Communio – Page 233 – …bearing with one another in love, making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

Papal apartments, Lateran Basilica sealed

At 8pm Rome time on 28 February 2013, the Chair of Saint Peter went empty. The period of time is called sede vacante, the empty see; that is, the Holy Roman Church has no visible head on earth. There is no pope.

Until the time the cardinal electors gather for the Conclave to elect the next bishop of Rome, the head of the Apostolic Chamber, the Carmerllengo (chamberlain), Tarcisio Cardinal Bertone, SDB, will lead a small group of people in closing the papal apartments, and the private elevator.

Prayers were prayed, and tasks identified. Doors were locked and a ribbon with wax seal secured the papal area.

The Camerlengo is the acting head of state and is the Church’s administrator of the material holdings of the Church. This office is in distinction to the Dean of the College of Cardinals, Angelo Cardinal Sodano, who cares for the spiritual well-being of the cardinals and chairs the meetings prior to the conclave.

The Vatican embassies also received communication at 8pm saying that any diplomatic necessity ought to be addressed to Archbishop Giovanni Becciu and to the Dean of the College of Cardinals.

Today, at 12:30pm Rome time, Archbishop PierLuigi Celate, the vice-Camerlengo, sealed off the Basilica of Saint John Lateran. The basilica is the cathedral for the bishop of Rome.

Rome Reports has a good visual on the sealing of the papal apartments.

What Benedict XVI will be reading?

I can’t verify this information personally but Salt and Light TV heard the news bite, and it sounds right, that one of the books Benedict XVI will be reading in his retirement is W.T. Dickens’ Hans Urs von Balthasar’s Theological Aesthetics: A Model for Post-Critical Biblical Interpretation (UND Press, 2003).

Dr. Dickens also published a journal article in The Heythrop Journal, “The Liturgical Shaping of Biblical Interpretation” (March 2012; Vol. 53, Is 2; pp. 191-203).

W.T. Dickens earned his doctorate at Yale, was a visiting professor at Cornell University and is now the Chair of Religious Studies at Siena College.

The Pope’s prayer intentions for March 2013

Even though the Chair of Saint Peter is temporary empty, the ministry of the bishop of Rome, the Roman Pontiff, is not abolished. The work of the Church of Christ continues: the proclamation of the Gospel, the administration of the sacraments and interceding on behalf of other before the Throne of Grace continues. As the Roman Pontiff emeritus said,

“I would like to invite everyone to renew firm trust in the Lord. I would like that we all, entrust ourselves as children to the arms of God, and rest assured that those arms support us and us to walk every day, even in times of struggle. I would like everyone to feel loved by the God who gave His Son for us and showed us His boundless love.”

The general intention

That respect for nature may grow with the awareness that all creation is God’s work entrusted to human responsibility.

The missionary intention

That bishops, priests, and deacons may be tireless messengers of the Gospel to the ends of the earth.

Apologetics for Teens sponsored by Envoy Institute

The 4th Annual Catholic Apologetics Camp is planned for the summer of 2013, August 8-14. The Envoy Institute under the direction of Patrick Madrid, is doing the programing.

Knowing your faith, knowing the person at the center of your faith, Jesus Christ, is SO VERY crucial at every stage of life, including the time you spend at college. We need to form and inform the next generation of Catholics to propose the truth and beauty of the Faith! Make a suggestion to a senior in high school to participate in Apologetics Camp.

Jennifer Fulwiler’s article on the camp can be read here.

Have a spare $50.00, why not make a donation to the Apologetics Camp???? Any thing you can spare is greatly appreciated!

Swiss Guard at the Gandolfo door

The Chair of Saint Peter is now empty

The Pontificate of Pope Benedict XVI has now, 8pm Rome time (2pm EST) come to an end with the Sede Vacante (“Vacant See”; the empty chair), the reign of the 265^th Pope, the 264^th successor of Saint Peter, lasted 7 years, 10 months, and 9 days.

Benedict XVI’s final address: to the College of Cardinals: “I vow unconditional reverence and obedience to the future Pope”

I welcome you all with great joy and cordially greet each one of you. I thank Cardinal Angelo Sodano, who as always, has been able to convey the sentiments of the College, Cor ad cor loquitur. Thank you, Your Eminence, from my heart.

And referring to the disciples of Emmaus, I would like to say to you all that it has also been a joy for me to walk with you over the years in light of the presence of the Risen Lord. As I said yesterday, in front of thousands of people who filled St. Peter’s Square, your closeness, your advice, have been a great help to me in my ministry. In these 8 years we have experienced in faith beautiful moments of radiant light in the Churches’ journey along with times when clouds have darkened the sky. We have tried to serve Christ and his Church with deep and total love which is the soul of our ministry. We have gifted hope that comes from Christ alone, and which alone can illuminate our path. Together we can thank the Lord who has helped us grow in communion, to pray to together, to help you to continue to grow in this deep unity so that the College of Cardinals is like an orchestra, where diversity, an expression of the universal Church, always contributes to a superior harmony of concord. I would like to leave you with a simple thought that is close to my heart, a thought on the Church, Her mystery, which is for all of us, we can say, the reason and the passion of our lives. I am helped by an expression of Romano Guardini‘s, written in the year in which the Fathers of the Second Vatican Council approved the Constitution Lumen Gentium, his last with a personal dedication to me, so the words of this book are particularly dear to me .

Continue reading Benedict XVI’s final address: to the College of Cardinals: “I vow unconditional reverence and obedience to the future Pope”

Contemplatives asked to pray for the Church and Pope

Vatican City, 25 February 2013 (VIS) – Cardinal Secretary of State Tarcisio Bertone SDB, sent a letter to the monasteries devoted to contemplative life around the world, inviting them to intensify their prayers at this special moment in the life of the Church. Following is the entire text of the message that is dated 21 February.

“I write to you as the whole Church anxiously follows the final days of the luminous pontificate of His Holiness Benedict XVI and awaits the arrival of the successor whom the Cardinals gathered in conclave and guided by the Holy Spirit will choose, after discerning together the signs of the times of the Church and the world.

“His Holiness Benedict XVI has asked all the faithful to accompany him with their prayers as he commends the Petrine ministry into the Lord’s hands, and to await with trust the arrival of the new Pope. In a particularly urgent way this appeal is addressed to those chosen members of the Church who are contemplatives. The Holy Father is certain that you, in your monasteries and convents throughout the world, will provide the precious resource of that prayerful faith which down the centuries has accompanied and sustained the Church along her pilgrim path. The coming conclave will thus depend in a special way on the transparent purity of your prayer and worship.

“The most significant example of this spiritual elevation which manifests the most authentic and profound dimension of every ecclesial action, the presence of the Holy Spirit who guides the Church, is offered to us by His Holiness Benedict XVI who, after having steered the barque of Peter amid the waves of history, has chosen to devote himself above all to prayer, contemplation and reflection.

“The Holy Father, with whom I shared the contents of this letter, was deeply appreciative, and asked me to thank you and to assure you of his immense love and esteem.

“With affection in Christ I send you greetings, united with you in prayer.”

Sacra Liturgia 2013: a preview

There are few opportunities for good and solid learning on the sacred Liturgy these days. Many of the conferences that pass for the advancement of Catholic thinking on the Liturgy are ideological. BUT, the forthcoming conference in Rome, Sacra Liturgia 2013, provides a great venue, a a clear context, a group of well-informed speakers dealing with the Catholic worship of the One Triune God.

Recently, a member of the Catholic World Report interviews one of the organizers, Dom Alcuin Reid, of Sacra Liturgia 2013 which will take place 25-28 June.

Dom Alcuin answers a question on Pope Benedict’s contribution to liturgical life of the Church:

Primarily in fostering the “new liturgical movement,” I think. Firstly, by his teaching, above all in Sacramentum Caritatis, which is a profound tutorial on the liturgical and ecclesial celebration of the Blessed Eucharist. Also by his acts, most certainly through Summorum Pontificum, where he authoritatively asserted that that the rites that were once “sacred and great…cannot be all of a sudden entirely forbidden or considered harmful.” Finally, by his example: papal liturgies have shown us the meaning of ars celebrandi–the manner of celebrating the sacred mysteries with a true noble simplicity. And always, at the head of these liturgies has stood a man who has looked together with us toward the cross he had placed in the center of the altar. The liturgy is about Him, not me, he has taught us.

Clergy, religious and laity are welcome!

Dom Alcuin Reid is a monk of the Monastère Saint-Benoît in the Diocese of Fréjus-Toulon, France.

Reid’s major work, The Organic Development of the Liturgy (Ignatius Press, 2005); he updated The Ceremonies of the Roman Rite Described (Burns & Oates, 2009) and he is the editor of From Eucharistic Adoration to Evangelization (Burns & Oates, 2012).

Pope Benedict to the English speaking world: we are called to renew a joyful trust in the Lord

I offer a warm and affectionate greeting to the English-speaking pilgrims and visitors who have joined me for this, my last General Audience. Like Saint Paul, whose words we heard earlier, my heart is filled with thanksgiving to God who ever watches over his Church and her growth in faith and love, and I embrace all of you with joy and gratitude. During this Year of Faith, we have been called to renew our joyful trust in the Lord’s presence in our lives and in the life of the Church. I am personally grateful for his unfailing love and guidance in the eight years since I accepted his call to serve as the Successor of Peter. I am also deeply grateful for the understanding, support and prayers of so many of you, not only here in Rome, but also throughout the world. The decision I have made, after much prayer, is the fruit of a serene trust in God’s will and a deep love of Christ’s Church. I will continue to accompany the Church with my prayers, and I ask each of you to pray for me and for the new Pope. In union with Mary and all the saints, let us entrust ourselves in faith and hope to God, who continues to watch over our lives and to guide the journey of the Church and our world along the paths of history. I commend all of you, with great affection, to his loving care, asking him to strengthen you in the hope which opens our hearts to the fullness of life that he alone can give. To you and your families, I impart my blessing. Thank you!