/web-cam-cripta-di-san-francesco-assisi and a livestream of daily Mass in the basilica at www.sanfrancescopatronoditalia.it/messa-diretta-streaming-oggi.

There is a 360-degree virtual tour of the basilica at www.sanfrancescopatronoditalia.it/basilica/ and of the tomb at www.sanfrancescopatronoditalia.it/visita-virtuale-tomba-san-francesco/. The 13th-century basilica had to be painstakingly restored, including its frescoes by Giotto, after a devastating earthquake in 1997.

• While a special online exposition of the Shroud of 

Turin was held April 11 for prayer and contemplation during the coronavirus epidemic, the recorded event, with commentary in English, can still be found online at www.youtube.com/watch?v=P7BmsSE_4Wk.

Accessibility: Everything is accessible online.  

(Grand) Kid friendly: Watch along with them.

Info: See websites with locations in descriptions.

— Carol Glatz, CNS; Sharon Boehlefeld compiled this story.

Send Destinations ideas to seasonedobserver@rockforddiocese.org