Announcing Great Joy

Ever since the announcement of Pope Benedict's resignation there has been a palpable and awesome feeling in town, an authentic prayerful and discerning atmosphere.  It was clear that his resignation was the result of great humility and joy-filled trust on Pope Benedict's part as he followed what he discerned to be God's will.  There were so many great moments in that last week of prayer and coming together in gratitude for all that Pope Benedict has given us, especially his humble example of discipleship, and in great hope for how the Spirit will work to build our Church and guide it along this new chapter of its always ongoing cammino.

It was incredible to see and in some ways be a part of the whole process and transition.  We were able to host and spend some time with all of the American cardinals before and now after the conclave.  They joined our community for Mass and prayer.  It was a special gift to be able to interact with and see Cardinal O'Brien as he prepared for the conclave, for this great time of discernment.  A good friend and I were able to go to the Mass at St. Peter's at the beginning of the conclave and we posted up in direct sight of where the cardinals enter the main part of the basilica, in hopes that we would get a chance to connect with Cardinal O'Brien before he processed in and ultimately before he entered the conclave to assure him of our prayers for him and the other electors.  

Once the conclave began, all eyes in town were on that chimney.  I was able to be in St. Peter's Square for all of the "smokings" and the excitement was just incredible.  People stood in the Square for hours in anticipation, almost filling it.  It was great to be there and talk with people from all over the world who are in Rome for all different reasons, all hoping for different traits and defining characteristics in whoever it was going to be, but all invested and excited and hopeful. 

Yesterday afternoon I went to the Square around 5:15 with a couple of friends.  Most people were expecting black smoke, but were anxiously waiting nonetheless.  As you probably saw, a seagull came and perched up on the smoke stack.  It was a great moment, pretty goofy and light-hearted, but at the same time- what a reminder that it's not just us here.  As Benedict said in his last audience, "The Church is not his... it is not ours."  It really does reach out touching and impacting the whole world.  But also, what a connection with St. Francis who is said to have preached to the birds!  Who was so big on preaching the Gospel by living in harmony with all of creation, especially the smallest of creatures.

Once the white smoke came out, and it was pouring out, the place went crazy.  Cheers and expressions of excitement and prayer and joy filled the Square as everyone moved forward to get closer to the balcony, closer to our new Holy Father, whoever it was going to be.  As everyone was making their way to the front of St. Peter's Square, the bells started chiming-- sending a signal to the whole of Rome and the whole world.  It was electrifying!  The bells of St. Peter's were then joined by church bells throughout the City of Rome.  A classmate who lives on the other side of town (and Rome is not a small city) said today that he could hear the bells from where he was; I have also heard that church bells were sounding in and around Baltimore, all signalling that a new Holy Father had accepted the call to lead our Church.  In the Square as the crowd grew and grew people were crying out things that even they didn't understand.  People were praying, singing, talking to each other, calling home.  Everyone was extremely excited.

It had been raining throughout the afternoon, but about ten minutes before the announcement from the balcony, it stopped raining.  All eyes were on the central balcony, and every time the curtain moved- whether it was the wind or people moving around behind it, gasps of excited anticipation raised up.  Then the Swiss Guard marched in from their barracks and formed their ranks below the balcony.  A marching band from the Italian military also marched in, playing the traditional national anthem. 

Then the announcement.  Cries of excitement shot out in the crowd as the thin white curtain was pulled back and the cardinal announcer stepped out onto the balcony, "I announce to you with great joy, we have a pope!"  The place went crazy!  But then as he announced the name of the cardinal who had been elected pope, there were cheers followed by side conversations- WHO?.  Some of the Italians were saying that he was Italian, others that he was Brazilian, still others Argentinian.  I saw more i-phones and smart phones being pulled out in those short minutes than I have seen in my whole life. As the people who were around me and I started to piece it together we realized-- WOW.  He is not from Europe.  He is from the "New World."  He is a Jesuit-- the first ever to be elected pope.  And then in just a few moments as the information was surfacing on different news sites people were yelling out, "He takes the bus to work!"  "They're saying he is a simple man."  "He loves the poor."  You could imagine the eager excitement that was growing in the Square.

"He has chosen the name Francis!"  Conversations turned immediately to St. Francis of Assisi and speculations as to what this might mean.  As we waited for our new Holy Father to emerge on the balcony cheers of "Francesco" echoed throughout the Square.  The vast majority of us had no idea of who this person was or what he even looked like.  But there was an instant connection.  An instant affection for this man who was to be our Father Francesco.  

As Pope Francis stepped out onto the balcony cries of excited welcome erupted as i-pads and cameras were raised to try and capture the moment.  It was such a powerfully emotional moment.  It was so awesome to see this humble man stand there, almost motionless, and imagine how he is feeling and what he is thinking as he stands there just taking it all in.  He began, "Brothers and sisters, Good Evening!"  How simple.  How conversational.  He then invited us to pray together in Italian for Pope Benedict XVI.  Many of us present had been there in that same square just a few days before to express our gratitude and prayerful support of Benedict.  Now we pray for him who is praying for us. 

Pope Francis then did something that shocked everyone.  He said that he would like to bless us, but before he blesses us, he would like us to pray to God to bless him, and let us do this in silence.  He, the Holy Father, the Bishop of Rome, the Supreme Pontiff, then bowed to the people, to his flock as we prayed over him.  Compete silence covered St. Peter's Square as a massive crowd of people from all over the world prayed over their new Holy Father.  That was an incredibly powerful moment full of spiritual gravity, especially looking up at a simple man bowing in prayer.  I couldn't help but break down in tears as I held my hands out in prayer toward our Father Francis, this humble disciple.  He then proceeded to bless all of us there, as well as all of the faithful and all men and women of good will throughout the whole world. 

Before he left, Pope Francis wished all a good night and a good rest.  So simple and conversational.

We heard at the seminary later that night from Cardinal Dolan that as all of the cardinals made their way to dinner Pope Francis chose to not ride in the pope mobile, but to rather "ride with the guys" and get on the bus with the other cardinals. 

The talk around town is full of joy and admiration of this very simple and humble man of God.  The Italian newspapers featured an image of Pope Francis on the loggia at St. Peter's Basilica with the words- "Il Papa dei Poveri-- The Pope of the Poor."  His example of humble simplicity and his authentic affection with the poor has caused a great deal of joyous hope here in Rome as we all look forward to this new phase of our cammino together.

Examples of his humble disposition to live the Gospel have spread throughout Rome and the whole world.  In under two days he has shocked Rome.  After praying at a famous portrait of Mary at the Basilica of St. Mary Major the Holy Father made a stop to pray at the altar of St. Igantius of Loyola, founder of the Jesuits.  He then went to the guest house where he had been staying before the conclave to gather his things (which I hear he carried himself) and pay his bill.  Oh, by the way, he did not make this trip in the pope mobile, but instead rode in a simple sedan.  Sure, it's not the public bus- but it still preaches a message.  

This coming Tuesday Pope Francis will celebrate the Mass of his installation as the Successor of Peter here at St. Peter's Square.  Many many people are sure to attend.  But rumor has it that Pope Francis has invited nuncios, papal delegates, and bishops from around the world to express their spiritual connection with him by not making the trip to Rome, but instead to spend some time with the neediest in some form of charity.  What an invitation!  Participate in celebrating his installation, in celebrating our faith, in celebrating the Gospel by being with the poor.  

I believe that same invitation is offered to all of us as well.  I plan on spending some substantial time on Tuesday afternoon with some of my homeless friends here in town.  Maybe this is something we can all participate in.  Maybe this is an invitation we can all accept.  Who is "neediest" in your family or in your town?  Who can you spend some time with on Tuesday?  

How will you participate in celebrating the Gospel?

Seeing the Church Alive!

Last Wednesday I had the awesome opportunity to attend Benedict XVI's last ever Wednesday audience in St. Peter's Square.  In anticipation of this great opportunity just about every university in Rome cancelled classes, so after our morning Mass and breakfast a couple friends and I made our way to St. Peter's Square.  What we encountered there was a living Church.

My friend Mark, from Iowa, brought an American flag.  In the picture to the left you can see my friend Jimmy, from New York, proudly carrying the flag into the Square.  We arrived in an already half-full St. Peter's Square at 8:30 in the morning, two hours before the scheduled start of the audience.  Our first goal was to find a good spot in the Square to set up shop.  We had heard that the Holy Father was planning on making his rounds throughout the Square in his pope mobile, so we made sure to find a spot towards the middle of the Square, but along one of the barricades since we knew the pope would be coming by there.  Luckily we found a great spot.


The atmosphere was incredible.  People from all over the world trickled into the Square.  Some had on collars, some habits, some tee shirts and jeans.  The excitement shared by all was palpable.  Soon after we found our spot along the barricades a group of Italian teenagers gathered to our left and a group of religious sisters joined on the right.  On the other side of the walkway, directly in front of us was a group of Mexican pilgrims who had brought signs and Mexican flags.  As we got closer and closer to 10:30 the crowd grew and grew, which means our level of personal space shrunk smaller and smaller until we were standing shoulder to shoulder.  But it was worth it.  It was worth it to look around and see flags and banners representing countries from all over the world.  It was worth it to meet and talk with people from all walks of life and from all over the world.  It was worth it to stand in gratitude and prayer with thousands of people, expressing our thanks and love for this man who has proved himself as a simple man of prayer and discernment.

Then the organ music started.  The focus of all present quickly shifted to the front left corner of the Basilica as Pope Benedict XVI slowly made his way into the Square.  Without hesitation he went directly towards the crowd.  He made his way, winding back and forth along the barricades, through the Square, waiving at us, blessing us, and stopping here and there to kiss babies.  The anticipation and excitement grew as we realized that he was definitely coming our way and would soon be right in front of us.  The Swiss Guard and Vatican Police shuffled through the crowd and made their last second preparations and checks of our row.  Then everyone around us stopped looking at the mega-screens and looked at the corner of our aisle as the pope turned the corner and made his way towards us.

As the Holy Father got closer I tried to take as many pictures as I could, but after taking this one I put my camera away.  Time to enter into the moment.  All of us were waving and cheering as he reached us.  But then something unexpected happened.  As Benedict passed us, he looked directly at us.  He and I maintained eye contact for 20-30 seconds.  And as he passed I yelled out, "Grazie Padre!"  It was great to then see him continue making his way through the crowds and to see the excitement and different gestures and cheers of gratitude and thanks.

He then made his way back towards the Basilica to take his seat in the front.  He began by welcoming all who were there and thanking the whole Church for their great love and support.   "Thank you from the bottom of my heart; I am truly moved.  In seeing you I see the Church alive!"  At that the crowd erupted in an emotional applause.  "In seeing you I see the Church alive!"  What an awesome reality.  We are the Church.  In talking about this with friends and classmates afterwards we shared our thoughts and ultimately shared stories of how different people in our lives and different faith communities helped us to see the Church alive.  I think back to St. Stephen and Loyola Blakefield.  Loyola College and John Carroll.  St. Gregory the Great, St. Augustine, St. James, and Immaculate Heart of Mary.  I think of my friends and family.  I think of teachers and students.  I think of coaches and players.  In all of them, I realize that the Church is alive!  Later on Benedict said, the Church is "not an organization, not an association for religious or humanitarian purposes, but a living body, a community of brothers and sisters in the Body of Christ, who unites us all."  How true.  We are brothers and sisters.  We are alive.  We are the Church, the Body of Christ.

In his address Pope Benedict spoke a great deal about the Church, speaking with excitement, hope, and joy.  He spoke not as one with fear or one who wants to point fingers or complain, but one who has faith.  Faith in God who is the Creator of all and the ultimate end of all.  He said that the Church belongs not to him, nor to any one else-- clergy or not-- the Church belongs to God, to Jesus Christ.  It lives in the Spirit.

He said, "I would like to invite everyone to renew firm trust in the Lord.  I would like that we all entrust ourselves as children in the arms of God and rest assured that those arms support us every day on our cammino, even in times of struggle.  I would like everyone to feel loved by God who gave his Son for us and showed us his boundless love.  I want everyone to feel the joy of being Christian."  Not a bad invitation.


Then Benedict moved in a more personal direction, speaking as a simple man, as a grateful Christian.  He thanked all of those who have helped him over the years, from the Vatican officials to people all over the world.  "A pope is never alone: now I experience this truth again in a way so great as to touch my very heart." He went on to describe how he has received so much love and support and notes of gratitude and assurance over the past years of his pontificate from so many people, including heads of state, religious leaders, and ordinary people like you and me.  "These people do not write me as one might write, for example, to a prince or a great figure one does not know.  They write as brothers and sisters, sons and daughters, with a sense of affectionate family ties.  Here one can touch what the Church is."  What a statement.  The Church is and should be a body of brothers and sisters who feel a familial affection.  Who speak to one another as brothers and sisters.  Not as an organization but as a living body.  These ecclesiological reflections of our Pope-Emeritus require a great deal of consideration as we move on as a Church.  We would do well to ponder the significance of these words from our former Holy Father.  We would do well to let these words take root in us as we strive to live the Gospel together in our parishes and other faith communities.

He concluded his remarks with words of assurance and courage, words of hope and of joy.  "In our heart, in the heart of each of you, let there be always the joyous certainty that the Lord is near, that he does not abandon us, that he is near to us and that he surrounds us with his love!  Thank you!"

After concluding his remarks, addresses were made to the Holy Father in various languages, including Arabic, expressing sentiments of gratitude and prayer from the members of the Body of Christ all over the world.  And before leaving, Pope Benedict XVI gave us his final blessing.  But before doing so, he made sure to explain that he meant this blessing to reach across the whole world and to reach each of our families and loved ones, especially those who are suffering.  As I received this blessing I thought of all of the members of my family and my friends back home-- especially those who are going through difficult times, no matter how big or small.  And we were all together in prayer, in receiving the blessing through this simple man who was leaving a role of governance to adopt the life of a simple monk, a life of prayer, solitude, and great great joy.

Our Holy Father-Emeritus gave us a lot to think about, reflect on, and live up to that day.  We are the Church.  We are the Body of Christ.  And in seeing one another, no matter the differences in location, nationality, position, point of view, may we truly see the Church alive!

Listening to the Father

Our Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI is resigning as the Pope.  He is stepping down as the leader of the Roman Catholic Church because that is where his discernment has led him.  This is what he believes to be God's will both for his life and for the Church.  This is what he has heard from the Father in the silence of his prayer.  It is always awesome to see someone discern God's will and then follow it.  It is exciting to see someone do what they believe to be the right thing.  And so ever since hearing the news about Pope Benedict, I have been really pumped and filled with joy at seeing this good man do what he believes to be God's will.

This past Sunday I had the opportunity to join several thousand others in St. Peter's Square for Pope Benedict's last Sunday Angelus.  Every Sunday the pope makes an address (usually a reflection on the Gospel reading of that week), leads everyone there in a prayer called the Angelus, and then greets all of the different language groups and people present from all over the world, in their language.  In addition to the Sunday Angelus, the Holy Father also holds a public audience every Wednesday morning.  These gatherings tend to be more informal and usually include some form of a teaching from the pope as well as an occasional guest bishop, head of state, performer, etc.  Some of the seminarians at the NAC make it to just about every Sunday Angelus; it becomes a part of their weekly routine.  I try to make it about once a month, and this was my first  Angelus since Super Bowl Sunday.

This past Sunday was Pope Benedict's last Sunday Angelus, and you could tell.  There was something special about this gathering.  By the time I got to the Square it was packed.  The whole of St. Peter's Square was filled with people from all over the world.  Some waved flags, some held banners.  Some talked and sang songs, some stood silently in prayer.  Some pushed to get closer, some climbed onto the shoulders of a friend to get a better view.

Standing under the colonnade, leaning on one of the columns I saw a steady stream of people entering the Square.  I saw men and women, young and old, priests and religious sisters, families and parish groups.  At one point I saw several older Italian women entering the Square.  By this point the place was packed and everyone was standing shoulder to shoulder, and I overheard one of the women, who was a little shorter than me... which is pretty short, say, "As long as we can hear him.  That is enough."


Immediately I started to think of everyone back in Baltimore who I wish could have been there with me.  And so I tried my best to bring them all there in prayer.  My family, my friends, teachers, coworkers, parishioners, students, brother priests and seminarians, etc.  As I was praying for all of these people, a humble Pope Benedict XVI emerged at his window, the same window from which many popes before him have spoken, including his predecessor John Paul II, the same window from which on October 11, 1962 a joy-filled John XXIII delivered his famous "Discorso della Luna" address on the eve of the opening of the Second Vatican Council-- expressing his paternal love to the whole world, the same window from which our Holy Father Benedict XVI addressed the world on that same day 50 years later-- expressing the same paternal love and affection, while at the same time acknowledging the sobering reality of the great work that lies ahead of us as the Church.  On October 11, 2012 Pope Benedict said, "Over these fifty years we have seen the reality of original sin, and we have seen the reality of personal sin... we have also had in these fifty years a new experience of the presence of God."  He went on to talk about how God has remained with us, never abandoning us; how God has continued to transform and illumine us.  The fire of Christ and the fire of the Holy Spirit continues to bear light in our lives.


As Pope Benedict emerged in this historic window the crowd erupted in applause.  He put his hands up in his typical gesture of greeting large crowds, and then without hesitation dove into the Gospel, which in this case was the account of the Transfiguration in the Gospel of Luke.  In his reflection, Pope Benedict pointed to the relationship between the Father and the Son-- the relationship that is for us the grounding and font of all life and all hope and all truth and all love.  He said, "Jesus was transfigured as he prayed: his is a profound experience of relationship with the Father during a sort of spiritual retreat that Jesus lives on a high mountain..."  During this spiritual retreat Jesus listened to the Father.  He communed with the Father.  He abandoned himself to the will of the Father.

After his Scriptural reflection, the Holy Father made an unusual transition in subject-- he spoke to us about himself.  He addressed us as a man who wants to convey something personal.  He said, "Dear brothers and sisters, I feel that this Word of God is particularly directed at me, at this point in my life.  The Lord is calling me to 'climb the mountain', to devote myself even more to prayer and meditation.  But this does not mean abandoning the Church!  Indeed, if God is asking me to do this it is so that I can continue to serve the Church with the same dedication and the same love with which I have done thus far, but in a way that is better suited to my age and my strength."

At this point the thousands gathered in St. Peter's Square were in silence, something that is not particularly normal.  The atmosphere was one of prayer.  I think that part of this silent reverence was in a way a certain awe that we all had-- awe at a man listening to God's voice and daring to follow it.  Awe at realizing that we have a God who speaks to us, who calls us to a greater friendship.

He then led us in the Angelus.  After the Angelus he proceeded to greet and address the different language groups present in their language.  As he did this you could hear in his voice echoes of the heart.  You could hear his fatigue.  You could hear his tiredness.  But through the fatigue, you could hear the effort with which he did his very best to pronounce every word of each of these greetings.  After these greetings he waved to the crowd one last time and then proceeded to give us and our loved ones his blessing.

Watching and listening to Benedict XVI on Sunday I couldn't help but be moved by what all he has endured as our Holy Father, what all he has led us through.  And at the same time what all remains to be done.  I continue to be in total awe and gratitude to Pope Benedict throughout this selfless discernment.  He truly believes that he has heard the voice of the Father calling him to a new service, a new labor of love.  I suspect that though we will likely no longer see or hear from him, Pope Benedict will enter into a powerful solidarity with us, with all of us in the human family.  In his prayer, in our prayer, we are one.

Tomorrow, Wednesday, I will be going to Pope Benedict's last public appearance-- his Wednesday audience in St. Peter's Square.  The crowd is expected to be enormous, and so a few friends and I are planning on heading down there around 6:30 or 7:00 to get in line.  The Square will open at 8:00 and the Holy Father's address will begin at 10:30.