| Description: | Archbishop Charles J. Chaput, O.F.M. Cap., Archbishop of Philadelphia will celebrate Mass and distribute ashes on Ash Wednesday at the Cathedral Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul. Ash Wednesday signifies the beginning of Lent for Christians throughout the world. Lent is the penitential season of prayer and sacrifice lasting from Ash Wednesday through Holy Thursday in preparation for Easter.
The Bishops of the United States prescribe as minimal obligation, that all persons who are fourteen years of age and older are bound to abstain from eating meat on Ash Wednesday, on all Fridays of Lent and on Good Friday. Further, all persons eighteen years of age and older, up to and including their fifty-ninth birthday, are bound to fast by limiting themselves to a single full meal on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday, while the other two meals on those days are to be light. |
| Date: | Wednesday, February 22, 2012 |
| Time: | 12:05 p.m. |
| Location: | Cathedral Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul, 18th Street and Benjamin Franklin Parkway, Philadelphia |