Pope Francis on the Vocation to Religious Life

Pope Francis was in Assisi (in the region of Umbria) last week for the feast of his patron, St. Francis of Assisi.  There, he took questions by young people and offered his responses.  A number of the questions touched upon the topic of vocations--to the married life, priest, and consecrated life.  As a Jesuit priest, Pope Francis can reflect on his own call to vocation to both the ordained ministry and to the consecrated life. In doing so, he also provides some insight into the celibate life, which is a very real part of these vocations, and a part which modern society struggles to understand. Here is an excerpt (translated from the Italian) on his discussion of the call to the priesthood and religious life:

...And I answer you with two essential elements about how to recognize a vocation to the priesthood or to consecrated life. Pray and walk in the Church. These two things go together, they are intertwined. At the origin of consecrated life there is always an intense experience of God, an experience that isn’t forgotten, which is remembered throughout one’s life! It’s the one Francis had. We can’t calculate or plan this. God always surprises us! It’s God who calls, but it’s important to have a daily relationship with Him, to listen to Him in silence before the Tabernacle and in the depth of our being, to speak with Him, to approach the Sacraments. To have this familiar relationship with the Lord is like having the window of our life open, so He has us hear his voice, what he wants from us. It would be lovely to hear you, to hear the priests present here, the Sisters … It would be very lovely, because each story is unique, but they all begin from an encounter that illumines in depth, which touches the heart and involves the whole person: affection, intellect, senses, everything. The relationship with God is not about a part of ourselves, but the whole of ourselves. It’s such a great love, so beautiful, so true, that it merits all, it merits all our trust. And I would like to say something forcefully, especially today: virginity for the Kingdom of God isn’t a “no,” it’s a “yes”!  Of course, it entails the giving up of a conjugal bond and one’s own family, but at the base there is the “yes,” as the answer to Christ’s total “yes” to us, and this “yes” renders one fruitful.

However, here at Assisi there is no need for words! Francis is here, Clare is here, they speak! Their charism continues to speak to so many young people in the whole world: young men and young women who leave everything to follow Jesus on the way of the Gospel.

A beautiful expression of the call to this form of life in the Church.

You can find the full translation of the text from the Zenit website, here: http://www.zenit.org/en/articles/francis-address-to-young-people-in-assisi

A new post for Archbishop DiNoia

Fr. Augustine DiNoia, OP, a member of the Province of St. Joseph has recently been appointed to a new position by Pope Francis within the Roman Curia.  While there are a number of Dominicans working for the Holy See, Abp. DiNoia is currently the only member of the Province to have a full-time appointment there.  He is also one of the highest placed Dominicans in the Roman Curia.

From a recent article by the National Catholic Register:

American Among Wave of Papal Appointments, Confirmations

The Holy Father has named Archbishop Augustine Di Noia as adjunct secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

By Kerri Lenartowick 

* * *

Archbishop Di Noia

In a further development, Pope Francis created a position for Archbishop Augustine Di Noia. He now joins the leadership of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith as its adjunct secretary.

The American prelate has years of experience working in the Roman Curia. He began serving as undersecretary for the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in 2002 and was appointed secretary for the Congregation for Divine Worship in 2009. At the same time, he was consecrated as the titular archbishop of Oregon City.

In 2012, Pope Benedict XVI named him vice president of the Ecclesia Dei Pontifical Commission, which has led efforts to bring the traditionalist Society of St. Pius X back into full communion with the Catholic Church.

Di Noia was born in New York and joined the Dominicans of the Eastern Province of St. Joseph, where he was ordained in 1970. He is a respected theologian who was asked to serve on the International Theological Commission, a group tasked with helping the Holy See examine doctrinal questions, from 1997-2002.

Congratulations to Archbishop DiNoia, and many prayers as he begins his new ministry for the Church.

Pentecost Papal Parade by Popemobile

Well, 'parade' is probably the wrong word, but I liked the alliteration.

At the end of Mass on Pentecost, the Pope greets the people on the Popemobile.  Below is a very short video at the very end of the route, as Pope Francis heads back into Vatican City.

Taking Pictures During Mass

I try when I can to avoid taking pictures during the big Masses, so most of these are either before or after the Mass. I did try to take a video of the entrance procession with the Pope at Pentecost.  But I did not realize that my camera was out of space, so the video stopped just before he entered (a sign from God, perhaps?), and it took me a second to realize what was wrong.

The main reason I don't take pictures is because I think it is disrespectful to do so during Mass.  The second reason is so that photos like this never happen (look in the upper-right corner of the photo):

That will teach me.

Pentecost Sunday

This year was a beautiful and bright Sunday for the feast of Pentecost in Rome.  They usually need a lot of priests and deacons (and occasionally, seminarians) to help distribute communion.  Like every Vatican event, this requires a ticket.  So, I was able to obtain one, as I did for the Easter Sunday Mass.  There were far fewer dignitaries at this Mass than there were for Easter, so I was able to sit much closer to the Pope than I did for Easter Mass.  Here was my view for the Mass:

I thought at Easter they had far too few priests helping with the distribution of Holy Communion.  For the Mass at Pentecost, they had way, way too many.  There must have been 200 priests, deacons, and seminarians distributing Holy Communion.  For Mass, we sit together up near where the altar is.  During the offertory for Mass, we are taken into St. Peter's Basilica.  This time we went in a line to the Immaculate Conception chapel, where they had prepared hundreds of ciboria with hosts.  The are rather plain brass ciboria.  The innovation is that they have a clear plastic top that revolves.  This allows you to see how many hosts are there.  You can also slide a top piece to create an opening, and then slide it back to cover everything in the ciborium and keep them safe from the elements.

We then stand in the Basilica for the Mass, holding the ciboria with the hosts for the consecration.  Towards the end of the Eucharistic Prayer, we are brought outside to take our place among the 200,000 or so people gathered for Mass.  Some of the people distributing have guides with yellow and white umbrellas to show them where to go.  I just followed the line until one of the Italian staff pointed to a place by the barricades for me to distribute.  Then you give out as many hosts as possible.

To minimize the chances for desecration--accidental or intended--communion is given out only on the tongue, with the Latin verse Corpus Christi.  So, you have lots of people sticking their hands at you, and you have to tell them only on the tongue.  (And I also make the men remove their hats first).  This means they have to get close for me to be able to give them communion.  The problem is when you give communion at the barriers that mark the route of the Popemobile.  People want to be right at the barricade to get the best view of the Pope when he goes by--and they do not want to give up their spot.  So people behind them want to receive communion, but the people with their spots at the barricade will not move out of the way.  The most creative solution I saw was the family that simply ducked to get out of the way, and still keep their spot.

Here are the pictures from Mass at St. Peter's:

Buona Pasqua!

My very belated collection of pictures from Easter Mass at St. Peter's.  For Masses like this, the Vatican organizes about 150 priests and deacons to help distribute Holy Communion.  You cannot concelebrate, but you do assist at the Mass.  To take part, you have to have a ticket and a letter of good standing.  I have the latter, and was able to get the former.  So, I went down to St. Peter's to distribute communion.  The instructions they give us are two:  We us the Latin phrase (Corpus Christi) rather than Italian or other vernacular, and communion may be given only on the tongue.  Having confronted the crowd of people wanting communion (250,000) and the very limited number of hosts, this is the only way to preserve proper reverence for the Sacrament.

I do not take pictures during Mass--and obviously could not bring my regular camera.  These are just with a phone camera and are either right before or right after the Mass.

The Process of a Papal Election

I admit, I am a little late in getting to this, but it’s been a whirlwind of a week!

I had mentioned some time ago, that I would discuss what happens (at this point, ‘happened’) at the Conclave during the election of the Pope.  Now, I have no inside scoop on who got how many votes or how the voting progressed.  All I mean to do is to describe the procedure for voting, putting it in some context with the general law of the Church with regards to voting.

New Pope in Pictures

A quick posting of all the pictures I took from the election.  Pray for Pope Francis!

Habemus Papam!

To be in Rome for a Papal election is a great grace, as spiritually uplifting as it is exciting.  Yesterday certainly proved so for me.

Last night I was assigned to celebrate the conventual Mass at the Basilica of San Clemente—our Priory church—here in Rome.  I had been watching the news, and by the time Mass started at 6:30 Rome time, I knew there was no smoke from the Sistine chimney yet.  But, I knew that the later it got, the more likely we would get smoke.  It usually takes about a ½ hour to say Mass, meaning it would end around 7:00pm, just at the time the next smoke was expected.  But that morning the smoke was 20 minutes early, so I was afraid we’d have a Pope in the middle of my Mass.

I did my best not to rush Mass—at least not to rush it too much!  I think most people were in the Square or watching events on the television, as there were very few of the faithful for Mass.  I ended up concluding Mass in a bit under 30 minutes.  As soon as I finished, I cleaned up after Mass, locked the Basilica, turned out the lights, grabbed my cappa and camera and made for the bus.  It was about 7:05pm in Rome.  Seconds after stepping out of the doors of the Priory, I received a text to my phone.  It was one word, but spoke volumes: “White!”  I began to quicken my pace.

As I got out of our garden and onto the street, I spotted one of my confreres coming off the Tram.  I told him the smoke is white, and that I was grabbing a cab.  He quickly followed.  Fortunately, there is a major taxi stop in front of a hotel down the street and around the corner from us.  The brother and I—neither of us in top athletic form—ran for the taxi stand.  There was, praise God, a line of cabs waiting.  As we climbed in the first I breathlessly exclaimed: “Fumata Bianca!  Andate a San Pietro!”  (White Smoke!  Go to St. Peter’s!).  As I said before, I was never more thankful for crazy Roman cabbies.