The excitement has started!
And it started in the best way
possible: with a very solemn celebration of
Mass this morning
at St. Peter's. There was an intense spirit in the
basilica, with everyone seemingly aware that
the cardinals in front of us
needed the prayers of the whole
Church. Although the daily Masses
offered
for the late Pope were well-attended,
this morning's Eucharist was simply
packed, with virtually every senior (and
junior!) official in
The harried MCs just kept bringing
out chairs and shuffling seats as bishop
after bishop appeared. (It was easier to guess how many cardinals
would be
attending!)
Cardinal Ratzinger's
homily described the Church's mission (and thus that of
the next Pope) in terms of growth: "An 'adult' faith does not follow the
waves of fashion and the latest
novelties; an adult and mature faith is
profoundly rooted in friendship with Christ.
... We must bring this adult
faith to maturity, to this faith we must
lead Christ's flock. And it is this
faith - faith alone - that creates unity
and is realized in charity."
This evening my friends and I went
back to St. Peter's Square, although we
were not expecting to see white
smoke! However, that's just what we saw
for
a few seconds, until it turned
black. One of my friends was greatly
relieved by the black smoke, since he is
praying fervently for Cardinal Marc
Ouellet, who would be an
unlikely first-ballot Pope. (He came to dinner
on
Saturday, leaving us all quite
convinced he would be a marvellous choice. We
then concelebrated Mass with him at our
local parish on Sunday, where his
powerful homily and the response from the
parishioners again suggested he
would make a good Pope. But that is in the hands of God!)
Even for the first ballot, the
square was crowded and full of energy and
expectation.
Very much a sign of things to come.