Christians around Chicago area start Holy Week with Palm Sunday services
Christians in Chicago and around the world on Sunday marked the start of Holy Week with Palm Sunday.
At Holy Name Cathedral on the Near North Side, Blase Cardinal Cupich led the faithful in the annual procession of Palm Branches.
In a relatively rare phenomenon this year, Palm Sunday, Holy Week, and fall on the same dates for the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches. Greek Orthodox and other Eastern Orthodox churches around the Chicago area also held Palm Sunday services on Sunday morning.
Palm Sunday is also commemorated in Protestant churches on the same schedule as the Roman Catholic Church.
Palm Sunday commemorates Jesus Christ's triumphant entry into Jerusalem the week before His crucifixion that Friday, followed by the Resurrection of Christ on Easter Sunday.
For Palm Sunday services, the faithful hold palm branches in homage to Jesus' followers, who covered His path in palm fronds that day that He entered Jerusalem.
In the Vatican on Sunday, Pope Francis made an in-person appearance before the crowd at St. Peter's Square — in another reassuring sign of his recovery from a life-threatening battle with double pneumonia.
