The day after Christmas, Antonio Socci posted this on Facebook:
Christmas Day 2012 vs Christmas Day 2017: In 2012 the crowd extends all the way back to the Via della Conciliazione. This year, it didn't even get as far as the obelisk (and that dreadful Gaytivity scene)!
I did not know exactly what mistake the pope may have committed - how do you make a mistake in giving a blessing? The following item explains it - and it is appalling! - but first, here is the entire blessing:
The apostolic blessing urbi et orbi
Sancti Apostoli Petrus et Paulus: de quorum potestate et auctoritate confidimus, ipsi intercedant pro nobis ad Dominum.
℟: Amen.
Precibus et meritis beatae Mariae semper Virginis, beati Michaelis Archangeli, beati Ioannis Baptistae et sanctorum Apostolorum Petri et Pauli et omnium Sanctorum, misereatur vestri omnipotens Deus; et dimissis omnibus peccatis vestris, perducat vos Iesus Christus ad vitam æternam.
℟: Amen.
Indulgentiam, absolutionem, et remissionem omnium peccatorum vestrorum, spatium veræ et fructuosae pœnitentiae, cor semper paenitens, et emendationem vitae, gratiam et consolationem Sancti Spiritus; et finalem perseverantiam in bonis operibus tribuat vobis omnipotens et misericors Dominus.
℟: Amen.
Et benedictio Dei omnipotentis, Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti, descendat super vos et maneat semper.
℟: Amen.
May the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul, in whose power and authority we trust, intercede for us before the Lord.
℟: Amen.
Through the prayers and merits of Blessed Mary ever Virgin, Saint Michael the Archangel, Saint John the Baptist, the holy apostles Peter and Paul, and all the saints, may Almighty God have mercy on you and forgive all your sins, and may Jesus Christ bring you to everlasting life.
℟: Amen.
May the almighty and merciful Lord grant you indulgence, absolution and the remission of all your sins, a season of true and fruitful penance, a well-disposed heart, amendment of life, the grace and comfort of the Holy Spirit and final perseverance in good works.
℟: Amen.
And may the blessing of Almighty God, the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, come down on you and remain with you forever.
℟: Amen.
‘Descendat super vos et maneat semper’:
Bergoglio cuts off the papal blessing
Translated from
December 26, 2017
A reader alerted me that on the occasion of the papal Urbi et Orbi blessing last Christmas Day, the ritual formulation was truncated by Bergoglio, thus making the blessing ineffective.
Obviously, not having a TV set and having wished to sit myself at Christmas lunch without having to listen to the populist discourse of the Self-styled One, I had to verify this by looking at the video available online. Seeing which, I thought, well, so much the better that I had saved myself new outrage on Christmas Day after the ‘labor union’ homily at Midnight Mass.
Beyond the fact that Bergoglio never chants anything, augmenting the squalor of what he says with a flat and bored delivery, this year it is aggravated by a significant omission from the blessing, because after the invocation
Sancti apostoli… and
Precibus et meritis and the
Indulgentiam he read: "
Et benedictio Dei omnipotentis, Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti. Amen."
When the entire line is:
Et benedictio Dei omnipotentis, Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti descendat super vos, et maneat semper. To which it is the faithful who respond: Amen!
Yet he had the prayer card open right before his eyes, with the zealous Mons. Marini by his side. All he had to do was read, for God’s sake! Just read. And perhaps understand what he was reading.
[Because clearly the sentence he read was incomplete - it lacks a predicate! All he read was "May the blessing of almighty God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit" then saying the Amen himself. I think he thought he was saying "May almighty God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit bless you". Knock, knock? Any brain inside that cranium?]
One has to ask whether the omission of those final words of the Blessing was deliberate. Because to leave out
‘et descendat super vos et maneat semper' simply rendered the blessing void, depriving the faithful gathered in St. Peter’s Square and everyone participating via radio and television throughout the
orbe the plenary indulgence that comes with the blessing.
Did he do it on purpose? It’s hard to think it was simply an oversight since he had the text in front of him in big bold letters, Even my sister, who has no priestly inclination whatsoever, can recite from memory the words which she has heard from so many popes, live at St. Peter’s or from our old kitchen radio.
How many times, while taking off her apron after having prepared Christmas or Easter lunch, she would call me and say, “Come now, for the Holy Father is imparting his blessing” . And first, with our parents, or later, by ourselves, or with any guests we had, we would hear that sacred and solemn melody echoing from all the houses around us, to be followed by the acclamation of the faithful present in the square.
Note the full solemn regalia of the pope, as for Mass, including the fanon and the gloves. P.S. And the tiara - it seems to fit so naturally!
It is impressed in my mind, a dear memory from my childhood, especially when Pius XII, hieratic, would appear on the loggia of St. Peter’s and impart the blessing with that limpid voice, his rolling r’s and his perfect intonation. As if to say, “Shake off your torpor! Carry on with virtue as you should”. And in St. Peter’s Square there would be at least 200,000 faithful to roar their acclaim, not the four cats we saw on Christmas day.
Now the radio is silent. Waiting for when, once more, from that loggia, one can hear the authentic voice of the Pope.
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 30/12/2017 13:55]