Pope Francis called Benedict XVI
shortly after his election -
will visit him on Thursday
March 13, 2013
CBS's transcript of an interview by anchor Scott Pelley with Fr. Thomas Rosica, who has been assisting Fr. Lombardi with the news briefings since the Sede Vacante:
Scott Pelley: Has Pope Francis called his predecessor, the pope emeritus, Pope Benedict, just after the election?
There was a phone call between the two of them, and I think it would have been a very warm phone call. The Pope himself, Pope Francis, told us that that happened, and it's a great way to start off the pontificate.
We heard from the balcony, one of the first things that Pope Francis said was, "Join me, please, in saying some prayers of Thanksgiving for him." He invited this massive crowd to pray the "Our Father" and the "Hail Mary" for his predecessor, Pope Benedict.
Would you expect the two men to meet?
It's likely they will meet tomorrow or the next day.
Pope Francis is supposed to have a press availability on Saturday. What's that all about?
Well, it's not just a press conference. He's going to be meeting with all of the journalists, the media, the television personnel who have been here for the past few weeks ... We don't know what form it's going to take yet, as we're still putting all of this together.
But if this evening was any indication of his way of relating to people, I think we're in for a treat. There's a wonderful pastoral, unscripted air to this man. He's not necessarily bound by strict rules and regulations. I thought I was watching John XXIII on the balcony tonight when I saw him come out.
Pope Francis has confirmed
to cardinals he will visit
Benedict XVI on Thursday -
as Cardinal Dolan relates first evening with him
By Philip Pullella
VATICAN CITY, March 14 (Reuters) - Shortly after his election on Wednesday night, Pope Francis shunned the papal limousine and rode on the last shuttle bus with other cardinals to go back to a residence inside the Vatican for a meal.
That showed his humble side, according to New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan, who gave an insider's look into the hours immediately after Jorge Bergoglio of Argentina was elected.
Dolan said most of the cardinals had taken buses back to their residence in the Vatican and had lined up to greet the new pope as he arrived for their last meal as a group.
They were expecting him to arrive in the limousine that they had seen waiting for him at the base of the Apostolic Palace.
"And as the last bus pulls up, guess who gets off? It's Pope Francis. I guess he told the driver 'That's OK, I'll just go with the boys,'" Dolan told reporters at the American seminary in Rome, the North American College.
Inside the residence, during the dinner, Dolan said the new Pope showed his humorous side.
"We toasted him and when he toasted us he said: 'May God forgive you,' which brought the house down," he said.
He made them laugh again when he told the cardinals, who held seven days of pre-conclave meetings and two days in the conclave: "I am going to sleep well tonight and something tells me you are too."
The new Pope told the cardinals that on Thursday he would visit Pope Emeritus Benedict at the papal summer retreat south of Rome, visit a Rome basilica and, joking again, Francis said: "I also have to stop by the residence to pick up my luggage and pay the bill."
Dolan described the emotion inside the Sistine Chapel as Bergoglio reached 77 votes, the two-thirds majority needed to elect him.
"We broke into applause but then we had to wait until the rest of the votes were counted and applauded again at the end and still again when he said he accepted the election," Dolan said.
Minutes after his election, the new Pope went into the Sistine Chapel's sacristy to change into the white papal vestments.
The sacristy is known as the "room of tears," because it is there where a new pope first feels the weight of the papacy.
When he came out, a throne-like chair had been set on a platform but Francis preferred to greet the cardinals from a chair at their own level, Dolan said.
The new Pope told the 114 cardinals who elected him that he had chosen the name Francis in honour of St. Francis of Assisi, who is known in Catholicism as "the little poor one" [Il Poverello] because he renounced earthly goods.
There had been some speculation that since Bergoglio is a member of the Jesuit religious order, he may have chosen the name in honour of St. Francis Xavier, one of the first Jesuits.
"He quickly clarified that," Dolan said.
Dolan said the election of Francis will be "a booster shot to the Church in the Americas, a real blessing."
"There is a sense of relief in all of us because we now have a good new shepherd," Dolan said. "He is an extraordinarily down-to-earth man ... a man of confidence and poise, a beautiful sincerity and simplicity."
There haven't been enough pictures online yet of Pope Francis from the central loggia of St. Peter's, but I think I have identified one element of Benedict XVI's demeanor in the same situation eight years ago that distinguishes him from his predecessors and his successor. Part of Benedict XVI's palpable radiance is the ever-lurking presence of what Vittorio Messori called 'the eternal boy' in him, and that night on the loggia, the beaming new Pope had all the joy, exuberance and wide-eyed wonder such as might have been manifested on an extra-special feastday by little Pepperl with his knapsack in his most famous childhood photo.
Perhaps the contrast between those luminous images of a youthful. almost boyish 78-year man and what the media had projected of him as a severe and unsmiling senior citizen was part of why he exerted the magic that he did on all of us who were forever captivated by him that April evening in 2005. (Even the black sweater under the rocchetta was an endearing and indelible element of these images1)
When Pope Francis stepped out onto that loggia earlier tonight, he was very poised and calm, and quite original in a way that made me thank God for gracing his Church with Popes in my lifetime who have each been gifted with individual and distinguishing charisms. Asking the faithful to pray with him for Benedict XVI and leading the Our Father, Hail Mary and Glory be was such a beautiful and unexpected, gesture, which he then followed up with asking the faithful to pray for him before he gave them his blessing, bowing low and asking for a moment of silence... What a fitting introduction to the world! God bless Pope Francis and God bless Benedict XVI. And Deo gratias that we have a Pope and an emeritus Pope. They need each other's prayers as we need theirs.
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 16/03/2013 15:37]