National Review Online published today George Weigel’s “The First American Pope: Catholicism’s turn into an evangelical future.”
Father Julián Carrón wrote to members of CL on the election of Pope Francis as the Bishop of Rome.
Within the irrepressible joy of having a new guide for our community of believers, I am struck by how he managed to communicate to us, from his very first movements, with simple gestures comprehensible to everyone, where his gaze is fixed. With his choice of name, Francis, he shows us that he has no other wealth but Christ. He trusts no modality of communicating this if not plain and simple witness to Christ.
Pope Francis’s disarming request expressed the awareness that this witness is pure grace and that we must beg for it: “I ask you to pray to the Lord that He will bless me.” In the Pope’s prayer, together with the crowd in St. Peter’s Square, the miracle of the life that is the Church–whose heart is Christ Himself–took shape before the eyes of the world.
I am struck by the profound harmony, founded on faith in Jesus Christ, between the realism of Benedict XVI, who with his gesture reminded the world that the Church is Christ’s, and the humble realism of Pope Francis, who immediately expressed the consciousness of his ministry as a Bishop in communion and on a journey with the people of the Church of Rome, “which presides in love over all the Churches,” according to a fitting expression by the great Saint Ignatius of Antioch.
Moved by the invitation to start the journey together, Bishop and people, we ask Our Lady to grant each of us the abandonment to Christ that Francis witnesses to us in this moment.
Grateful to the Spirit, who gave a guide to His Church, we therefore start the journey desiring to follow and to serve the Pope with all of ourselves, according to the teaching that we received from Fr. Giussani: “The face of that single man [Christ] today is the unity of believers, who are the sign of Him in the world, or as Saint Paul says, who are His Body, His mysterious Body–also called ‘the people of God’–guided and guaranteed by a living person, the Bishop of Rome.”
Father Julián Carrón
President, Fraternity of Communion and Liberation
14 March 2013
Milan
In the name of the Society of Jesus, I give thanks to God for the election of our new Pope, Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, S.J., which opens for the Church a path full of hope.
All of us Jesuits accompany with our prayers our brother and we thank him for his generosity in accepting the responsibility of guiding the Church at this crucial time. The name of “Francis” by which we shall now know him evokes for us the Holy Father’s evangelical spirit of closeness to the poor, his identification with simple people, and his commitment to the renewal of the Church. From the very first moment in which he appeared before the people of God, he gave visible witness to his simplicity, his humility, his pastoral experience and his spiritual depth.
“The distinguishing mark of our Society is that it is . . . a companionship . . . bound to the Roman Pontiff by a special bond of love and service.” (Complementary Norms, No. 2, § 2) Thus, we share the joy of the whole Church, and at the same time, wish to express our renewed availability to be sent into the vineyard of the Lord, according to the spirit of our special vow of obedience, that so distinctively unites us with the Holy Father (General Congregation 35, Decree 1, No. 17).
P. Adolfo Nicolás, S.J.
Superior General
Rome, 14 March 2013
The most significant Marian Shrine in Rome, and one of the central ones in Christian the world, the Basilica of Saint Mary Major, had a visit by Pope Francis today for a half-hour of prayer before the Blessed Mother. He wanted to “go pray to the Madonna so that she may protect Rome.”
There are several “firsts” already identified with Pope Francis’ election as the Supreme Pontiff on 13 March. He is the first pope from the Americas, the first pope formed as a member of the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits).
But Pope Francis is not the first non-European pope. The last pope not born in Europe was the Syrian Saint Gregory III. He was the 90th bishop of Rome who reigned 18 March 731 – 28 November 741. Gregory was elected without having been a bishop first. By acclamation the educated Syrian priest was elected the pope.
Among many things he had deal with was the iconoclast controversy.
Saint Gregory’s feast is observed by some 28 November and by others on 10 December.
“Before being someone with a job to do, [the pope] is the one sent to us to hear, see, and touch, whose physical presence is what links us to Christ. He is the custodian of the Incarnation” Msgr. Lorenzo Albacete giving the best description of what it means to be the Vicar of Christ I have ever read.
Fr. Lombardi confirmed that the Mass for the inauguration of the Petrine Ministry will be held March 19th, the feast of St. Joseph, at 9:30 Rome time.
He also confirmed that the Mass for the closure of Conclave will be at 17:00 (5:00pm) Thursday in the Sistine Chapel. On Friday, at 11 a.m., there will be an audience with the College of Cardinals in the Clementine Hall. That on Saturday 11 a.m. Pope Francis I will have audience with all journalists and media covering conclave- an announcement greeted with a round of applause in the briefing hall. And finally on Sunday Pope Francis will recite Angelus at noon.
Thursday, Pope Francis will make a private visit to a sanctuary of Our Lady on Thursday March 14th, but details will be released only when this visit is over.
Brothers and sisters, good evening!
You know that it was the duty of the Conclave to give Rome a Bishop. It seems that my brother Cardinals have gone to the ends of the earth to get one… but here we are… I thank you for your welcome. The diocesan community of Rome now has its Bishop. Thank you! And first of all, I would like to offer a prayer for our Bishop Emeritus, Benedict XVI. Let us pray together for him, that the Lord may bless him and that Our Lady may keep him.
Our Father…
Hail Mary…
Glory Be…
Continue reading Pope Francis imparts his first Apostolic Blessing “Urbi et Orbi”
The episcopal motto of the new Pope’s coat of arms, Miserando atque Eligendo (“By having mercy and by making decisions [in following Christ]”; it could also read, “by showing compassion [the Lord called] and by choosing [to follow Him]). The motto is extracted from a homily of Saint Bede the Venerable (Homily 21) on a passage from the Gospel of Saint Matthew read in the breviary on the saint’s feast on 25 May: “Vidit ergo Iesus publicanum, et quia miserando atque eligendo vidit, ait illi, Sequere me.” (Jesus looked at the publican, and because he looked with mercy and choosing, said to him, ‘Follow me.’)
Bergoglio knew who gazed upon him and decided to follow.
Saint Bede said,
Jesus saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax office, and he said to him: ‘Follow me.’ Jesus saw Matthew, not merely in the usual sense, but more significantly with his merciful understanding of men.
He saw the tax collector and, because he saw him through the eyes of mercy and chose him, he said to him: ‘Follow me.’ This following meant imitating the pattern of his life – not just walking after him. Saint John tells us: “Whoever says he abides in Christ ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.”
“And he rose and followed him.” There is no reason for surprise that the tax collector abandoned earthly wealth as soon as the Lord commanded him. Nor should one be amazed that neglecting his wealth, he joined a band of men whose leader had, on Matthew’s assessment, no riches at all. Our Lord summoned Matthew by speaking to him in words. By an invisible, interior impulse flooding his mind with the light of grace, he instructed him to walk in his footsteps. In this way Matthew could understand that Christ, who was summoning him away from earthly possessions, had incorruptible treasures of heaven in his gift.
The coat of arms will change soon.