ALWAYS AND EVER OUR MOST BELOVED BENEDICTUS XVI
Can any of us imagine what it must be like for Benedict XVI - the first Pope in history to be able to 'watch' the election of his successor? Though he's probably not glued to TV as we are = "Been there, done that!" - and he necessarily has more realistic expectations of what's bound to happen, so he's not likely to be changing his prayer and meditation schedule waiting for smoke from the chimney...
Benedict XVI following
the Conclave on TV
Translated from
VATICAN CITY, March 13, 2013 (ADN-Kronos) - Fr. Federico Lombardi told newsmen at his briefing today that Pope emeritus Benedict XVI has been following 'the various developments in the Conclave with great attention and participation' from Castel Gandolfo, where he is spending the first to months of his retirement.
He said that yesterday, Benedict XVI followed all the TV broadcasts of the first day of the Conclave, from the Missa pro eligendo Pontefice to the cardinal electors' entry into the Sistine Chapel and their oath-taking.
[He will also have had first-hand information from Mons. Gaenswein who was among those in the Sistine Chapel for the oath-taking of the cardinals - as we saw him come out after the 'extra omnes', and one presumes, at the Missa pro eligendo Pontefice. But he was dressed in ordinary bishop's cassock, not in choir dress, belying earlier reports that he was gong to be part of the processional entry into the Sistine Chapel. I could not understand that, since technically, he and all other Curial office heads are considered to have been co-terminous with the outgoing Pope .]
[I question Fr. Lombardi's prudence in using the word 'participation', even if most of us understand it in the right way as spiritual participation, but those who want to criticize Benedict XVI will immediately seise on that word to spin off stories that he is somehow 'interfering' with the Conclave, and they will not lack for theories of how he might be doing that... Even more questionable is Fr. Lombardi's next gratuitous announcement - because it would appear he is presuming to speak for the next Pope.
The new Pope could meet with Benedict XVI at Castel Gandolfo, Fr. Lombardi also said".
"I do not rule out an affectionate courtesy call from the new Pope to Benedict XVI. It's a possibility," he said, "but the decision of course lies with the new Pope".
"But let us wait for him to be elected, and then, we shall know his agenda for his first few days."
[So why did he have to volunteer his presumptuous speculation at all? I had thought after the renunciation that Benedict XVI would make a courtesy call to the next Pope, not the other way around, because it is he who will now personally pay homage and pledge obedience to the Successor of Peter. Unless the next Pope is someone who has personal ties of affection with him and will not mind taking the initiative of going to Castel Gandolfo.
I also thought that however and wherever such a historically unoprecedented meeting took place, it will be made known only after the event, there will be no photo opportunity for other than the official Vatican photographer, and that the Vatican will then issue a couple of pictures for the record. And I thought that would be the only picture in a long time that we would see of him. And that it will be infinitely heart-breaking though very welcome.]
Papa Ratzinger - hidden from the world
but spiritually present at the Conclave
by Maria Antonietta Calabrò
Translated from
March 13, 2013
It must have been with great emotion as well as great comfort that Pope emeritus Benedict XVI watched and heard the ovation from the faithful in St. Peter's Basilica at the Mass that preceded the opening of the Conclave yesterday.
Yes, he saw and heard it, because Benedict XVI watched it all on TV. not that the faithful were aware of it when they erupted into spontaneous applause for a whole minute- you'd be surprised how long a minute of applause is! - after Cardinal Dean Angelo Sodano expressed words of gratitude for Benedict's 'luminous Pontificate' at the start of his homily.
So even for the former Pope, yesterday was a special day. If only because it was the first time that a former Pope was around for the election of his successor.
It must have been a day defined by prayer, memories, images. Of those days in April eight years ago, when it was he who celebrated the Missa pro eligendo Pontefice, he who delivered the homily that was a whiplashing against the evils in the Church and in the world. Memories that must have been more vivid watching the event playing out yesterday with other protagonists.
But April 18, 2005, was a sunny day in Rome, while yesterday was a grey and rainy day.
Later, one presumes that the emeritus Pope also watched the solemn processional entry of the cardinalelectors into the Sistine Chapel, their oathtaking, and the 'extra omnes'.
He would have had a chance to review the day again after dinner with his secretaries and his Memores Domini housekeepers, watching the eight o'clock news on TV. With the eyewitness account of Mons. Georg Gaenswein, who was at the Vatican yesterday, from the Mass to the 'extra omnes' in his capacity as Prefect of the Pontifical Household.
So, the conclave on TV at the appropriate times, prayer, meditation, some reading and writing, answering correspondence.
One imagines that the emeritus Pope had also followed the days preparatory to the Conclave with prayer and spiritual participation. Perhaps even watching the daily briefings from the Vatican Press Office broadcast by CTV, with questions from newsmen.
But if all that is true, the inverse is also true. His silent presence is felt in the Conclave. The applause at St. Peter's reminded everyone of that.
"He whose extraordinary renunciation led the cardinals to undertake this Conclave," Fr. Lombardi said in recent days, "is with all of us, in prayer, silently, but profoundly aware of what is happening".
His presence may be only spiritual, but he is there in the Sistine Chapel. Now 'hidden from the world', and yet so very present. Hidden almost as in a cloister by a lake in the summer residence of the Popes, but present in the consciousness of the cardinals who are electing his successor.
His day yesterday must have closed, as usual, with prayer in the papal chapel, and then perhaps, some music - 'the true recreation of a free man', Aristotle has said - before going to bed.
The memory of the applause that resounded for him in St. Peter's yesterday morning joins other memories no other living man would have until the next Pope is elected. Memories that will live with him as he awaits the announcement of his successor, to whom he alraady publicly vowed his reverence and obedience on his last day as Pope.
ANSA has now added another statement made today by Fr. Lombardi about Benedict XVI -
Benedict XVI will not attend
his successor's inaugural Mass
[I think we all assumed he would not - why ever would be break his seclusion to distract in any way from the next Pope's formal installation in the Petrine ministry? Even if he were 100% fit, I do not think it would ever have occurred to him to do that. He can and will render his homage to the new Pope in private.]
Fr. Lombardi also said he spoke to Mons. Gaenswein about how the Pope spent the day yesterday. Apparently, GG is staying in the Vatican until the Conclave is over and he can learn whether the new Pope will keep him on in the Curia. It is Mons. Xuereb who is with the Pope at this time in Castel Gandolfo.
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 13/03/2013 18:59]