In the papal Conclave underway this week, Cardinal electors have but one central task: to discern the successor of Peter the Holy Spirit has already chosen.
“Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat, but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail; and when you have turned again, strengthen your brethren.” (Luke 22:31-32)
“The future is ours; the future belongs to God.” (Benedict the Beloved, Pope Emeritus)
I am struggling to write this post. In fact, we very nearly didn’t have one this week. These last two weeks behind prison walls have been for me a crucible of Satanic attacks from all sides. I am simply not made of the stuff of Benedict the Beloved and his predecessors all the way back to Simon Peter. When I am sifted like wheat, I sometimes feel dismay at the ever-growing pile of chaff that remains.
Each day since my post last week has been like walking through a gauntlet. Due to the nature of the place where I must live, I am unable to write openly about some of the more painful days in prison and the sometimes devastating losses we without clear human rights must endure. Suffice it for now to say these losses have been many, and great, and in the last two weeks they have been magnified and deeply felt. Yesterday, I sent a cryptic message to those who help produce These Stone Walls telling them that I don’t think I can write a post for this week.
Yet here I am, writing nonetheless. I wonder if our Pope Emeritus felt so alone and stranded in the days leading up to the painful decision I wrote of in “The Sacrifices of a Father’s Love.” It has been especially difficult for me in these days of hardship and suffering to hear news of factions and the sometimes petty squabbling of Catholic critics who seem far more invested in being critics than in being Catholics.
There is an outside chance that you may see news of white smoke in Saint Peter’s Square this week, possibly even by the time you are reading this post. A part of what I am feeling and going through while writing this is eerily similar to the events of eight years ago, in April of 2005.
That was one of my most trying months in over 18 years of wrongful imprisonment. Just a month or so earlier, I learned that a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist for the world’s largest newspaper, The Wall Street Journal, had completed a lengthy investigation of my 1994 trial and the charges against me. I knew that the findings were going to be published sometime that April, and I knew it would be a lengthy two-part article about the role played by money – that other American deity – in the claims against me and perhaps some other priests. As one writer put it, “The Journal devoted more space to that story than to any Nobel laureate in history.” I also knew that these articles might be painful for those in the Church tasked with dealing with the crisis in the priesthood.
That was a trying time for me because I did not want to again be a source of pain and scandal for the Church – not even a necessary one. Then, suddenly, Pope John Paul II died. I’m not certain of it, but I have always wondered whether Pope John Paul’s death and the Conclave to follow may have even delayed publication of those explosive Journal articles lest the two Catholic stories collide.
I put the coming articles out of my mind completely as I watched with great sadness, in April, 2005, the Mass of Christian Burial for the Holy Father presided over by his good friend, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger. John Paul was elected Pope in the first month of my seminary training, and had been the Church’s Holy Father throughout all the years of my priesthood. As pallbearers lifted his coffin for the last time to descend into the tombs beneath Saint Peter’s, I found myself sobbing for the first time in all my years in prison. I rarely can cry – even when I have good reason, and it’s not just me. Men in prison rarely cry.
I had that same lump in my throat two weeks ago – and so, likely, did most of you – as I watched that helicopter ascend above Saint Peter’s Basilica on February 28, fly across Rome, and out of sight. The most haunting image of all was that of the helicopter bearing our Pope Emeritus above the Roman Colosseum, an image of stark contrast between the time of Caesar and the time of Benedict, and the Church that has lived for all the time in between. Many early Christians sacrificed their lives there in Caesar’s Colosseum that the Church might live. The suffering of Benedict the Beloved hovering over that ancient symbol of Christian sacrifice was overwhelming.
WHITE SMOKE . . . WELL, SORT OF!
Then on April 19, 2005, I was glued to a small TV screen in my prison cell as two men I knew and greatly admired – Cardinal Avery Dulles and Father Richard John Neuhaus – hosted EWTN’s coverage of the Conclave to elect a Pope. There was some confusion. At one point Father Neuhaus declared that the smoke coming from that Sistine Chapel stovepipe was neither black nor white, but a strange shade of gray. Habemus papam? Father Neuhaus wasn’t sure.
That tense moment seemed to stretch on and on. Then the announcement came, and excitement built, and following closely upon it on that April 19, 2005, emerged Pope Benedict XVI to the cheers and joy of millions and the cynical dismay of a few. Those few managed to harness a secular media ever poised to sensationalize darkness and slander. Some of that slander against Pope Benedict was similar in tone and content to that used against another papal predecessor falsely slandered as “Hitler’s Pope.” The Church was persecuted under that and other such slander against Benedict the Beloved for eight years. In spite of all, the legacy of Benedict is his intellectual brilliance. It has been the lampstand in a city on a hill for his entire papacy.
Then, back in April of 2005, just a week after that Conclave ended, The Wall Street Journal published the two-part “A Priest’s Story” that dusted the cobwebs from my trial, convictions and imprisonment, and opened the doors for another view of justice – hopefully by both the State and the Church. The details were not flawless, but the story taken as a whole was vastly unlike anything the secular mainstream media had done to date on the crisis in the priesthood.
These past weeks have so vividly reminded me of that time. I just saw a news headline on ABC News declaring “The next Pope will have weighty issues in the Church to deal with.” Think about that. Could you imagine a news headline declaring that the Pope will NOT have weighty issues to deal with? Has there ever been a time in over two millennia of Church history when the Pope had an easy go of it?
I once wrote in “Inherit the Wind: Pentecost and the Breath of God” that the Church began in scandal while the very first papal act was to defend the Apostles against a slanderous crowd’s claim that they were drunk in public at 9:00 in the morning on a major Jewish feast when the Church was barely ten minutes old (Acts 2: 14-16). It was the same Peter, once called Simon, who was admonished by the Lord that Satan wanted to “sift you like wheat.” It was the same Simon Peter who stepped out of the boat amid the wind and the waves and was admonished by Christ to never again let his faith falter (Matthew 14: 28-30).
It is this same Peter who emerges on the horizon in Rome as a Pope for the New Evangelization. Amid our own wind and waves, and all our anxious cares, he and his successors are the living evidence of something essential for the Church. Pope Benedict concluded in his book, Jesus of Nazareth: Holy Week, through the Cross the path to God is open, and the mission of Peter is to witness to the risen Lord. It was what defined his mission, and shaped the nascent Church.
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Living the Dream?
AS I mentioned recently, the word remains strong on my heart, “You are entering dangerous days.” Yesterday, with an “intensity” and “eyes which seemed filled with shadows and concern,” a Cardinal turned to a Vatican blogger and said, “It is a dangerous time. Pray for us.”1
Yes, there is a sense that the Church is entering unchartered waters. She has faced many trials, some very grave, in her two thousand years of history. But our times are different…
…ours has a darkness different in kind from any that has been before it. The special peril of the time before us is the spread of that plague of infidelity, that the Apostles and our Lord Himself have predicted as the worst calamity of the last times of the Church. And at least a shadow, a typical image of the last times is coming over the world. —Blessed John Henry Cardinal Newman (1801-1890), sermon at opening of St. Bernard’s Seminary, October 2, 1873, The Infidelity of the Future
And yet, there is an excitement rising up in my soul, a sense of theanticipation of Our Lady and Our Lord. For we are on the cusp of the greatest trials and the greatest victories of the Church.
LIVING THE DREAM?
I think again of a powerful letter a friend sent me several years ago, along with a picture of St. John Bosco’s Dream of the Holy Father steering the Barque of Peter through treacherous waters, amid venemous enemies, into an period of peace. She said that my ministry would help to anchor souls to the Two Pillars of the Eucharist and Mary in Bosco’s dream. I remember weeping from the core of my soul as I read her unexpected letter.
As I look back now at the Rosary CD I produced, the Divine Mercy Chaplet, and the evenings of Eucharistic Adoration I have been priviledged to lead with many holy priests, as I will again tonight, I can’t help but smile as I ponder Bosco’s dream. Moreover, this ministry has been one of repeating the prophetic and powerful words of the Holy Fathers that seem to cut through the fog of apostasy like a blaring beacon of light on the harbor’s edge.
In St. John Bosco’s dream, he sees…
The new Pope, putting the enemy to rout and overcoming every obstacle, guides the ship right up to the two columns and comes to rest between them; he makes it fast with a light chain that hangs from the bow to an anchor of the column on which stands the Host; and with another light chain which hangs from the stern, he fastens it at the opposite end to another anchor hanging from the column on which stands the Immaculate Virgin.—http://www.markmallett.com/blog/2009/01/pope-benedict-and-the-two-columns/
Shortly before he died, John Paul II declared the Year of the Rosary (2002-03). This was followed by the Year of the Eucharist (2004-05) with his documents on the Eucharist and the Liturgy. Indeed, John Paul II’s “last will and testament” to the Church was to steer the Church firmly between the the Two Pillars. Pope Benedict did not miss a beat, saying shortly after he was elected, that he would mostly continue the legacy of John Paul II. He stunned many of us as he rode into Sydney’s harbour for World Youth Day, standing at the bow of a ship, coincidentally dressed like the popular painting of Bosco’s dream!
He seems to have further fulfilled Bosco’s dream as his short papacy endured some of the most vociferous attacks upon a pontiff in memory:
A storm breaks out over the sea with high winds and waves. The Pope strains to lead his ship between the two pillars.
The enemy ships attack with everything they’ve got: bombs, canons, firearms, and even books and pamphlets are hurled at the Pope’s ship. At times, it is gashed open by the formidable ram of an enemy vessel. But a breeze from the two pillars blows over the broken hull, sealing the gash. —Dream of the Two Pillars
And now, as the Cardinals begin their voting, we pray for the next successor of Peter to be raised to the helm with divine strength and courage to continue to guide the Church through stormy waters toward an Era of Peace.
John Bosco’s dream is not of one pope, but several over a period of time since the Vatican Councils, it would seem (read Pope Benedict and the Two Columns). At one point, Bosco even sees one of the Pope’s killed. But yet, another rises in his place.
At one point the Pope is seriously wounded, but gets up again. Then he is wounded a second time and dies. But no sooner has he died, than another Pope takes his place. And the ship continues on until it is finally moored to the two pillars. With that, the enemy ships are thrown into confusion, colliding with another and sinking as they attempt to disperse.
…And a great calm comes over the sea.
The Church will suffer. She is going to be persecuted. We are heading into the greatest of trials… but the greatest of victories. For the Barque of Peter will not be thwarted. Jesus Christ will prevail as He crushes, through and with Our Lady, the powers of darkness that will, in the end, collapse upon themselves.
You are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it. (Matt 16:18)
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“Extra Omnes.” But Michelangelo Will Be Voting, Too
The microculture typical of the conclave. The effect of the frescoes of the Sistine Chapel upon the cardinal electors. The mysterious sign of Jonah
by Sandro Magister
ROME, March 12, 2013 – This afternoon, the 115 cardinals who will elect the pope will make their solemn entrance into the Sistine Chapel.
The place in which the conclave will be carried out is unique in the world. And the frescoes upon which the eyes of the cardinal electors will fall will have an effect on them that is also unique.
As Joseph Ratzinger recognized in recalling the conclaves in which he participated:
“I know well how we were exposed to those images in the hours of the great decision, how they called us to task, how they insinuated into our souls a sense of the greatness of the responsibility. The word “con-clave” brings forward the thought of the keys, of the heritage of the keys left to Peter. To place these keys in the right hands: this is the immense responsibility in those days.”
Read more here: http://chiesa.espresso.repubblica.it/articolo/1350462?eng=y
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Dr. John Jackson with wife Rebecca, founders of the Turin Shroud Center of Colorado, with a model of Christ’s body based off of the shroud. Credit: Ellen Jaskol.Denver, Colo., Mar 10, 2013 / 04:01 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Benedict XVI’s decision to allow a TV broadcast of the Shroud of Turin on March 30, Holy Saturday, has been lauded by experts for highlighting the link between the Shroud and death of Christ.
“Pope Benedict XVI, when he visited the shroud on pilgrimage in 2010, spoke about the Shroud in terms of Holy Saturday,” John Jackson, co-founder of the Turin Shroud Center of Colorado, told CNA March 7.
“From that vantage point, that all his remarks were made relative to Holy Saturday, it is fitting that the broadcast happens on Holy Saturday.”
The Shroud is venerated as the burial cloth of Christ, and bears a mysterious image of a man who suffered in a manner consistent with crucifixion. It is kept in the Cathedral of Saint John the Baptist in Turin, Italy, and is rarely available for viewing.
The extremely limited access to seeing the shroud gives the TV broadcast particular significance. It will be shown internationally by the Italian public service broadcaster Rai 1.
On March 1, Archbishop Cesare Nosiglia of Turin announced that as part of the Year of Faith, he had gotten the consent of Benedict XVI, prior to his resignation, to have a worldwide TV exhibition of the Shroud.
“The Shroud of course reminds us of the passion, death and burial of the Lord and then to Holy Friday, the day in which the Church remembers and celebrates the passion of Christ,” reflected Archbishop Nosiglia.
“Holy Saturday is a day of silent prayer and meditation on the Lord’s death, but it is also a day of joyful waiting of the light of the resurrection that will explode in the great celebration of the Easter Vigil.”
The Shroud, he noted, “is a witness of this double mystery: it brings us back to the darkness of the tomb, but it also opens the way to receive the light that from it will emerge, in the event of the resurrection.”
The Holy Saturday broadcast of the Shroud images is only the second-ever, with the other occurrence taking place in 1973. “This is in honor of the 40th anniversary of the first TV exposition,” Jackson explained.
In his March 1 statement, Archbishop Nosiglia said that “the Shroud is not a sign of defeat, but of victory, of life over death, of love over hatred and violence, hope over despair…the face of the Man of Sorrows, which is the face of every man on the earth, represents his suffering, his death, it speaks to us of love and gift, of grace and forgiveness.”
He added that the Shroud is a reminder that “the proclamation of Christ dead, buried and risen again,” which is at the center of the Christian mystery.
The TV exhibition will last about an hour, and will be part of a celebration led by Archbishop Nosiglia.
Holy Saturday, the archbishop observed, is “a day of silence, prayer, contemplation of the mystery of the passion and death of the Lord, but also a day of expectation and openness of heart and life in the light of the resurrection.”
Archbishop Nosiglia voiced his hope “that this worldwide event will lead, in the hearts of many people who will see it, a little light and peace in these complex times and give strength and hope to many sick and poor, but also families and people in need.”
Tags: Pope Benedict XVI, Shroud of Turin
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