VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis is warning his new cardinals to keep the partying to a minimum — and keep their egos in check — when they are formally elevated at a Vatican ceremony next month.
In a letter written to the 20 new princes of the church published Friday in the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano, Francis warned the cardinals to avoid the type of ostentatious festivities that "stun worse than grappa on an empty stomach."
Traditionally, new cardinals are feted with lavish parties, often funded by well-meaning parishioners, in Rome after the ceremony where they receive their red hats. Francis, known for his personal simplicity and disdain for anything fancy, said it was perfectly fine to celebrate but urged his new cardinals to accept a party "with humility..." (continued)
(The Boston Globe) Pope Francis is shaking things up in the Catholic Church to such an extent that many talk about a “Francis revolution.” Yet the single most revolutionary act committed by any pope in at least the last 600 years fell exactly one year ago tomorrow, and it wasn’t Francis who did it.
On Feb. 11, 2013, Pope Benedict XVI used a meeting of cardinals discussing new saints to deliver the stunning announcement that he planned to resign, effective 8 p.m. Rome time on Feb. 28. The news was a total surprise to everyone except a handful of papal intimates, and it set the stage for all the drama that’s followed.
One cardinal said afterward that he sat in the room well after the meeting broke up, still unable to comprehend what had just happened. He played Benedict’s Latin phrasing over and over again in his mind to be sure he’d understood.
Yes, a handful of popes had resigned before, most recently Gregory XII in 1415. The circumstances, however, were so wildly different as to make Benedict’s decision essentially unprecedented – a pope not facing foreign armies or internal schism who decided voluntarily to step aside, while continuing to live on Vatican grounds and pledging “unconditional obedience” to whoever might succeed him.
Francis wins plaudits for his humble nature, but Benedict’s act was arguably the zenith of papal humility. He’s gone from infallibility to near-invisibility, having been photographed just four times since the resignation, most recently at a Jan. 15 musical recital marking his brother’s 90th birthday.
In the immediate wake of the announcement, the game was afoot to identify the “real” reason Benedict quit. While the pontiff cited age and health, some observers wondered if he was so demoralized by the surreal Vatican leaks affair -- which ended in the arrest of his own butler as the mole -- that he couldn’t go on. Others speculated it was a nebulous “gay lobby” in the Vatican that had brought him down.
Most of that ferment circulated in the Italian press, where no conspiracy theory is ever too wild to get a hearing.
Whatever the reasons, we can see more clearly today how Benedict’s abdication prepared the way for the choice of Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Argentina as the new pope.
First, making resignation a live possibility effectively took age and health off the table as voting issues. In the past, conventional wisdom had been that the cardinals would prefer a candidate in his mid-to-late 60s. Older, and they run the risk of a short papacy or one immediately submerged into a health crisis; younger, and the danger is being stuck with one leader for too long.
Resignation provides an exit strategy, either way. If an older candidate gets sick, he can step aside and end the paralysis that comes with a weakened pope. A younger candidate can resign after the creative arc of his papacy is over, making way for a new direction.
Without such a release valve, the cardinals might have hesitated before electing a 76-year-old missing part of one lung, especially after choosing a 78-year-old, in Benedict, who occasionally seemed to lack the energy to get the Vatican under control.
Second, the fact that the cardinals were electing a pope after resignation rather than death changed the psychology of the process.
There was no outpouring of grief and tributes to the deceased pontiff, for the obvious reason that the pope wasn’t dead. There were no vast crowds of mourners in Rome, no appreciative obituaries in the global press, no emotional crescendo of a funeral Mass – none of the forces that can make it more difficult for cardinals to opt for a break with the papacy that has just ended. Eight years ago, the massive “funeral effect” surrounding the death of Pope John Paul II was a hugely important factor in shaping a continuity vote.
Resignation allowed the cardinals to take a more critical view, which helps explain why the 2013 conclave was the most anti-establishment papal election of the last 100 years. In this case the cardinals weren’t rejecting the teaching of Benedict XVI, which most of them admired, but patterns of business management in the Vatican they believed had become corrupt and dysfunctional.
They wanted change and Francis is delivering, perhaps to greater degree than some of them anticipated.
Finally, resignation encouraged the cardinals to roll the dice on a Latin American outsider with no Vatican experience because, frankly, some had in the back of their minds that if the new pope turned out to be a flop, they could come back a few years down the line and pick somebody else.
Catholics traditionally believe the Holy Spirit guides the process of picking a pope. On a more worldly level, however, the prime mover in the chain of events that led to Francis actually was Benedict XVI, the improbable revolutionary, who set the wheels in motion one year ago.
John L. Allen Jr. is a Globe associate editor, covering global Catholicism. His e-mail address is john.allen@globe.com and his Twitter handle is @JohnLAllenJr.
Progress means "lowering oneself" on the road of humility in order to allow God's love to emerge and be clearly seen.
This was the central focus of Pope Francis' homily this morning at
Mass in the Domus Sanctae Marthae chapel, according to L'Osservatore
Romano. The feast of the Annunciation was marked today, as it was moved
from the typical date of March 25, since that fell within Holy Week this
year.
Among the congregation were Sisters of Charity who renewed their
vows, the staff of the Vatican Television Center, staff of the Brazilian
section of Vatican Radio, and longtime Papal photographer, Arturo Mari.
The way of Christian humility rises up to God, as those who bear
witness to it "stoop low" to make room for charity, the Holy Father
reflected.
The Pope said that the road taken by Mary and Joseph to Bethlehem for
the imperial census was a road of humility. There was the humility of
Mary, who "did not understand well," but "[entrusted] her soul to the
will of God." Joseph was humble, as he "lowered himself" to take on the
"great responsibility" of the bride who was with child.
"So it is always with God's love," said Francis, "that, in order to
reach us, takes the way of humility." This was the same way that Jesus
walked, a way that humbled itself even unto the Cross. Pope Francis went
on to say that, for a Christian, "[T]his is the golden rule," according
to which progress and advancement always come through lowering oneself.
"One can take no other road," he said, adding, "if I do not lower
myself, if you do not lower yourself, you are not a Christian."
Pope Francis went on to say, "Being humble does not mean going on the
road," with "downcast eyes." Such was not the humility of Jesus, or his
mother or his foster father, Joseph. The Holy Father underlined that
the way of humility is the one that leads to the triumph of the
Resurrection. "Let us ask God for the grace of humility," he prayed,
"that humility, which is the way by which charity surely passes," for,
"if there is no humility, love remains blocked, it cannot go [forward]."
Persecuted
At his Saturday morning Mass, L'Osservatore Romano reported that the Pontiff spoke about martyrdom.
"To find martyrs we don't need to go to the Catacombs or to the
Colosseum: today martyrs are alive in a great many countries. Christians
are persecuted for their faith. In some countries they cannot carry the
cross: they are penalized for doing so. Today, in the 21st century, our
Church is a Church of martyrs," he said.
Pope Francis began his homily commenting with a quip on the Gospel
passage of St Mark (16:9-15), in which are recounted the appearances of
Jesus to Mary Magdalene, to the disciples of Emmaus and to the Eleven.
"When I read this Gospel it occurs to me that St Mark may not have liked
Mary Magdalen much, since he recalled that the Lord had driven seven
demons out of her, didn't he? It was a question of liking...".
He then presented a reflection on faith: "a grace", and "a gift of
the Lord" which should not be glossed over — and is thus extended "to
the peoples who believe in you", as the Collect of Mass says, for "we
are not attached to a fantasy", but "to a reality we have seen and
heard."
The Pope mentioned the passage from the Acts of the Apostles
(4:13-21) proclaimed in the First Reading. In response to the order
given by the head priests and Pharisees not to speak of Jesus, Peter and
John, "stood firm in the faith" saying, "we cannot but speak of what we
have seen and heard."
Their testimony, he added, "reminds me of our faith. And what is our
faith like? Is it strong? Or is it at times a little like rosewater, a
somewhat watered down faith? When problems arise are we brave like Peter
or inclined to be lukewarm?"
Peter, Pope Francis said, teaches us that "faith is not negotiable.
Among the People of God this temptation has always existed: to downsize
faith, and not even by 'much.'" However, he explained, we must must get
the better of "the temptation to behave more or less 'like everyone
else', not to be too, too rigid", because it is "from this that a path
which ends in apostasy unfolds."
Indeed, "when we begin to cut faith down, to negotiate faith and more
or less to sell it to the one who makes the best offer, we are setting
out on the road of apostasy, of non fidelity to the Lord".
Yet the very "example of Peter and John helps us, gives us strength";
as does the example of the martyrs in the Church's history. It is they
"who say, like Peter and John, 'we cannot but speak'. And this gives
strength to us, whose faith is at times rather weak. It gives us the
strength to carry on living with this faith we have received, this faith
which is the gift that the Lord gives to all peoples".
The Pope ended by suggesting a daily prayer: "Lord, thank you so much
for my faith. Preserve my faith, increase it. May my faith be strong
and courageous. And help me in the moments when, like Peter and John, I
must make it public."
Newly elected Pope Francis I (C),
Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Argentina, walks in the 5th-century
Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore during a private visit in Rome March
14, 2013.
REUTERS/Osservatore Romano
AFP - Pope Francis on Friday hailed predecessor Benedict XVI's
historic resignation as a "courageous and humble act" in a speech to
cardinals in the Vatican.
Francis said Benedict, who stepped down last month, had "lit a flame in the depth of our hearts that will continue to burn".
by Merry Cardinal del Val, secretary of state to Pope Saint Pius X from the prayer book for Jesuits, 1963
O Jesus, meek and humble of heart, Hear me.
From the desire of being esteemed, Deliver me, O Jesus. From the desire of being loved, Deliver me, O Jesus. From the desire of being extolled, Deliver me, O Jesus. From the desire of being honored, Deliver me, O Jesus. From the desire of being praised, Deliver me, O Jesus. From the desire of being preferred to others, Deliver me, O Jesus. From the desire of being consulted, Deliver me, O Jesus. From the desire of being approved, Deliver me, O Jesus. From the fear of being humiliated, Deliver me, O Jesus. From the fear of being despised, Deliver me, O Jesus. From the fear of suffering rebukes, Deliver me, O Jesus. From the fear of being calumniated, Deliver me, O Jesus. From the fear of being forgotten, Deliver me, O Jesus. From the fear of being ridiculed, Deliver me, O Jesus. From the fear of being wronged, Deliver me, O Jesus. From the fear of being suspected, Deliver me, O Jesus.
That others may be loved more than I, Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it. That others may be esteemed more than I, Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it. That, in the opinion of the world, others may increase and I may decrease, Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it. That others may be chosen and I set aside, Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it. That others may be praised and I go unnoticed, Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it. That others may be preferred to me in everything, Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it. That others may become holier than I, provided that I may become as holy as I should, Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.
Vatican City, Oct 29, 2008 / 10:50 am (CNA).- In the presence of thousands of people at St. Peter's Square, Pope Benedict XVI continued his weekly teachings on St. Paul, speaking about the central place of the Cross of Jesus Christ in Paul's preaching. The Cross should teach Christians to renounce their own "superiority" and choose love, the Pope underscored.
The Pope began by noting that Paul's "existence was entirely consumed for souls." In his encounter with Jesus on the road to Damascus, the Holy Father said, Paul "understood that Jesus had died and risen for all and for him also."
"Both were important," Pope Benedict explained. Jesus really died for all, and he also died for me. Once Paul experienced this love "above all in himself," he became a believer and an apostle, the Holy Father added.
For Paul, his new life in Christ was a daily experience that “salvation was 'grace'," Benedict observed. The "gospel of grace, became for Paul the only way to understand the Cross, the reason not only for his new existence, but also the message in his preaching."
The importance of the Cross had an even greater impact than a personal one for St. Paul. The power of the Cross was so great in Paul’s teaching that he saw it as having “fundamental primacy in the history of humanity," Pope Benedict asserted.
Thus, St. Paul’s belief in the primacy of the Cross guided him when he was confronted by the Church in Corinth, where disarray and scandal were present and the community was threatened by internal division, the Holy Father taught. Instead of presenting himself with words or wisdom, Paul came proclaiming the “announcement of Christ crucified."
Benedict XVI then went on to highlight how "the 'stumbling block' and 'foolishness' of the Cross," of which St. Paul, speaks are to be found "in the fact that where there seemed to be only failure, suffering and defeat, there, in reality, is all the power of God's limitless Love."
In his First Letter to the Corinthians, Paul writes, "For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength." The Holy Father explained that the Apostle Paul identifies himself with Christ who loved him and gave himself up for his sins and for those of all. This, Pope Benedict continued, "becomes the paradigm for all of us."
In Paul's Second Letter to the Corinthians, the Pontiff unfolded the way that Paul applies Jesus’ sacrifice through an "admirable synthesis" of the theology of the Cross: Christ died for all and God has reconciled us with him. This "ministry of reconciliation" is relevant for our life, as we must also renounce our own "superiority" and choose love, the Pope said.
"St. Paul renounced his own life and committed himself totally to the ministry of reconciliation, of the Cross which is salvation for us all, Pope Benedict said as he concluded his teaching on St. Paul. “This is something we must also do. We can find our strength in the humility of love and our wisdom in the weakness to renounce, thus to enter into the strength of God. ... We have to mold our lives on this true wisdom, not living for ourselves, but living in faith in the God of Whom we can all say: 'He loved me and gave Himself for me'."
