Benedict at Rest

Earlier this year I offered my opinion that P. Benedict XVI’s resignation was valid in spite of his blatherings-on about “active” and “contemplative” aspects of the “Petrine ministry.” But there is also the occasional argument, mostly from the outer reaches of Tradistan, that his resignation was invalid because of some external pressure that would have removed the exercise of his free agency. P. Francis, then, would be interpreted as an anti-pope reigning while the true pope still lived.

Any doubts about the freedom of Benedict’s will should be washed away by the recent publication of Last Testament: In His Own Words, a book-length interview conducted by his long time interviewer Peter Seewald. The interview begins with questions about the Pope Emeritus’s current retirement and recent resignation, and his subject is crystal clear on the internal peace surrounding his decision.

For instance, in the chapter “Quiet Days at Mater Ecclesiae,” the once-Cardinal Ratzinger declares he does not miss the papacy:

Not at all, no! On the contrary, I am grateful to God for lifting this responsibility which I could no longer bear from my shoulders. I am grateful that I am now free humbly to walk with Him, to live among, and be visited by, friends.

He admits that the fear of a lingering death—something experienced in concrete reality with his predecessor—was a minor factor in his decision:

For one thing there is the fear that one is imposing on people through a long period of disability. I would find that very distressing. My father always had a fear of death too; it has endured with me, but lessened.

The next chapter “The Resignation” takes on the subject squarely. He asserts that his decision was made after a long period of internal consideration and with minimal advice from anyone else.

An awareness of its [the decision to resign] responsibility and seriousness called for the most thorough examination, time and again having to examine yourself before God and before yourself; that took place, yes, but not in the sense that it tore me to pieces.

He notes that he wrote his resignation announcement in Latin because his Italian is not perfect, and he wanted to ensure that it would contain no ambiguity or mistakes.

Mr. Seewald asks him point-blank:

Are you at peace with God? 

Indeed, I really am.

And he goes on to ask if that peace extended to the turmoil of the Vatileaks and financial scandals rocking the Vatican before the resignation, and the Pope Emeritus’s response is telling:

I said… that one is not permitted to step back when things are going wrong, but only when things are at peace. I could resign because calm had returned to this situation. It was not a case of retreating under pressure or feeling that things couldn’t be coped with. [emphasis added]

He responds to a more blunt question about blackmail:

That’s all complete nonsense…. But no one has tried to blackmail me. If that had been attempted I would not have gone, since you are not permitted to leave because you’re under pressure…. On the contrary, the moment had—thanks to be God [sic]—a sense of having overcome the difficulties and a mood of peace.

When asked about regret, he denies having any: “No! No, no. Every day I see that it was right.”

And again he denies any illegitimate pressure on him to resign:

I therefore emphasized in my speech that I was acting freely. One is not allowed to go away if one is running away. One cannot submit to coercion. One can only turn away when no one has demanded it. And no one demanded it of me during my time as Pope. No one. It came as a complete surprise to everybody.

That is all more than enough to prove my point. If Benedict is indeed being held under some kind of house arrest by Francis and forced to say all these things, one would expect his answers to be terse or stock, or even to refuse to acknowledge them. His later words about Francis in the book are respectful, but one gets the impression that he is rolling his eyes a bit as he gives them; hardly the tone one would expect from a prisoner. One under compulsion could not show the range of emotion he does in this interview, unless we are going to consider Mr. Seewald to be a talented novelist in addition to a journalist.

The current Roman Pontiff may be unwilling to let his yes be yes and his no be no, but the P. Emeritus has no such difficulty. His tone in the book is one of a man at rest, who is enjoying his final days in peace, who can laugh and tear up when remembering his finals days as pope, and who tires of being pulled into what he now considers other people’s business.

Back when Ratzinger was first announced as the newly elected pope, an academic mentor of mine opined that he will need many prayers, because this man is also an academic and not well suited for the kind of public life that John Paul has made of the papacy. I think he was right, and that the resignation was merely a result of a man better suited for reading, writing, and contemplation having finally exhausted himself. John Paul made the papacy an extravert’s playground, leaving any future introvert popes in the lurch.

When asked about the feeling of God’s nearness, Benedict’s answer goes in an interesting direction:

Of course new insights are opened up again and again. I find this touching and comforting. But one also notices that the depths of the Word are never fully plumbed. And some words of wrath, of rejection, of the threat of judgement, certainly become more mysterious and grave and awesome than before.

Let us pray for our retired pope in his final days, especially that he would be prepared to meet the Judge, and that he will find mercy when his time comes, and rest in peace.

The Curious Case of the Double Papacy

(or, “The Great Majority of Papal Resignations are Null”)

(Jean-Paul Laurens)

Ever since Abp. Gänswein, the Pope Emeritus’ personal secretary, gave a speech last month in which he opined that Benedict XVI had abdicated the Petrine throne without abandoning the Petrine ministry, the rad trads of the Internet have more boldly begun suggesting that Francis is not a real pope at all. An out of context selection from Anne Catherine Emmerich’s prophetic visions was also quickly refurbished to prove the apocalyptic signal of a dual papacy. With every confounding utterance of Papa Bergoglio’s interview-facilitated magisterium, the Catholic on the street becomes more and more susceptible to such scandal.

But of course this conclusion is nonsense. Benedict clearly abdicated, and has repeatedly denied any extenuating pressure that would have invalidated his resignation from the papal throne. Certainly it is confusing to have “active” and “contemplative” participants in the Petrine ministry, but this becomes less confusing once one stops trying to interpret Ratzinger’s theology as if he were a scholastic or traditionalist theologian.

He is a liberal theologian, and always has been.

And as a liberal theologian, he freely uses words and concepts in paradoxical and sometimes contradictory ways. He is not so much of a liberal that he thinks that the papacy can be divided between two persons, and he is using terms like “Petrine ministry” in a non-technical way. Very much in the spirit of Hans Urs von Balthasar—who in The Anti-Roman Feeling split up the structure of the Church amidst the “Realsymbols” of the Petrine (pastoral), the Pauline (inculturation), the Jacobean (traditionalism), and the Johannine (love)—Papa Ratzinger sees truth as a multiplicity of perspectives that can complement one another. If Gänswein can be trusted to be accurately reporting Benedict’s thought, the Pope Emeritus has not remained grasping onto some part of his papal authority, but is incorporating another “Realsymbol” (perhaps the Johannine) under the umbrella of the Petrine ministry, which is greater than the person of the pope, who alone retains the “Realsymbol” of Peter. The Petrine ministry is thus presumably greater than the pontiff himself.

To complain that this is all a great deal of oddball nonsense is of course also accurate. Nobody has ever accused liberal theologians of simplicity, coherency, or even of adhering carefully to the principle of non-contradiction. In opposition to this half-hearted talk of the last few years, the actual announcement by P. Benedict was in fact quite unambiguous:

For this reason, and well aware of the seriousness of this act, with full freedom I declare that I renounce the ministry of Bishop of Rome, Successor of Saint Peter, entrusted to me by the Cardinals on 19 April 2005, in such a way, that as from 28 February 2013, at 20:00 hours, the See of Rome, the See of Saint Peter, will be vacant and a Conclave to elect the new Supreme Pontiff will have to be convoked by those whose competence it is.

That speech was so clear a Thomist could have written it. In a very real way it simply doesn’t matter how the P. Emeritus has tried to rationalize or justify his abdication and his decision to continue wearing the papal white since February 2013. His own words were clear and binding, and he is the Roman pontiff no longer. It is sad to see him descend intellectually further into his liberal past, but hardly surprising.

~

Thomas, an old friend of mine, once spent a few months convincing me to read Hermann Hesse’s Nobel-winning novel The Glass Bead Game. I avoided it for a while, having identified Hesse with the adolescent narcissism of Siddhartha and Beneath the Wheel, but was rather surprised to enjoy it once I started on it. The novel is long and a bit ponderous, but the main conceit it that it takes place in a future European utopia of contemplative learning. The university-state Castalia appropriates a neo-Buddhist style of meditation and applies it to Western classical education, the height of which is the Glass Bead Game: a contemplative aid wherein stylized glass beads represent aspects of the cultural traditions of philosophy, music, art, and science.

The plot, however, revolves around a certain Joseph Knecht, a student of Castalia who rises to become the Magister Ludi, their version of a papal figure. At the end of Das Glasperlenspiel, Knecht reveals his plan to abdicate the Magisterial role, having come to the conclusion that Castalia had long since become so insular and rarified that it now has nothing it can offer the world for its betterment. Knecht decides (possibly via the influence of a Benedictine monastery) to become a mere tutor of one young man, as a sign that he is returning to the work that Castalia was originally formed to do.

As such, Joseph Knecht retained the “ministry” of a magister while resigning as the head Magister. Thankfully for his former Castalian administrators, they did not have to justify the scandal of his resignation for long.

Upon the resignation of Joseph Ratzinger, Thomas and I had many lively discussions about the justifiability of this act, with many references to Hesse’s magnum opus. At times we wondered if Ratzinger might have read this novel, perhaps keeping Knecht’s climactic decision always in the back of his mind as a possible path of escape from an unwanted position of authority. It is well known that he asked John Paul II for permission to resign from the CDF more than once, and he took on the papal robes only with great reluctance.

The following words of Fr. Jacobus in The Glass Bead Game are close echoes to Ratzinger’s belief that a smaller, more spiritually intensified Church is in store for the future:

Times of terror and deepest misery may be in the offing. But if any happiness at all is to be extracted from that misery, it can be only a spiritual happiness, looking backward toward the conservation of the culture of earlier times, looking forward toward serene and stalwart defense of the things of the spirit in an age which otherwise might succumb wholly to material things. (363)

One can comfortably imagine Knecht and Ratzinger retiring together in a small house next to a German lake, waking up each morning to contemplate history and the spiritual life before the mist burns off the water. Joseph and Joseph both bend down to scratch Pushkin’s nape while the tea steeps. Sometimes, perhaps, they stop to consider the voids they left behind, and the lesser men chosen to fill them.

Worth Remembering: Benedict Rebuffed in Germany

Nearly five years ago, on September 29, 2011, Pope Benedict arrived in his native Germany. Most of the bishops lined up to greet him refused to shake his clearly outstretched hand. Cdl. Kasper only grabbed his fingers and gave them a mild oscillation.

One wonders what effect this moment must have had on the German-born pope. Was this a watershed moment for Papa Ratzinger, realizing that his own clerical countrymen despised him? There is something pitiful about this frail old man in white almost magnetically repelling the men in black and red. Even in this low-quality video, you can sense the loneliness on the pope's face.

Benedict XVI's Liturgical Legacy

Yesterday marked the one year anniversary of Benedict XVI's historic resignation of the Roman pontificate. I remember waking up unusually early that morning and deciding to check the Drudge Report on my iPhone before returning to sleep. When the first item was a picture of Benedict I read the headline "Pope Steps Aside" and jumped out of my bed.

Josef Ratzinger is a case study in Hegelian philosophy: he is the synthesis of many unusual contradictions. He rejects the concept of fabricated liturgy in favor of organic development, and yet always favored the entirely reformed liturgy on the grounds that it contributed to the Church as a whole. He advised Sigrid Spath against conversion, but made an exceptional vehicle for Anglicans to enter the Church with no questions. He insisted that the old liturgy was for the entire Church's use, but called it a pastoral accommodation in his book-length interview with Peter Seewald, Light of the World. He favored a "hermeneutic of continuity" between the "pre-Conciliar" and "Conciliar" Catholic Church, and yet never took any concrete steps to demonstrating this continuity; liberals, traditionalists, and practical people never signed on to this outlook, but many drew the ire of Ultramontanists who enforced it as an orthodoxy. Perhaps oddest is his Assisi gathering—admittedly far more tame than the previous two—after his predecessor's events in St. Francis' town irked him near resignation.

Much like his 1988 counter-part, Marcel Lefebvre, Benedict XVI is a quilt of unusual tiles which form a whole difficult to discern.

Offering the 1962 rite in Weimar.

Much like Lefebvre he revived use of the 1962 Missal, although, again like Lefebvre, he missed an opportunity to resuscitate a liturgy more reflective of the Roman tradition. Many traditionalists fawned over Benedict's acceptance of the FSSPX thesis that the "Traditional Latin Mass" was "never abrogated." As I have stated elsewhere here, it was never abrogated in the strict sense, but 1962 was certainly not usable after 1964. The result of Summorum Pontificum was two competing conservative elements, the "neo-conservative" Ultramontanists and the Traditionalists with some variation of the FSSPX agenda. The first group wanted to make 1969 and 2009 the same thing while the other wanted to banish anything beyond the halcyon year of 1962.

Still Summorum has its benefits. While SP proliferated occasional celebrations of the rite of Econe it also caused some circle to begin a serious re-evaluation of the liturgical trends of the last century. More priests celebrated the pre-Pius XII Holy Week last year than when Summorum came out of Rome in 2007. Gregory diPippo of New Liturgical Movement and Rubricarius of the St. Lawrence Press have contributed to the popular education of many in the liturgical reform process and, more importantly, in what treasures have been lost over the years. In a recent post Fr Richard Cipolla gloats over Fr Thomas Kocik's capitulation from "reform of the reform" to the "Traditional Latin Mass," assuming it must be the starting point of liturgical reform. Cipolla may think Kocik has had a breakthrough while I think he has only scratched the surface.

Years must pass before we can evaluate whether or not Summorum Pontificum was a net sum positive for the Catholic Church, and it may well be, but we could certainly say at this point that it did not succeed in meeting Pope Benedict's expectations. Personally I think Benedict wanted the revival of the 1962 rite to accomplish two objectives:

1. to create liturgical continuity between the immediately pre-Conciliar praxis and the current praxis
2. to offer a bridge for the Society of St Pius X to return to canonical standing

The continuity objective, the interest of a very narrow group of theologians heavily invested in the changes of the 1960s, ended the moment Ratzinger resigned. The second flopped when talks broke down in 2011, partly because of Rome's constantly changing criteria for re-integration and partly because the extreme elements of the FSSPX caused internal dissidence.

Pope Benedict looking very shiny.

More relevant to the average Church-goer are Benedict's efforts with the Pauline liturgy. This, more than anything else, illustrates his entire papacy: trying to lead by a few public and inconsistent examples and unwilling to back these efforts with legislation. Early in his papacy there had been some chatter of substantial changes to the Pauline Mass concerning the Offertory, the Sign of Peace, and the number of Eucharistic Prayers. In the end all we got was a new translation in one language. His second Master of Ceremonies, Msgr. Guido Marini, found some very shiny old vestments and paired them with enormous baroque mitres. They even put some extra candles on the altar and celebrated ad orientem in the Sistine Chapel once a year.

These gestures, particularly the ad orientem celebrations, garnered international and mainstream interest, but Benedict never took them any further. At his Masses in the Roman basilicas he still sat in a chair in front of the altar, closing it off from the circle of communication for the first half of Mass. He never celebrated ad orientem at World Youth Day or other major events and so people never became accustomed to it. The Sistine Masses encouraged some fellow reformers of the reform, but few else. The Pauline Mass, as practiced in 95% of parishes today, is the same in 2014 and it was in 1984. Even if legislation mandating ad orientem, Communion on the tongue, or the use of the Roman Canon had been ignored, it would still be on the books for a successor to enforce. Benedict made no such moves. Perhaps most maddening is that Benedict's continuity efforts focused on assimilating the 1962 aesthetic with the modern reality, not on assimilating the Roman tradition and the modern reality. Candles and vestments have a point, but would not a choir arrangement during Vespers send a stronger message than a Roman cope? Would not a real Kiss of Peace be more forceful than a fiddleback chasuble?

As the pope of my youth I will always have a soft spot for Benedict XVI. I attended my first papal audience and first Mass in St. Peter's during his pontificate and became familiar with the Roman liturgical tradition as a result of his work. And yet I cannot help but think that, like Marcel Lefebvre, he did some good yet missed the opportunity to do much.

Papal Coronation Part I: The Entrance, Terce, and Vesting

Given that the Sacred College of Cardinals is to convene next Tuesday to begin the process of electing the new Bishop of Rome, I thought it prudent to start our own series on the traditional rites of Papal Coronation, last used in variation by Paul VI in 1963 and last used in their full integrity by John XXIII in 1958.

The ceremonies are a magnificent display and series of prayers which blend the norms of a Pontifical Mass (Mass celebrated by a bishop) with elements which emphasize and explain the role of the Papacy. Some of these rites are very ancient, as are many of the vestments used, while some are baroque innovations which reflect the political and devotional moods of the Counter-Reformation, a defining era in Catholic history.

Pope Innocent III

The Papal Coronation Office and Mass are votive liturgies, doubles of the first class. This rite may be celebrated on any day outside of the Sundays of Advent, of Lent, the first three days of Pentecost and Easter, Holy Week, Christmas Eve, and Christmas Day. This liturgy may even supersede most holy days. In fact the rubrics demand the Mass and coronation be celebrated on the nearest Sunday or Holy Day. Innocent III was crowned on February 22, the feast of St. Peter's Chair in Antioch, and Paul VI on June 30th, the commemoration of St. Paul. No commemoration is made of the replaced day.

The coronation takes place in St. Peter's basilica. Before the Italian revolution the newly elected Pope would be escorted to the Lateran Cathedral and enthroned immediately, and his coronation would take place at St. Peter's on a different date. This emphasized the two pronged nature of the Petrine ministry: Bishop of Rome and successor of Peter as Prince of the Apostles. If the elected candidate was not yet a bishop, the Cardinal-Bishop of Ostia would consecrate him immediately, in the Sistine Chapel. In some cases though, like Innocent III and many first millennium Popes, the enthronement would take place before the consecration, as bishops would have to be brought to Rome from outside the city. The account of Innocent III's coronation given by Achille Luchaire in Innocent III: Vicar of Christ or Lord of the World? suggests that the consecration occurred at St. Peter's but, in a breach of what we would now consider normal, the Pope said Mass and not the consecrating bishop.

A Greek deacon sings the Gospel at Papal Mass on Mandy
Thursday. Source: newliturgicalmovement.org

The procession into St. Peter's is preceded by the standard servers of Mass, who, when the Pope says Mass, are members of the Papal Household, since abolished by Paul VI. Then follow the Canons of St. Peter's Basilica, then the attending bishops, followed by cardinals in choir dress, then the ministers of the Mass, and finally the Pope, carried on the sedia gestatoria, flanked by two large fans made of ostrich feathers, and surrounded by members of the various Roman honor guards for security. 

John XXIII is carried through St. Peter's Basilica
after Papal Mass

The ministers of Mass are: the Latin and Greek subdeacons, the Latin and Greek deacons—all fully vested according to to their rites, the deacons of honor, the assistant priest, the chaplains, the masters of ceremony, and the celebrant—the Pope. These roles, except for the Greek ministers, would be filled according to one's place in the Roman Curia: remember, this is a Mass said by the Pope and served accordingly by his brethren. The Greek ministers would typically be conscripted from the Byzantine monastery in Rome, which exists to this day.

The Pope, carried on a portal throne called the sedia gestatoria, is vested in alb, amice, stole, cross, cincture, mantum (a very long cope), and mitre. The procession begins in the sacristy, where St. Pius X would have just finished a long drag on his last cigarette, winds down the Scala Regia, and enters the narthex of the Basilica. Here the Pope is set down and the Canons (permanently stationed priests) of St. Peter's Basilica offer obeisance and fidelity to the Pope by kissing his feet.

Blessed Sacrament Chapel of St. Peter's Basilica
source: overheardinthesacristy.net

The procession then enters the Basilica to the blasts of trumpets, a baroque vulgarity if I may say. Although liturgical piety would seem to demand some solemnity, in practice the more recent coronations began and ended with booming applause.

Midway through the Basilica the procession would halt again and the Pope would go to the Blessed Sacrament chapel on the North side for a few minutes of quiet prayer. There are no specific prayers prescribed. This is likely a private practice of the Popes, a moment to ask humbly for Divine guidance, and perhaps some help enduring the long, grueling ceremonies about to ensue.

In the image below you can see just how big and long the mantum, that large cope, actually is. So large that it must be draped over that kneeler, called a faldstool.

Paul VI, wearing the mantum, kneels with Msgr. Enrico Dante during
the Second Vatican Council
source: Washington Times

Traditionally, as this was the first time the Pope appeared to the masses gathered within the Basilica, the choir, more recently called the Sistine Screamers, would sing Tu es Petrus to some polyphonic setting. In the video of John XXIII's coronation the setting was written by Perosi and, as one blogger put it, "massacred" by Msgr. Bartolucci's Sistine Shriekers.

The Pope returns to the sedia gestatoria and is carried, with more vulgar horns set to something masquerading as music, to the altar of St. Gregory the Great in the south transept of the Basilica, to the right of the high altar if one were to look at it oriented.

Altar of St. Gregory the Great, taken by yours' truly

At this altar the Pope once again prays at a faldstool for guidance and then assumes a small throne constructed for Terce and vesting, which at any non-Roman church would have been done in the Lady Chapel. St. Peter's does not have chapels as much as it has an endless maze of altars.

Cardinal Burke in a cappa magna with the Institute of Christ the King

Here the cardinals greet the Pope, kneeling before his throne until the Pope tells them to stands. Eastern Catholic Patriarchs were often allowed to simply genuflect, so as to preserve some level of respect for their offices. The cardinals would be in choir dress, which, before Paul VI's reforms of ecclesiastical dress, meant wearing a long, hooded silk cape called a cappa magna. These were usually twenty feet long. Pius XII shortened them in length by over half and John XXIII promptly undid this policy. The Institute of Christ King seems to prefer for their celebrants' cappae magnae to spread from Tuscany through Sicily.

The chaplain holding the liturgical texts and the candle-bearer approach the Pope who, reading the chants from the book, intones Deus in adiutorium meum intende, the beginning of the third hour of the Divine Office, Terce. The hymn is St. Ambrose's Nunc Sancte nobis Spiritus, of which I have lifted a translation by John henry Cardinal Newman from Wikipedia for your perusal below.

Come, Holy Ghost, Who ever One
Art with the Father and the Son;
Come, Holy Ghost, our souls possess
With Thy full flood of holiness.
In will and deed, by heart and tongue,
With all our powers, Thy praise be sung;
And love light up our mortal frame,
Till others catch the living flame.
Almighty Father, hear our cry
Through Jesus Christ our Lord most high,
Who with the Holy Ghost and Thee
Doth live and reign eternally.

The psalms are festive (excerpts from psalm 118), or, before St. Pius X, normal! The cantors give the dismissal, Benedicamus Domino, as normal, but there is no versicle prayer for the dead, as Mass follows. The Terce from John XXIII's coronation is below. One will note that while Msgr. Bartolucci had laid waste to the instrumental and polyphonic music after just two years as choir director, he had not yet harmed their marvelous singing of plainsong chant.

As always at pontifical Masses, the bishop, or Pope in this case, vests for Mass following the singing of Terce. John XXIII's vesting is not really shown in the video series from which I have taken an extract above. This is likely a courtesy matter. I remember at one of then-Pope Benedict XVI's audiences his assistants would always surround him so as to block him from view whenever he drank water or ate something. I was close enough to see what was happening, though.

The vestments of the Pope are mostly those of a bishop, but with some exceptions and additions. In addition to the alb, that white robe underneath the main vestments, the Pope wears a maddeningly long second alb, or skirt, called a falda,  so as to outdo the cardinals' cappae magnae. The Pope vests with the tunicle and dalmatic, vestments of subdeacon and deacon, then the chasuble, the vestment of the priest. He ties a cincture, a rope, around his waste under the chasuble, to which is attached an odd wad of loose material called a subcinctorum, the significance of which is lost on me even though it dates to the eleventh century or earlier.

Papal vestments of Pius XII. Note the falda rolled into like
a canvas sail, the fanon at the bottom, and the tiara at the top right.
from: Life Magazine

Over his chasuble the Pope puts the fanon, a gold and silver striped shoulder cape which was the forerunner to the amice but, like the maniple, retained use after its practical purpose was adopted by other devices. Originally used to simply cover the neck, the fanon, recently returned to use by Benedict XVI, holds the pallium, in place without damaging the chasuble. While one may say even that practical use is gone, it is a unique vestment to the Papacy and reminds us that the Pope has a unique role in the Church distinct from other bishops. The Pope does not yet assume the pallium, nor does he assume the maniple, that towel-like vestment that goes on the left arm. The Pope's maniple is traditionally embroidered with red and gold threads: red for the blood of the Roman martyrs and gold for the heavenly theology of the Eastern Churches.

The flax torch used during the admonition
to the Pope

The Pope returns to the sedia gestatoria again, imparting his blessing as he passes the congregated faithful, to make the slow move 100 feet northward to the high altar. A lantern burning flax is carried immediately in front of the Pope, symbolizing the evanescence of things in this world. Three times the procession stops and the torchbearer exclaims to the Pope "Pater Sancte, sic transit gloria mundi" ("Holy Father, thus passes the glory of the world"). The last of these addresses would take place before the confessio, the entrance from the ground floor of the Basilica into St. Peter's tomb.

The procession would finally reach the steps leading to the high altar of St. Peter's basilica, where we will leave off for now, as the Mass is about to begin....

Orate Pro Eligendo Papae Novi

1. Come, Holy Ghost, Creator blest,
Vouchsafe within our souls to rest;
Come with Thy grace and heavenly aid
And fill the hearts which Thou hast made.

2. To Thee, the Comforter, we cry,
To Thee, the Gift of God Most High,
The Fount of life, the Fire of love,
The soul's Anointing from above.

3. The sevenfold gifts of grace are Thine,
O Finger of the Hand Divine;
True promise of the Father Thou,
Who dost the tongue with speech endow.

4. Thy light to every thought impart
And shed Thy love in every heart;
The weakness of our mortal state
With deathless might invigorate.

5. Drive far away our wily Foe
And Thine abiding peace bestow;
If Thou be our protecting Guide,
No evil can our steps betide.

6. Make Thou to us the Father known,
Teach us the eternal Son to won
And Thee, whose name we ever bless,
Of both the Spirit, to confess.

7. Praise we the Father and the Son
And Holy Spirit, with them One;
And may the Son on us bestow
The gifts that from the Spirit flow!

Last Words as Bishop of Rome

"Thank you from the heart, dear friends! I am glad to be with you, surrounded by the beauty of Creation. From 8 this evening, I will no longer be Pontiff. I am simply a pilgrim who begins the final stage of his pilgrimage on this earth, but I still wish to, with my heart, with my love, with my prayer, with my reflection, work for the good of the Church and for the common good of mankind. Buona notte!" —Given at Castel Gandolfo

Petrus Romanus: Will the Next Pope Be the Last?

According to the supposed Prophecy of St Malachy
the next and last Pope will, like St Peter, "feed his sheep."
source: 16th century icon of Peter from Mt. Athos

As of late there has been a lot of interest in a prophecy that supposedly predicts the next Pope will be, in either name or deed, Petrus Romanus, Peter the Roman, the last Pope of Rome before the end of the world. As this sort of thing has dynamic potential for the wanton speculation and fear, I will simply post here my response to an inquiry sent by e-mail.

The inquirer asks:

On a slight tangent, my [someone I know] is now convinced the world is going to end or some mumbo jumble like it, since the resignation of a pope is written in some prophecy by some guy (clearly I've not been paying attention). All I heard was Petrus Romanus (which means Peter the Roman?) and something something something...

My response:

12th century Irish bishop, St Malachy
source: wikipedia

You're thinking of the "Prophecy of Popes," by St Malachy, Archbishop of Armagh. These prophecies were actually published in the 16th century, although the saint lived in the 12th, making their historicity somewhat dubious, but not impossible. According to this supposed prophecy Benedict XVI is the penultimate Pope of Rome before the end of the world as we know it. The supposed prophecy gives names or titles which are supposed to correspond to attributes of the then-Pope. For instance the charismatic, intelligent, brilliant, and mystic Pope Pius XII would correspond to "Pastor Angelicus" ("Angel-like Pastor"), John XXIII—who was patriarch of Venice before becoming Pope—would be "Pastor et nauta" ("Pastor and sailor") etc. Benedict XVI's place corresponds to "Gloria Olivae", Glory of the Olive, a reference to the Olivetan Order (Benedict XVI took his name after the monk St Benedict, an Olivetan, and his Papal motto). The next Pope would be Petrus Romanus (Peter the Roman), meaning he would be a fiercely Roman Pope in fighting and uprooting anti-Catholic evils, but eventually meet the last great persecution of the Roman Church, through which he would guide the Church:

" In persecutione extrema Sanctae Romanae Ecclesiae sedebit.  Petrus Romanus, qui pascet oves in multis tribulationibus: quibus transactis civitas septicollis dirvetur, & Iudex tremedus iudicabit populum suum. Finis"

"He will sit [meaning "reign"] during the final persecution of the Holy Roman Church. Peter the Roman, who will feed his sheep through many tribulation, and when these thing are finished the Seven hills [in the City of Rome] will be destroyed and the Tremendous Judge will judge His people. The end."

Wikipedia actually has an accurate page on this topic. It's been getting a lot of traction lately.

Sounds like great stuff. I would not worry about this sort of this too much, though. Our Lord Jesus said "But of that day and hour no one knoweth, not the angels of heaven, but the Father alone." Similarly, all we can really do is make sure we are growing in holiness and in good standing with God. Natural death is a greater possibility than the Apocalypse.

Last Meeting with Clergy of Rome

And a little humor....

Tu Es Petrus

After the somber and penitential Mass of Ash Wednesday, the Sistine Chapel Choir erupted into Palestrina's Tu Es Petrus (Thou Art Peter). The faithful expressed their sorrow in great leaps of joy. The altar boys and concelebrants can barely contain themselves. Starting at 2:36 you can see Archbishop Georg Ganswein, the Pope's former secretary and current administrator of the Papal household, holding back his tears.

"Et ego dico tibi quia tu es Petrus et super hanc petram aedificabo ecclesiam meam et portae inferi non praevalebunt adversum eam. Et tibi dabo claves regni caelorum et quodcumque ligaveris super terram erit ligatum in caelis et quodcumque solveris super terram erit solutum in caelis"

"And I say to thee: That thou art Peter; and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give to thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven. And whatsoever thou shalt bind upon earth, it shall be bound also in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose upon earth, it shall be loosed also in heaven." —Matthew 16:18-19

Pope's Last Sermon

Pope receives ashes at St Peter's Basilica

Venerable Brothers,
Dear Brothers and Sisters!

Today, Ash Wednesday, we begin a new Lenten journey, a journey that extends over forty days and leads us towards the joy of Easter, to victory of Life over death. Following the ancient Roman tradition of Lenten stations, we are gathered for the celebration of the Holy Eucharist. The tradition says that the first statio took place in the Basilica of Saint Sabina on the Aventine Hill. Circumstances suggested we gather in St. Peter's Basilica. Tonight there are many of us gathered around the tomb of the Apostle Peter, to also ask him to pray for the path of the Church going forward at this particular moment in time, to renew our faith in the Supreme Pastor, Christ the Lord. For me it is also a good opportunity to thank everyone, especially the faithful of the Diocese of Rome, as I prepare to conclude the Petrine ministry, and I ask you for a special remembrance in your prayer.

The readings that have just been proclaimed offer us ideas which, by the grace of God, we are called to transform into a concrete attitude and behaviour during Lent. First of all the Church proposes the powerful appeal which the prophet Joel addresses to the people of Israel, "Thus says the Lord, return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning" (2.12). Please note the phrase "with all your heart," which means from the very core of our thoughts and feelings, from the roots of our decisions, choices and actions, with a gesture of total and radical freedom. But is this return to God possible? Yes, because there is a force that does not reside in our hearts, but that emanates from the heart of God and the power of His mercy. The prophet says: "return to the Lord, your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love, and relenting in punishment" (v. 13). It is possible to return to the Lord, it is a 'grace', because it is the work of God and the fruit of faith that we entrust to His mercy. But this return to God becomes a reality in our lives only when the grace of God penetrates and moves our innermost core, gifting us the power that "rends the heart". Once again the prophet proclaims these words from God: "Rend your hearts and not your garments" (v. 13). Today, in fact, many are ready to "rend their garments" over scandals and injustices – which are of course caused by others - but few seem willing to act according to their own "heart", their own conscience and their own intentions, by allowing the Lord transform, renew and convert them.

This "return to me with all your heart," then, is a reminder that not only involves the individual but the entire community. Again we heard in the first reading: "Blow the horn in Zion! Proclaim a fast, call an assembly! Gather the people, sanctify the congregation; Assemble the elderly; gather the children, even infants nursing at the breast; Let the bridegroom leave his room, and the bride her bridal tent (vv.15-16). The community dimension is an essential element in faith and Christian life. Christ came "to gather the children of God who are scattered into one" (Jn 11:52). The "we" of the Church is the community in which Jesus brings us together (cf. Jn 12:32), faith is necessarily ecclesial. And it is important to remember and to live this during Lent: each person must be aware that the penitential journey cannot be faced alone, but together with many brothers and sisters in the Church.

Finally, the prophet focuses on the prayers of priests, who, with tears in their eyes, turn to God, saying: " Between the porch and the altar let the priests weep, let the ministers of the LORD weep and say: “Spare your people, Lord! Do not let your heritage become a disgrace, a byword among the nations! Why should they say among the peoples, ‘Where is their God?’"(V.17). This prayer leads us to reflect on the importance of witnessing to faith and Christian life, for each of us and our community, so that we can reveal the face of the Church and how this face is, at times, disfigured. I am thinking in particular of the sins against the unity of the Church, of the divisions in the body of the Church. Living Lent in a more intense and evident ecclesial communion, overcoming individualism and rivalry is a humble and precious sign for those who have distanced themselves from the faith or who are indifferent.

"Well, now is the favourable time, this is the day of salvation" (2 Cor 6:2). The words of the Apostle Paul to the Christians of Corinth resonate for us with an urgency that does not permit absences or inertia. The term "now" is repeated and can not be missed, it is offered to us as a unique opportunity. And the Apostle's gaze focuses on sharing with which Christ chose to characterize his life, taking on everything human to the point of taking on all of man’s sins. The words of St. Paul are very strong: "God made him sin for our sake." Jesus, the innocent, the Holy One, "He who knew no sin" (2 Cor 5:21), bears the burden of sin sharing the outcome of death, and death of the Cross with humanity. The reconciliation we are offered came at a very high price, that of the Cross raised on Golgotha, on which the Son of God made man was hung. In this, in God’s immersion in human suffering and the abyss of evil, is the root of our justification. The "return to God with all your heart" in our Lenten journey passes through the Cross, in following Christ on the road to Calvary, to the total gift of self. It is a journey on which each and every day we learn to leave behind our selfishness and our being closed in on ourselves, to make room for God who opens and transforms our hearts. And as St. Paul reminds us, the proclamation of the Cross resonates within us thanks to the preaching of the Word, of which the Apostle himself is an ambassador. It is a call to us so that this Lenten journey be characterized by a more careful and assiduous listening to the Word of God, the light that illuminates our steps.

In the Gospel passage according of Matthew, to whom belongs to the so-called Sermon on the Mount, Jesus refers to three fundamental practices required by the Mosaic Law: almsgiving, prayer and fasting. These are also traditional indications on the Lenten journey to respond to the invitation to «return to God with all your heart." But he points out that both the quality and the truth of our relationship with God is what qualifies the authenticity of every religious act. For this reason he denounces religious hypocrisy, a behaviour that seeks applause and approval. The true disciple does not serve himself or the "public", but his Lord, in simplicity and generosity: "And your Father who sees everything in secret will reward you" (Mt 6,4.6.18). Our fitness will always be more effective the less we seek our own glory and the more we are aware that the reward of the righteous is God Himself, to be united to Him, here, on a journey of faith, and at the end of life, in the peace light of coming face to face with Him forever (cf. 1 Cor 13:12).

Dear brothers and sisters, we begin our Lenten journey with trust and joy. May the invitation to conversion , to "return to God with all our heart", resonate strongly in us, accepting His grace that makes us new men and women, with the surprising news that is participating in the very life of Jesus. May none of us, therefore, be deaf to this appeal, also addressed in the austere rite, so simple and yet so beautiful, of the imposition of ashes, which we will shortly carry out. May the Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church and model of every true disciple of the Lord accompany us in this time. Amen!


source: Vatican Radio