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The Christmas Eve Midnight Mass is an annual tradition at St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City in Rome, Italy. It is presided over by Pope Francis and this year, they are allowing people to attend in person. But if you can’t be there in person on December 24, here is what you need to know about the TV time and channel, plus what you can expect from the service.
The Television Broadcast
NBC has been the broadcast home for the annual Christmas Eve Mass for decades. The broadcast traditionally begins at 11:30 p.m. Eastern and Pacific times and runs until 1 a.m., which is 10:30 to midnight central time.
Celebrants who have the WGN network on their cable package can also watch the midnight mass out of the Archdiocese of Chicago, conducted by Cardinal Blase Cupich. It actually airs at midnight central time and will be streaming on the Catholic Chicago YouTube channel.
There is also a live stream of several Christmas Eve and Christmas Day masses on the Youtube channel for St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City. There is a 5:30 p.m. Eastern familiy mass on Christmas Eve, a midnight mass as Christmas Eve rolls into Christmas Day and also services at 10:15 a.m. and 4 p.m. Eastern on Christmas Day.
The Pope’s Pre-Christmas Message
On the Vatican’s official website, Pope Francis posted a message in anticipation of the holiday season and the 55th World Day of Peace, which is January 1, 2022.
He wrote:
“How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of the messenger who announces peace” (Is 52:7).
The words of the prophet Isaiah speak of consolation; they voice the sigh of relief of a people in exile, weary of violence and oppression, exposed to indignity and death. The prophet Baruch had wondered: “Why is it, O Israel, why is it that you are in the land of your enemies, that you are growing old in a foreign country, that you are defiled with the dead, that you are counted among those in Hades?” (3:10-11). For the people of Israel, the coming of the messenger of peace meant the promise of a rebirth from the rubble of history, the beginning of a bright future.
Today the path of peace, which Saint Paul VI called by the new name of integral development, remains sadly distant from the real lives of many men and women and thus from our human family, which is now entirely interconnected. Despite numerous efforts aimed at constructive dialogue between nations, the deafening noise of war and conflict is intensifying. While diseases of pandemic proportions are spreading, the effects of climate change and environmental degradation are worsening, the tragedy of hunger and thirst is increasing, and an economic model based on individualism rather than on solidary sharing continues to prevail. As in the days of the prophets of old, so in our own day the cry of the poor and the cry of the earth constantly make themselves heard, pleading for justice and peace.
In every age, peace is both a gift from on high and the fruit of a shared commitment. Indeed, we can speak of an “architecture” of peace, to which different institutions of society contribute, and an “art” of peace that directly involves each one of us. All can work together to build a more peaceful world, starting from the hearts of individuals and relationships in the family, then within society and with the environment, and all the way up to relationships between peoples and nations.
The Pope went on to outline his three-prong approach for peace: “dialogue between generations,” “education as a factor of freedom, responsibility and development”, and “labor as a means for the full realization of human dignity.”
The 2021 Christmas Eve Mass at the Vatican airs Friday, December 24 at 11:30 p.m. Eastern and Pacific times on NBC.
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