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In St. Peter's after the Mass for
the opening of the conclave. |
After days
of waiting for all of the 115 elector cardinals to arrive in the Eternal City,
they finally came together and agreed that the conclave to elect the next pope
would begin on Tuesday, March 12, 2013.
On that morning when the conclave was to begin there was a Mass in St.
Peter’s Basilica to pray for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the Cardinals
that they might elect the man who was already known to God to lead His
Church. The “day of pageantry” as it was
dubbed by one news outlet was truly special and something to behold. To an outsider it may just look like any
other organization pulling out the fine decorations and clothing for a nice
event, but for me as a Catholic seminarian on the verge of being ordained a
priest (God willing) it was much, much more!
This was the most powerful men in the Church processing to the altar of
God to implore his mercy, grace, wisdom and knowledge so that they might choose
the man that would please Him. The Mass
for the opening of the Conclave shows how much the Cardinals realize that they
can do nothing good on their own.
Rather, they must rely on God for everything if they are to live in
accord with His will. What a great
lesson this is for all of us.
That
afternoon the cardinals went through the rules of the conclave and after each
one approached the altar and swore his promise to abide by the rules, everyone
but the 115 voting cardinals were removed from the Sistine Chapel and the
voting began. The first day there was
only one vote and the smoke was to go up around 7pm. A pope being elected on the first day is
virtually impossible. However, I went
down to the square to witness the smoke, even if it was going to be black
because this was a great moment in history.
As we all expected, the smoke was black, the cardinals did not elect a
new pope on the first vote. As the smoke
began coming out the whole square gasped and awed until it was clear that the
smoke was black. We returned to the
College ready for another day of suspense and excitement.
The next
morning (Wednesday, March 13, 2013) I was scheduled to give the presentation
for my seminar. Due to a wise seminarian
and a very understanding professor, we moved the location of our seminar from
the university (a 35 minute walk from St. Peter’s) to our College (a 5 minute
walk or 2 minute fun run from St. Peter’s).
Some of the guys in the class had their computers and were watching online
for early smoke signaling a new pope.
The early smoke never came and with the 11:45am ballot burning, black
smoke was once again released into the Roman sky. We were relieved and could rest our minds and
hearts for a couple of hours until the next potential release of smoke.
This next
chance for smoke would be around 5:30pm and would only happen if a pope was
elected on the 1st ballot of the afternoon voting session. Due to the circumstances, the College changed
the daily house schedule to accommodate our desire to be in the square at key
times. One way the schedule changed was
that the 5:45pm holy hour was moved to 5:15pm and Evening Prayer was moved to
6:15pm. This would have EP ending at
6:30pm, which would give the students plenty of time to get down to the square
for the 7:00pm release of smoke. As I
sat in the chapel for the 5:15 holy hour the thought ran through my mind
several times that a 5:30pm early release of smoke would mean I would miss it
and have to run to the square late. I
was somewhat anxious, but I was comforted thinking, “This is where I need to
be”. Praying for the cardinals took on a
whole new meaning as I thought about them at that very moment in the Sistine
Chapel placing their votes. Where else
could I do a better service to them, to the Church and to God at that moment
than on my knees in front of our Eucharistic Lord? I would be lying if I said I was completely
calm the whole hour I was praying. Several
times when I heard the door open I waited to see if someone would say that they
had released smoke and that we needed to get down to the square. As it turns out, God rewards those who are
faithful to Him…5:30pm came and went and no smoke reared its head from the
chimney in the square.
At 6:15pm
we had community evening prayer. For
several days before up to that very night, we had been praying a special prayer
for the election of a pope together as a community just before evening
prayer. In the minutes before we began,
the lector for that day went up to the ambo and 250+ priests, deacons and
seminarians got on their knees to ask God for his guidance of the
cardinals. After this, we prayed EP (In
a homily today (March 15, 2015) it was pointed out that it could have been at
the precise moment that we were praying evening prayer that the cardinals were
electing the new pope…powerful) and when it was over, the entire College joined
much of Rome in heading down to St. Peter’s Square. The only way to describe what happened after
EP is to say that it was like a sports dressing room…let me explain. We have a long narrow room outside of the
chapel where guys will leave things if they are going out after prayer. There were literally about 100 guys going in their
putting on coats, grabbing cameras and umbrellas and getting ready to go.
After I got my jacket and cameras
and swam through the people I made my way out of the College with some of my
friends. I made a comment about needing
to go to the bathroom, but figured I would be back in a few minutes and I
didn’t want to be late, so we left. As
we approached the square the line was pretty long and they were ushering people
through security. There is no pope and
the cardinals are all in one place…not sure why they were doing this. We joked saying maybe they knew something we
didn’t. We quickly made our way through
“security” and into the square. Once in
the square we got to where we could see one of the TV screens since the chimney
is pretty hard to see at night. I was
satisfied with our position, but the guys I was with wanted to move into a
better position. Since they led the way,
I agreed to follow. We moved closer to
the center of the basilica and further up in the square and ended up next to
one of the religious sisters who teaches us at the university. We chatted for a while as it was still about
10 minutes before 7:00pm.
I had my back turned to the screen
when I heard the collective gasp of the crowd alerting me that the smoke had
begun. I finished my conversation then
turned around expecting to see black smoke.
It was grey at first and then with the noise in the square getting
greater with every passing second, it quickly became apparent that it was in
fact WHITE SMOKE! I still can’t put into
words what seeing that smoke made me feel.
I couldn’t believe it. I didn’t
want to act like a fool only to find out that it was black. I denied it saying over and over again, “no,
no, no way, no.” Then one of the guys in
our group said what I was waiting for, “the bells are going.” This was it. The cardinals had done their job and elected a
new Roman Pontiff, a new leader of the Catholic Church. I continued saying “no,” what by know was the
only word it seems I knew, more in disbelief that I was in the square
witnessing history than because I actually thought the smoke was black. How could this be? Why is God so good to me? How had the cardinals elected a pope in the 5th
vote when going into the conclave there was no clear frontrunner? I was already planning to miss class on
Thursday and Friday because I wanted to be in the square for the white smoke,
yet here it was and there I was, witnessing history with hundreds of thousands
from around the world and with some of my closest friends from the NAC.
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| "The bells are going!" |
We quickly ran up closer to the
basilica with the rest of the crowd and we all crammed in. It had been a rainy night in Rome, but when
the smoke bellowed out of the chimney and those big beautiful bells on the left
side of the façade of St. Peter’s began announcing to the world that a pope had
been elected, the skies closed up and it turned into a beautiful Roman night! We squished and crammed our way as close as
we could with about 300,000 of our closest friends and awaited the announcement
and appearance of our new pope. We
happened to meet up with a reporter for Vatican Radio and she asked our
thoughts on when, what name, etc. before the smoke. She managed to stay with us as we moved up
and continued to ask us our feelings. I
feel like my answers sounded much like me moving my finger across my lips like
a little kid because I couldn’t get any words out.
What ensued was absolutely amazing
(because it hadn’t been up to this point right?). Several bands dressed in their regalia began
marching out into the front part of the square: the Swiss Guard Band (glad to
have a new pope and a job again), the Carabinieri Band, and a few others. Lights began coming on in windows on the
façade of St. Peter’s and about 1 hour after the smoke first began, we were
ready to welcome our new father. First,
the cardinal came out for the famous announcement.
Annuntio
vobis gaudium magnum, HABEMUS PAPAM!
I announce to you a great joy, we have a pope! (
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RsmrMPc3PYw) Then he proceeded to say that they elected
George…we looked at each other thinking, “Cardinal George?”…then came his last
name Cardinal Bergoglio…we all looked at each other and asked, “Who?”. One of my friends had seen his name just that
morning on a possible candidates list and so he told us he was an Argentinean
Cardinal. We cheered and waited for him
to make his first appearance.
As the curtains began to move the
crowd let out short scattered cheers, but when they parted and the pope began
to come out, led by the Crucifix, the entire square and beyond let up a great
roar. After the cheers went on for a
while the new Vicar of Christ greeted his flock for the first time. He stood there stiff, looking uncomfortable
and unsure and we wondered if he was going to faint. We all looked at each other as if to ask,
what’s going on, what’s happened. Then
he began, “brothers and sisters…good evening.” (
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3XLEdR0HMoM) As he said “good evening” a grin appeared on his face and he immediately
won the hearts of many of us in that square and around the world. My friend recounted the experience by saying
that we were standing there watching, asking for him just to give us one little
sign of his affection and we would love him and he did just that with “good
evening.” They were simple words from a
simple man, and that was all it took. He
then asked that we join him in prayer for Benedict XVI, bishop emeritus of
Rome, who had guided the Church for 8 years before him. He led us in the Our Father, Hail Mary and
Glory Be for Benedict. For us who have
such a great love for Benedict, this was an amazingly comforting gesture and
really helped to show just how humble Pope Francis really is. After that he asked that before he gave his
first Apostolic Blessing, that we pray that God would bless him. He bowed down and 300,000+ were dead silent
for a few moments. I don’t know if I’ve
ever prayed that hard in my life, asking the Holy Spirit, who had led the
cardinals to elected Pope Francis, to flood him with his presence so that he
might lead the Church of Christ well.
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| "The Church is young, and She is alive!" |
Aside from the birth of my nieces
and nephew, I don’t know that I have ever fallen in love with someone as
quickly as did with Pope Francis. He
radiates the simplicity that he preaches.
With two simple words it seems as though he won my heart, “buona serra”
(good evening). His humility in praying
for Benedict and in asking us to pray for him had a major impact on me. After that night in the square, I now know
what people mean when they say that the atmosphere was electric, or that the
joy was palpable. I still cannot explain
the emotions I experience that night. I
also cannot adequately describe the sense of joy and love I had seeing that
white smoke rise and being surrounded by thousands and thousands of people who
braved what began as a nasty Roman night to see an old man dressed in white
walk out on to a balcony. The words of
Benedict XVI at his last audience echoed in my mind as I stood in that square,
“The Church is young and She is alive!”
