Schedule released for beatification of Pope John Paul I

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The Diocese of Rome will host a prayer vigil the evening before the beatification of Pope John Paul I and his hometown will host the main Mass of Thanksgiving a week later, the office promoting his sainthood cause announced.

Pope Francis is scheduled to beatify the late pope Sept. 4 during a Mass in St. Peter's Square.

Cardinal Angelo De Donatis, the papal vicar for Rome, will preside over the prayer vigil the evening of Sept. 3 in Rome's Basilica of St. John Lateran.

And the official Mass of Thanksgiving will be celebrated in the early evening Sept. 11 in the main square of Canale D'Agordo where Albino Luciani, the future Pope John Paul, was born Oct. 17, 1912.

The bishops of Belluno-Feltre, Vittorio Veneto and Venice -- the dioceses he served before being elected pope in August 1978 -- will concelebrate the thanksgiving Mass, according to the announcement published July 11.

Pope John Paul served only 33 days as pontiff; he died in the papal apartments Sept. 28, 1978, three weeks shy of his 66th birthday.