The Dialog

By The Dialog

Bishop Malooly has released the following statement March 13 on the occasion of the election of Pope Francis:

“It was with great joy that I heard the news that our cardinals, inspired by the Holy Spirit, have elected Pope Francis to guide the Catholic Church as the Vicar of Christ.

“I ask the people of Delaware and Maryland’s Eastern Shore to join me, and Catholics around the world, in prayer for Pope Francis, that God will bless this new successor to St. Peter. We are confident that with God’s help, Pope Francis will have the grace and strength to lead our church in these times of challenge.”

By Cindy Wooden

Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY — Seated under Gian Lorenzo Bernini’s statue “Chair of St. Peter,” which celebrates the teaching authority of the pope, more than 100 cardinals gathered March 6 to pray as they prepared to elect a successor to Pope Benedict XVI.

The cardinals began their prayer in St. Peter’s Basilica with the recitation of the rosary in Latin, but with the announcement of the glorious mysteries in Italian.

Although space was limited in front of the Altar of the Chair, the cardinals invited the public to join them.

Cardinal Francis E. George of Chicago arrives for a prayer service with eucharistic adoration in St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican March 6. Also pictured are Cardinals John Olorunfemi Onaiyekan of Abuja, Nigeria, center, and Cardinal Telesphore Toppo of Ranchi, India, right. (CNS photo/Paul Haring)

Singing the eucharistic hymn “Jesus, Dulcis Memoria,’ the cardinals began a period of eucharistic adoration. The first verse of the hymn in English is: ‘Jesus, the very thought of thee with sweetness fills the breast! Yet sweeter far thy face to see and in thy presence rest.”

Then they knelt in silent adoration.

After five full minutes, they began evening prayer, led by Cardinal Angelo Comastri, archpriest of the basilica.

The reading was from St. Paul’s Letter to the Philippians: ‘Work out your salvation with fear and trembling. For God is the one who, for his good purpose, works in you both to desire and to work.”

Among the petitions, the cardinals prayed that God, who had given Christ as the shepherd for his flock, always would ensure his people had the obedient and diligent pastors they need.

The prayer service ended with eucharistic Benediction.

By Carol Zimmermann

Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY — After completing their third pre-conclave meeting, the College of Cardinals still had not announced a date for the conclave. Instead, they used the March 4 and 5 meetings to discuss needs of the church.

Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, the Vatican spokesman, could not give specific details of the discussions because he is bound by an oath of secrecy to give only general information. He said March 5 the subjects were “broad and varied,” and included “the activity of the Holy See and its various dicasteries, their relationships with the bishops, the renewal of the church in the light of the Second Vatican Council, the situation of the church and the needs for new evangelization in the world, including in different cultural situations.”

Cardinal Bechara Rai, Lebanon’s Maronite Patriarch, and Argentine Cardinal Leonardo Sandri, prefect of the Congregation for Eastern Churches, arrive for a general congregation meeting in the synod hall at the Vatican March 5. The world’s cardinals are meeting for several days in advance of the conclave to elect the new pope. (CNS photo/Paul Haring)

He noted that by the end of the March 5 session, 33 cardinals “from every continent” had addressed the group. The meeting was attended by 148 cardinals.

Although he said the cardinals made “no decision” about the start of the conclave, there was a presentation that day about the modifications Pope Benedict XVI made to the conclave rules, allowing the cardinals to begin a conclave less than 15 days after the end of a pontificate.

“I did not hear them propose any specific day for voting on the date” for the conclave to begin, Father Lombardi said. “I believe that it is premature to guess the date.”

He also noted that the conclave date is “a theme that is open. The congregation of cardinals is still determining how long it will need to make adequate preparations for a decision as important as a conclave. They don’t want to rush things,” he added.

Father Lombardi also announced that the Sistine Chapel, where the conclave will take place, was officially closed to tourists beginning the afternoon of March 5 so workers could begin preparing it. The major work involves putting in a false floor so there are no steps, then putting in tables and chairs for the cardinals. Two stoves will be installed: one to burn ballots and the other to burn chemicals to create different colored smoke to let the public know if a pope was selected or not.

During the conclave, the cardinals will use three urns for the ballots. Video images of the urns, commissioned by the Vatican for the 2005 conclave, were shown to reporters during the March 5 news conference.

One urn is for the ballots cast in the Sistine Chapel, another is for ballots cast in the Domus Sanctae Marthae by cardinals too ill to go to the chapel. Once those ballots are counted, they will be placed in the third urn and carried to the stove for burning.

As of March 5, 110 cardinal electors had arrived in Rome, Father Lombardi announced.

The cardinals who had not arrived do not need to be present in order for the college to vote on a day to begin the conclave, provided the other cardinals know they will arrive by the starting date.

The five electors yet to arrive were Cardinals Antonios Naguib, former Coptic Catholic patriarch; Karl Lehmann of Mainz, Germany; Jean-Baptiste Pham Minh Man, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam; Kazimierz Nycz of Warsaw, Poland; and John Tong Hon of Hong Kong.

Father Lombardi said the cardinals who have yet to join the other cardinals had personal reasons for their delay but plan to arrive soon.

The cardinals met twice March 4. Arriving only in time for the afternoon session were Cardinals Bechara Rai, Maronite patriarch; Joachim Meisner of Cologne, Germany; Rainer Maria Woelki of Berlin; Dominik Duka of Prague; and Theodore-Adrien Sarr of Dakar, Senegal.

At the March 5 morning session, two cardinal electors joined: Cardinals Antonio Maria Rouco Varela of Madrid and Zenon Grocholewski, prefect of the Congregation for Catholic Education.

Father Lombardi said March 4 that only two cardinals — Indonesian Cardinal Julius Darmaatmadja, the 78-year-old retired archbishop of Jakarta, and Scottish Cardinal Keith O’Brien, 74, who retired as archbishop of St. Andrews and Edinburgh after being accused of sexual misconduct — have formally informed the Vatican that they will not attend the conclave

The cardinals also accepted a proposal to conduct an evening prayer service March 6 at the Altar of the Chair in St. Peter’s Basilica, presided by Cardinal Angelo Sodano, dean of the College of Cardinals.

“The cardinals hope to give a good example of the call to the whole church to live in prayer this time of preparing for the important moment of electing a pope,” Father Lombardi said.

During the second day of pre-conclave gatherings, the cardinals also thanked Pope Benedict XVI for his “tireless work’ and example of ‘generous pastoral concern.’

The telegram, dated March 5, was signed by Cardinal Sodano and sent on behalf of all the cardinals present.

The Vatican said 4,432 journalists had requested accredited just for the interregnum and conclave by March 4; they join some 600 reporters, photographers and videographers accredited to the Vatican permanently. The media represent 1,004 outlets from 65 countries and work in 24 languages, Father Lombardi said.

By Cindy Wooden

Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY — After Pope Benedict XVI officially became pope emeritus, he ate dinner, watched the television news and strolled through the lake-view rooms of the papal villa at Castel Gandolfo.

Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, Vatican spokesman, said he spoke March 1 with Archbishop Georg Ganswein, the retired pope’s secretary, who said the mood in the villa after the pontificate ended was “relaxed” and his boss slept well.

Vatican workers seal the doors leading to the pope’s private apartment in the Apostolic Palace at the Vatican Feb. 28. Pope Benedict XVI ended his reign pledging unconditional obedience to whoever is elected to succeed him. (CNS photo/L’Osservatore Romano via Reuters)

After watching two news programs, Pope Benedict expressed his gratitude to the media, because he said the coverage of his last day as pope helped people participate in the event, Father Lombardi said.

The papal secretary said Pope Benedict celebrated Mass at 7 a.m. March 1 as normal, read his breviary, had breakfast and then began reading more of the messages he had received in the last days of his pontificate. He expected to stroll through the villa gardens, praying his rosary, in the afternoon.

Meanwhile, back at the Vatican, officials from the College of Cardinals had a series of tasks to perform at the beginning of the “sede vacante,” the period when there is no pope.

The most symbolic tasks were carried out by Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the camerlengo or chamberlain of the Holy Roman Church, and his assistants. During the sede vacante, the chamberlain is charged with administering and safeguarding the temporal goods of the church.

Gathered with others in the offices of the “apostolic chamber,” Cardinal Bertone asked the time. At 8 p.m. exactly he was handed a “ferula,” a red velvet-covered scepter, as a sign of his authority. The cardinal led the staff in a brief prayer to God: “Give your church a pope acceptable to you.”

Carrying the ferula, he and his aides went into the private papal apartments. They made sure the door to the small private elevator was locked, then stretched tape across the elevator door and stamped it with seals.

Withdrawing from the apartment, they dead-bolted the main door with a large key, then strung a red ribbon through the handles. An aide, using a glue gun, sealed the ribbon’s knot.

The next day, Archbishop Pier Luigi Celata, vice chamberlain, went to the seldom-used papal apartments at the Basilica of St. John Lateran, the pope’s cathedral, and sealed those as well, Father Lombardi said.

Cardinal Angelo Sodano, dean of the College of Cardinals, wrote almost immediately after 8 p.m. to Vatican nuncios and other diplomatic representatives around the world, officially informing them of the sede vacante.

In one of his first acts as dean March 1, Cardinal Sodano wrote to each of the world’s 207 cardinals, including those over age 80 and ineligible to vote in a conclave, notifying them of “the vacancy of the Apostolic See because of the renunciation presented on the part of Pope Benedict XVI.”

He also asked them to come to the Vatican to begin the pre-conclave meetings, known as general congregations, March 4 at 9:30 a.m.

The general congregations will continue until all the cardinal-electors, including those under 80, are present in Rome, “and then the College of Cardinals will decide the date to enter into conclave” to elect a pope, he said.

Asked whether Cardinal Sodano was saying that a conclave date would not be set until all the cardinal-electors were present or accounted for, Father Lombardi said the letter “does not have the weight of law,” but he expected the cardinals would not vote on a conclave date until most of them were present and had time to talk and meet formally.

By Sarah Delaney

Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY — Pope Benedict XVI asked some of his closest advisers for guidance on how to restore trust and confidence in the Catholic church’s leadership amid a scandal over leaks of confidential Vatican papers.

Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, Vatican spokesman, said the pope called two extraordinary meetings June 23 to “deepen his reflections” over the leaks and its consequences.

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