Francis' Friar – O'Malley, The "Super-Cardinal"

To repeat a line once said of Seán O'Malley among his Capuchin confreres, "The stone rejected by the builders has become the cornerstone."

So the more recent story goes, in the days after Pope Francis' election, the cardinal-archbishop of Boston dispatched his priest secretary to the Domus with a note for the new pontiff, ordering the aide "to give this letter to someone who will put it into the Pope’s hands."

As it turned out, Fr Jonathan Gaspar didn't just end up delivering the message – he was received by the Pope.

While we don't know the contents, they were clearly appreciated – this morning, O'Malley was the lone North American named to Papa Bergoglio's eight-cardinal "task force" chartered both to advise Francis in his universal role and study the reform of the Roman Curia.

Given the significance of the call, perhaps it's to be expected that some have wondered why the nod fell to the 68 year-old Capuchin as opposed to others. 

In that light, the choice can be explained on three fronts:

Language -- Put simply, Francis' English is cursory at best; before his election, Cardinal Bergoglio conceded that it was the "toughest" tongue for him to grasp. Ergo, with a doctorate in Spanish and Portuguese literature and having spent the bulk of his priesthood happily engaged in Hispanic ministry, O'Malley – who still says his private prayers in Spanish – is the most fluent North American cardinal in the Pope's home-idiom, at least until Archbishop José Gomez of Los Angeles receives the red hat.

Speaking of Gomez, writing from Rome following his first meeting with the new pontiff (above), the Mexican-born LA prelate gushed in his weekly column that "It is so great to be able to speak to the Pope in Spanish, which we share as our native language!" (On a side-note, it made for yet another breach of Vatican protocol that Francis clearly had no qualms over receiving the head of the 5 million-member SoCal juggernaut – by far, the largest diocese in the history of American Catholicism – while Gomez wore a suit; per custom, prelates attend the Pope clad in cassock.)

While Francis has exclusively employed Italian at public events, on either account, a divide that English-speakers in Vatican circles haven't experienced for quite some time now returns – those who know enough else to speak to the Pope directly... and those who don't.

Relationship -- Asked the day after the election whether it'd be "fair to say you know [Bergoglio] very well," O'Malley answered with one word: "Yes."

Again, it's not a claim every Stateside elector could make – in reality, no more than a handful had more than a cursory sense of the now-Pope before his ascent. In O'Malley's case, the bond is the product of an intense focus on and connection with the Latin American church through his ministry as priest and bishop, giving him an intimate knowledge of the scene and all its many players. 

That wasn't just a matter of personal affinity – the now cardinal's first assignment as a bishop in the Virgin Islands (1984-93) placed the founder of the capital's Centro Catolico Hispano in a Latin-dominant ecclesial sphere. Along the way, though, there was something else that would be a keen tie-in to today's news: among the few prelates from outside New England who O'Malley invited to his scaled-back installation in Boston in 2003 – only one of two cardinals in attendance on the day – was Oscar Rodríguez, one of the Capuchin's closest friends on the wider scene, now the "coordinator" of Francis' super-group.

Given his savvy and wide swath of connections, Rodríguez is believed to have been the discreet "driver" behind the significant first-ballot showing for Bergoglio – largely the product of a cohesive Latin American bloc – which suddenly launched the Argentinian Jesuit onto this Conclave's map, culminating with his election in an astonishingly rapid five ballots.

In his first comment since this morning's nod, during a cameo appearance on the Italian news-channel TG24, the Honduran said that the group's remit would include advising Francis on the fate of the Institute for the Works of Religion – the ever-controversial "Vatican Bank," which several allies of the new Pope have intimated that Papa Bergoglio may likely aim to close.

Beyond the geographic ties, the Bostonian and Bergoglio have a natural simpatico on the personality side, reflected most prominently in their shared preference for simplicity and concern for the poor. In Buenos Aires for a working trip, O'Malley had a "very personal, very informal" visit with the then-cardinal in 2010, spending time with Francis in the Chancery apartment he had taken in lieu of the archiepiscopal residence.

The day after the election, the Capuchin recalled the gift Bergoglio gave him: a copy of the Misa Criolla – the Argentine Mass-setting composed in the 1960s – calling it "a great CD that I enjoy very much."

Given Ariel Ramirez's emphasis on piano, guitars and tambourines in his vernacular liturgy, perhaps it's stating the obvious that not every American red-hat would share a similar affinity for the piece.



Reform -- This July marks a decade since O'Malley was thrust into the most thankless US assignment of the modern era... at least, until his Capuchin classmate was sent to a certain point south in 2011.

It was an epic situation – Boston, the cultural "flagship" of 160 years of Irish-dominant Catholicism in America, roiled by a tidal wave of sex-abuse and cover-up that served to engulf the landscape from coast to coast. And as the brown-robed friar arrived to take the chair whose prior occupants were household names – O'Connell, Cushing and Law – it's not a stretch to say that the world was watching.

More than any other Stateside prelate, "Archbishop Seán" was experienced with earlier eruptions of the sort. After all, he returned to the mainland in 1993 after the case of Fr James Porter rocked Cape Cod's Fall River diocese, then was sent to Palm Beach in the fallout of Bishop Anthony O'Connell's resignation after admitting that he had abused seminarians in the 1970s and 80s. Even if Boston was of another magnitude, the new archbishop knew to move quickly, both symbolically (vacating the palatial Cardinal's Residence in Brighton for an apartment in the gritty South End's cathedral rectory) and substantively, reaching an $85 million settlement of over 500 cases within a six weeks of taking the reins.

The hardest parts, however, were structural: the announcement of 67 parish closings in 2005 whose shockwaves and protests continued for years... and, indeed, the reform of his own Curia, which had been perhaps the most entrenched diocesan bureaucracy in the States.

The latter would be the greatest battle – it took the better part of three years for O'Malley to start turning the tide in the office, and so bruising was the struggle that, in a 2004 letter, he wrote that "At times I ask God to call me home and let someone else finish this job, but I keep waking up in the morning to face another day."

Almost eight years later, the hard-won result doesn't just act different, but looks different – a land of fiefdoms once arrayed in buildings spread across the Brighton campus, the vaunted plot was sold to neighboring Boston College for $172 million and bolstered by several top-flight hires from the private sector (who took pay cuts to join the project), the Chancery relocated to a consolidated hub in a suburban office-park.

O'Malley's reform record doesn't end at home – in 2010, B16 tapped the Capuchin as perhaps the kingpin player in the Apostolic Visitation of the abuse-shattered Irish church, assigning him with the review of the capital church of Dublin, where the release a state inquiry months earlier led to the resignation of several bishops found to have been involved in the transfer of priests despite known, and even serial, abuse allegations.

Most memorably during that process, the cardinal joined Archbishop Diarmuid Martin in prostrating before the altar of St Mary's Pro-Cathedral at the opening of an emotional Liturgy of Repentance largely written by survivors, which included the washing of the feet of victims, men and women alike.

In his reflection at the event, O'Malley said in part that....

On behalf of the Holy Father, I ask forgiveness for the sexual abuse of children perpetrated by priests and the past failures of the Church’s hierarchy, here and in Rome; the failure to respond appropriately to the problem of sexual abuse. Publicly atoning for the Church’s failures is an important element of asking the forgiveness of those who have been harmed by priests and bishops, whose actions -- and inactions -- gravely harmed the lives of children entrusted to their care....

Jesus is always on the side of the victim, bringing compassion and mercy. Jesus is not just the healer in the Gospel. He identifies with the sick, suffering, homeless, all innocent victims of violence and abuse and all survivors of sexual abuse. The Parable ends with injunction; ‘Go and do likewise!’; just as Jesus turns His love and compassion to those who have been violently attacked or sexually abused. We want to be part of a Church that puts survivors, the victims of abuse first, ahead of self-interest, reputation and institutional needs.

We have no doubt of Jesus’ compassion and love for the survivors even when they feel unloved, rejected, or disgraced. Our desire is that our Church reflect that love and concern for the survivors of sexual abuse and their families and be tireless in assuring the protection of children in our Church and in society.

From my own experience in several dioceses with the tragic evil of sexual abuse of minors I see that your wounds are a source of profound distress. Many survivors have struggled with addictions. Others have experienced greatly damaged relationships with parents, spouses and children. The suffering of families has been a terrible and very serious effect of the abuse. Some of you have even suffered the tragedy of a loved one having taken their own life because of the abuse perpetrated on them. The deaths of these beloved children of God weigh heavily on our hearts....

Based on the experience I have had with this Visitation, I believe there is a window of opportunity for the Church here to respond to the crisis in a way that will build a holier Church that strives to be more humble even as it grows stronger. While we have understandably heard much anger and learned of much suffering, we have also witnessed a sincere desire to strengthen and rebuild the Church here. We have seen that there is a vast resource, a reservoir of faith and a genuine desire to work for reconciliation and renewal.

And in the end, it all comes down to that – to "rebuild the church": the call of the Cross to the Seraphic Father and "universal brother," his name chosen for the first time by the 265th Pope.

Along those lines, maybe the Big Question is the Franciscan one: having groused in the Conclave's wake over being made to don the robes of office more during the transition than he had "in the last seven years," will O'Malley get to wear his beloved habit – as opposed to the normally requisite filettata – during October's "super-commission" summit?

Currently on retreat in the Holy Land with a group of his priests (above), the cardinal has yet to make any public comment on his appointment to Francis' "star chamber"....

That's not to say, however, that the Pope hasn't been on the phone.

PHOTOS: Archbishop José Gomez/Facebook(2); George Martell/Archdiocese of Boston (4)
-30-

On Peter's Chair, An Echo of 9/11

Even if today sees the 12th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, only this time around can it be said that the events of that horrific morning have made an irrevocable impact on the life of the Church Universal.

Here's why: only days after the destruction of the World Trade Center, the then-archbishop of New York, Cardinal Edward Egan, was expected in Rome. A year earlier, John Paul II had named the top-flight canonist – one of the Polish Pope's consultants on the 1983 revision of the Code – to the all-important post of Relator General (in essence, the principal discussion leader) of the Synod of Bishops slated to take place the following month, its focus on the role of the bishop in the Third Millennium.

Much as the Gotham church remained rattled in the aftermath, the cardinal – who, it should be noted, rushed downtown to (the now closed) St Vincent's Hospital on learning of the attacks to minister to the wounded and first responders while clad in scrubs – made the trip, opening the Synod with the usual pre-discussion Relatio completely in Latin on October 1st.

Three days later, though – with Egan facing a raft of criticism at home for leaving, which he later termed "the worst thing that ever happened to me in my life" – a special announcement was made from the dais at the beginning of the morning session.

"Eagerly expected by his people" to celebrate a Month's Mind Mass for the lost in St Patrick's Cathedral, the delegates were informed that Egan – shown above with Benedict XVI during the now Pope-emeritus' 2008 visit to Ground Zero – would return to New York.

In retrospect, the real kicker would end up being the second part: "so that our work can continue without any changes," it was revealed that John Paul had "appointed a Deputy Relator General in the person of Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio SJ, archbishop of Buenos Aires," who would carry out the task for the remaining three weeks of the Synod.

Like Egan, Bergoglio had been given his red hat at the mega-consistory of the prior February, when John Paul created 42 cardinals – an all-time high – in one fell swoop. Yet in a distinct contrast to his New York counterpart – a three-decade veteran of the Rota and the university scene who was given the Presidential Suite of his favorite hotel whenever he was back in town  – the low-profile Argentine Jesuit had never studied nor worked in Rome, and generally tended to avoid the place except when summoned under duress. 

Even so, all of a sudden, the surprise turn at the Synod became Bergoglio's "launchpad" into the spotlight of the global church.

In the gathering's wake, the Argentine's performance was deemed so effective that his name would start being floated for key offices in the Curia – a place where he reputedly said "I would die" were he called to work in it. 

Of course, that wouldn't be the end of the buzz – were it not for his stand-in role in the Aula, the Argentine's name would've attracted far less recognition (and, hence, been a non-starter) at the 2005 Conclave... and without Bergoglio's showing at the last election – burnished by the amplified status which resulted from it – his emergence eight years later as B16's successor simply never would've happened.

Though the 266th Bishop of Rome has publicly credited his choice of name to an old friend – the Brazilian Cardinal Claudio Hummes OFM, the retired prefect of Clergy – it's nonetheless notable (and, perhaps, not mere happenstance) that the now-Pope's Synod ascent in Egan's stead took place on October 4th: that is, the feast of St Francis of Assisi.

What's more, the Synod has accordingly been at the forefront of the first Pope Francis' mind on the impending Curial reform. On June's feast of Saints Peter and Paul – by tradition, the nonpareil celebration of centralized papal authority – the pontiff's veering off-script to call the church "forward on the path of synodality" sent shockwaves through the old guard he inherited just days after the Pope declared that "we trust" (read: "I intend") that his Synod "will experience further development to ever more aid the dialogue and collaboration among the bishops and, with them, the Bishop of Rome."

Just in recent hours, meanwhile, Papa Bergoglio's top appointee to date offered his own homage to the new order as, in a Sunday interview with a Venezuelan newspaper before returning to Rome as Secretary of State, Archbishop Pietro Parolin said that though "the church isn't a democracy... it's good that, in these times, a more democratic spirit is brought about in the sense of listening attentively, and I believe that the Pope has indicated this as an objective of his pontificate.

Going further, Parolin explained the concept in play as "a collegial leadership of the church where [the participants] are able to express themselves in every instance."

As noted on his late August appointment, the incoming Secretary wrote his doctoral dissertation in canon law on... the Synod of Bishops. 

In other words, State might remain atop the flow chart as of this writing... but it's pretty clear that, for the key of the shake-up to come, the writing on the wall is already pointing elsewhere.

-30-

On Peter's Chair, An Echo of 9/11

(Originally published 11 September 2013.)

Even if today sees the 12th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, only this time around can it be said that the events of that horrific morning have made an irrevocable impact on the life of the Church Universal.

Here's why: only days after the destruction of the World Trade Center, the then-archbishop of New York, Cardinal Edward Egan, was expected in Rome. A year earlier, John Paul II had named the top-flight canonist – one of the Polish Pope's consultants on the 1983 revision of the Code – to the all-important post of Relator General (in essence, the principal discussion leader) of the Synod of Bishops slated to take place the following month, its focus on the role of the bishop in the Third Millennium.

Much as the Gotham church remained rattled in the aftermath, the cardinal – who, it should be noted, rushed downtown to (the now closed) St Vincent's Hospital on learning of the attacks to minister to the wounded and first responders while clad in scrubs – made the trip, opening the Synod with the usual pre-discussion Relatio completely in Latin on October 1st.

Three days later, though – with Egan facing a raft of criticism at home for leaving, which he later termed "the worst thing that ever happened to me in my life" – a special announcement was made from the dais at the beginning of the morning session.

"Eagerly expected by his people" to celebrate a Month's Mind Mass for the lost in St Patrick's Cathedral, the delegates were informed that Egan – shown above with Benedict XVI during the now Pope-emeritus' 2008 visit to Ground Zero – would return to New York.

In retrospect, the real kicker would end up being the second part: "so that our work can continue without any changes," it was revealed that John Paul had "appointed a Deputy Relator General in the person of Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio SJ, archbishop of Buenos Aires," who would carry out the task for the remaining three weeks of the Synod.

Like Egan, Bergoglio had been given his red hat at the mega-consistory of the prior February, when John Paul created 42 cardinals – an all-time high – in one fell swoop. Yet in a distinct contrast to his New York counterpart – a three-decade veteran of the Rota and the university scene who was given the Presidential Suite of his favorite hotel whenever he was back in town  – the low-profile Argentine Jesuit had never studied nor worked in Rome, and generally tended to avoid the place except when summoned under duress. 

Even so, all of a sudden, the surprise turn at the Synod became Bergoglio's "launchpad" into the spotlight of the global church.

In the gathering's wake, the Argentine's performance was deemed so effective that his name would start being floated for key offices in the Curia – a place where he reputedly said "I would die" were he called to work in it. 

Of course, that wouldn't be the end of the buzz – were it not for his stand-in role in the Aula, the Argentine's name would've attracted far less recognition (and, hence, been a non-starter) at the 2005 Conclave... and without Bergoglio's showing at the last election – burnished by the amplified status which resulted from it – his emergence eight years later as B16's successor simply never would've happened.

Though the 266th Bishop of Rome has publicly credited his choice of name to an old friend – the Brazilian Cardinal Claudio Hummes OFM, the retired prefect of Clergy – it's nonetheless notable (and, perhaps, not mere happenstance) that the now-Pope's Synod ascent in Egan's stead took place on October 4th: that is, the feast of St Francis of Assisi.

What's more, the Synod has accordingly been at the forefront of the first Pope Francis' mind on the impending Curial reform. On June's feast of Saints Peter and Paul – by tradition, the nonpareil celebration of centralized papal authority – the pontiff's veering off-script to call the church "forward on the path of synodality" sent shockwaves through the old guard he inherited just days after the Pope declared that "we trust" (read: "I intend") that his Synod "will experience further development to ever more aid the dialogue and collaboration among the bishops and, with them, the Bishop of Rome."

Just in recent hours, meanwhile, Papa Bergoglio's top appointee to date offered his own homage to the new order as, in a Sunday interview with a Venezuelan newspaper before returning to Rome as Secretary of State, Archbishop Pietro Parolin said that though "the church isn't a democracy... it's good that, in these times, a more democratic spirit is brought about in the sense of listening attentively, and I believe that the Pope has indicated this as an objective of his pontificate.

Going further, Parolin explained the concept in play as "a collegial leadership of the church where [the participants] are able to express themselves in every instance."

As noted on his late August appointment, the incoming Secretary wrote his doctoral dissertation in canon law on... the Synod of Bishops. 

In other words, State might remain atop the flow chart as of this writing... but it's pretty clear that, for the key of the shake-up to come, the writing on the wall is already pointing elsewhere.

-30-

"Mother, Together We Will Fight... Together We Will Win" – At the Vatican, The Pope's "Marian Days"

As the Year of Faith wends into its home-stretch, this weekend brings the gathering that might just be the nearest and dearest to its host's heart.

While an increasingly paranoid Right has taken to trashing the Pope as some sort of "liberal," as Francis' Left flank has given its flagged penchant for "cosmos" baths a break to bask in a sense of his supposed "enlightenment," such is both sides' bloodlust for self-satisfied point-scoring that the ongoing ideological foodfight for "Catholic" supremacy has shown precious little regard for the reality of the man or the matter.

(Lest anybody forgot, Sunday marks just seven months since all this began.)

In sum, Jorge Mario Bergoglio is possessed of a Marian devotion as traditional and intense as that of the famously "Totus Tuus" John Paul II – a zeal the more horizontally-oriented only begin to imitate in condescending to it. At the same time, the Pope's passion for the Madonna isn't something he sees as meaningful merely for his own spirituality, nor as part of a push to "turn the clock back" – his term, of course – but instead as an emphatic endorsement of the life-giving, ever-potent popular piety which remains a cornerstone of his desired "poor church for the poor": the essence of being Catholic for those who rely on and endure in the faith amid life's gravest tests... a practice which the church's shepherds are called to embrace and integrate into the very heart of their ministries if they genuinely seek to attain the now-omniquoted "smell of the sheep."

Indeed, as Francis himself has now expressed the thought on several occasions – Spadaro included – "If you want to know who Mary is, go to the theologian and he will tell you. But if you want to know how to love Mary, go to the People of God who teach it better.... [The people] are always asking for something closer to Jesus, they are sometimes a bit insistent in this. But it is the insistence of those who believe."

Sure, he's never been to these shores (at least, not until 2015). Still, Papa Bergoglio knows of what he speaks even in the Stateside context – for all the noise too many of this crowd make and heed over the passing concerns that witness to little more than "worldliness," the reality remains that, even today, the two largest annual gatherings of American Catholics are both dedicated to the Mother of God: above all, the 36-hour marathon to Our Lady of Guadalupe which (on this fold's biggest night from coast to coast) draws a quarter-million souls to a field outside Chicago every 11-12 December, a place where – the Sunday crowd said to approach 7,000 every week – plans for what would become the country's largest Marian shrine have recently begun to take shape...



...and just behind, the 70,000 and more who've converged on Carthage, Missouri for over three decades each August to mark the weekend-long campout that is Marian Days.



Most years, third place tends to go to the cathedral of Dallas, which often nets a crowd of 50,000-some for its Guadalupe feast. Regardless, here's the kicker: much as these events – and scores of others like them – just keep on growing and get even younger in turnout, in chattering circles of whatever stripe, the awareness of (and respect for) the whole lot remains inversely proportional to their size and the vitality they represent. 

Now, this isn't merely a stupid slip of the blissfully ignorant – we're ten years past that point. These days, sad as it is, for what claims to be a savvy, faithful, "representative" ecclesial discourse on an American Catholicism whose "minorities" now comprise its working majority, the lack of attention to and encounter with our own makes for a pretty embarrassing, if not outright discrediting, indictment.

Then again, it just goes to remind that if you want to see The Church as Francis knows, wants and loves it best, you won't find it in any suburbanized, politicized, Anglo-centric journal or combox (or even what's above it), but huddled alongside the Mexicans who bike miles to Des Plaines in the Windy City's December freeze, riding the sweltering cross-country bus-trips to Carthage to spend the Days in tents with the Vietnamese, or hundreds of "hidden" instances elsewhere... because the words of an earlier age's poet on encountering the revolution in our midst are true yet again: "You will not be able to stay home, brother / You will not be able to plug in, turn on and cop out."

Among those for whom that message isn't news, a crowd of 150,000 is expected for this weekend's celebrations in Rome, which will close with another open-air PopeMass on Sunday morning. At least this time, it will be televised – or, OK, YouTubed.

* * *

Of course, the Vatican edition of "Marian Days" was scheduled to coincide with Sunday's feast of one of the most celebrated of visions: Our Lady of Fatima, whose final emergence on 13 October 1917 was accompanied by the "Miracle of the Sun," and followed ever since by a steady stream of conspiracy theories that'd give Dan Brown a run for his money.

To commemorate the event, the original statue of the Portuguese Madonna – her crown containing the bullet that almost felled Saint-to-Be John Paul on the anniversary of Fatima's first appearance in May 1981 – is being brought to spend the weekend in the Square... at least, when she's not at the Domus with the Pope. (Above left, Francis is shown with his friendly gourd of maté and coffee-table statue of his homeland's patroness, Argentina's Virgen de Luján – one of the few personal effects dotting his spare private study in Room 201 of the Vatican guesthouse.)

Along the way, though, it could be said that the more prominent observance in Papa Bergoglio's mind comes on the gathering's first day: 12 October is the feast of Our Lady of Aparecida, the patroness of Brazil, whose shrine was added to July's World Youth Day trip to Rio at Francis' own insistence on the visit's first morning, for the expressed purpose of consecrating his ministry as Bishop of Rome at her feet.

Beyond being the global church's biggest Marian shrine in the largest Catholic country of all – the current basilica there seats 45,000 – Aparecida (where Francis has already pledged to return in 2017) is likewise the spot where Bergoglio's ascent to the papacy just happened to begin in earnest; at their decennial continent-wide plenary in 2007, the Latin American bishops tapped the Argentine cardinal to lead the drafting committee which produced their final statement.

On its release, the result led the Jesuit to be recognized among the CELAM as the body's Visionary-in-Chief.... Six years later, the cardinals of the mega-conference fuelled the Conclave bloc which launched him onto Peter's Chair.... And now – amplified by Francis' two most significant speeches of any kind to date – the Aparecida Charter penned by the 266th Pontiff is rightly seen as the most authoritative programmatic guide to the first papacy born of the American continent.

When the now-Pope and the ever-Virgin came face to face again, veteran Bergoglio-watchers said that his moments before the foot-high wooden statue made for "the most emotional" they've ever seen him. Breaking his now-familiar form, Francis zipped past the shrine's Redemptorist priests to make it to the Madonna, needing to be prodded by his entourage both to start saying the prayer he apparently wrote on his own and – caught in an apparent trance – to depart after offering it.

Accordingly, below is video of the moment and – con muito obrigado a Cristiano in Rio – an English translation of the Pope's consecration of himself (quotes indicate the refrains spoken by the small group in attendance):

Mother Aparecida,
today I feel like you once did
before your God and mine,
who proposes for our lives a mission
whose contours and limits we ignore,
whose demands we only glimpse.
Yet in your faith that "nothing is impossible with God,"
O Mother,
you did not hesitate,
and so I cannot hesitate.

"Behold the handmaid of the Lord! Let it be done unto me according to your word!"

In this way, O Mother, like you,
I embrace my mission.
Into your hands I put my life
and we will
– you-mother and me-son –
we will walk together,
believe together,
fight together,
win together as your Son and you always walked together.

"Woman, behold your son! Son, behold your mother!"

Mother Aparecida,
You once took your Son to the Temple
to consecrate him to the Father,
that he might be fully available for the mission which awaited him.
Lift me up today to the same Father,
consecrate me to him,
all that I am and all that I have.

"Here I am! Send me!"

Mother Aparecida,
I put in your hands,
and so take to the Father, our and your youth, and World Youth Day:
so much strength, so much life,
so much dynamism sprouting and bursting,
which can be at service of life, of mankind.

"Father, welcome and sanctify your youth!"

Finally, O Mother, we ask you:
stay here,
always welcoming your son and daughter pilgrims,
but also come with us, be always by our side
and go along with us,
the great family of your devotees, in our own missions:
especially when the cross weighs heavy,
sustain our hope and our faith.

"Keep faithful, and I will give you the crown of life. Amen!"

-30-

"Mother, Together We Will Fight... Together We Will Win" – At the Vatican, The Pope's "Marian Days"

(Originally published 11 October 2013.)

As the Year of Faith wends into its home-stretch, this weekend brings the gathering that might just be the nearest and dearest to its host's heart.

While an increasingly paranoid Right has taken to trashing the Pope as some sort of "liberal," as Francis' Left flank has given its flagged penchant for "cosmos" baths a break to bask in a sense of his supposed "enlightenment," such is both sides' bloodlust for self-satisfied point-scoring that the ongoing ideological foodfight for "Catholic" supremacy has shown precious little regard for the reality of the man or the matter.

(Lest anybody forgot, Sunday marks just seven months since all this began.)

In sum, Jorge Mario Bergoglio is possessed of a Marian devotion as traditional and intense as that of the famously "Totus Tuus" John Paul II – a zeal the more horizontally-oriented only begin to imitate in condescending to it. At the same time, the Pope's passion for the Madonna isn't something he sees as meaningful merely for his own spirituality, nor as part of a push to "turn the clock back" – his term, of course – but instead as an emphatic endorsement of the life-giving, ever-potent popular piety which remains a cornerstone of his desired "poor church for the poor": the essence of being Catholic for those who rely on and endure in the faith amid life's gravest tests... a practice which the church's shepherds are called to embrace and integrate into the very heart of their ministries if they genuinely seek to attain the now-omniquoted "smell of the sheep."

Indeed, as Francis himself has now expressed the thought on several occasions – Spadaro included – "If you want to know who Mary is, go to the theologian and he will tell you. But if you want to know how to love Mary, go to the People of God who teach it better.... [The people] are always asking for something closer to Jesus, they are sometimes a bit insistent in this. But it is the insistence of those who believe."

Sure, he's never been to these shores (at least, not until 2015). Still, Papa Bergoglio knows of what he speaks even in the Stateside context – for all the noise too many of this crowd make and heed over the passing concerns that witness to little more than "worldliness," the reality remains that, even today, the two largest annual gatherings of American Catholics are both dedicated to the Mother of God: above all, the 36-hour marathon to Our Lady of Guadalupe which (on this fold's biggest night from coast to coast) draws a quarter-million souls to a field outside Chicago every 11-12 December, a place where – the Sunday crowd said to approach 7,000 every week – plans for what would become the country's largest Marian shrine have recently begun to take shape...



...and just behind, the 70,000 and more who've converged on Carthage, Missouri for over three decades each August to mark the weekend-long campout that is Marian Days.



Most years, third place tends to go to the cathedral of Dallas, which often nets a crowd of 50,000-some for its Guadalupe feast. Regardless, here's the kicker: much as these events – and scores of others like them – just keep on growing and get even younger in turnout, in chattering circles of whatever stripe, the awareness of (and respect for) the whole lot remains inversely proportional to their size and the vitality they represent. 

Now, this isn't merely a stupid slip of the blissfully ignorant – we're ten years past that point. These days, sad as it is, for what claims to be a savvy, faithful, "representative" ecclesial discourse on an American Catholicism whose "minorities" now comprise its working majority, the lack of attention to and encounter with our own makes for a pretty embarrassing, if not outright discrediting, indictment.

Then again, it just goes to remind that if you want to see The Church as Francis knows, wants and loves it best, you won't find it in any suburbanized, politicized, Anglo-centric journal or combox (or even what's above it), but huddled alongside the Mexicans who bike miles to Des Plaines in the Windy City's December freeze, riding the sweltering cross-country bus-trips to Carthage to spend the Days in tents with the Vietnamese, or hundreds of "hidden" instances elsewhere... because the words of an earlier age's poet on encountering the revolution in our midst are true yet again: "You will not be able to stay home, brother / You will not be able to plug in, turn on and cop out."

Among those for whom that message isn't news, a crowd of 150,000 is expected for this weekend's celebrations in Rome, which will close with another open-air PopeMass on Sunday morning. At least this time, it will be televised – or, OK, YouTubed.

* * *

Of course, the Vatican edition of "Marian Days" was scheduled to coincide with Sunday's feast of one of the most celebrated of visions: Our Lady of Fatima, whose final emergence on 13 October 1917 was accompanied by the "Miracle of the Sun," and followed ever since by a steady stream of conspiracy theories that'd give Dan Brown a run for his money.

To commemorate the event, the original statue of the Portuguese Madonna – her crown containing the bullet that almost felled Saint-to-Be John Paul on the anniversary of Fatima's first appearance in May 1981 – is being brought to spend the weekend in the Square... at least, when she's not at the Domus with the Pope. (Above left, Francis is shown with his friendly gourd of maté and coffee-table statue of his homeland's patroness, Argentina's Virgen de Luján – one of the few personal effects dotting his spare private study in Room 201 of the Vatican guesthouse.)

Along the way, though, it could be said that the more prominent observance in Papa Bergoglio's mind comes on the gathering's first day: 12 October is the feast of Our Lady of Aparecida, the patroness of Brazil, whose shrine was added to July's World Youth Day trip to Rio at Francis' own insistence on the visit's first morning, for the expressed purpose of consecrating his ministry as Bishop of Rome at her feet.

Beyond being the global church's biggest Marian shrine in the largest Catholic country of all – the current basilica there seats 45,000 – Aparecida (where Francis has already pledged to return in 2017) is likewise the spot where Bergoglio's ascent to the papacy just happened to begin in earnest; at their decennial continent-wide plenary in 2007, the Latin American bishops tapped the Argentine cardinal to lead the drafting committee which produced their final statement.

On its release, the result led the Jesuit to be recognized among the CELAM as the body's Visionary-in-Chief.... Six years later, the cardinals of the mega-conference fuelled the Conclave bloc which launched him onto Peter's Chair.... And now – amplified by Francis' two most significant speeches of any kind to date – the Aparecida Charter penned by the 266th Pontiff is rightly seen as the most authoritative programmatic guide to the first papacy born of the American continent.

When the now-Pope and the ever-Virgin came face to face again, veteran Bergoglio-watchers said that his moments before the foot-high wooden statue made for "the most emotional" they've ever seen him. Breaking his now-familiar form, Francis zipped past the shrine's Redemptorist priests to make it to the Madonna, needing to be prodded by his entourage both to start saying the prayer he apparently wrote on his own and – caught in an apparent trance – to depart after offering it.

Accordingly, below is video of the moment and – con muito obrigado a Cristiano in Rio – an English translation of the Pope's consecration of himself (quotes indicate the refrains spoken by the small group in attendance):

Mother Aparecida,
today I feel like you once did
before your God and mine,
who proposes for our lives a mission
whose contours and limits we ignore,
whose demands we only glimpse.
Yet in your faith that "nothing is impossible with God,"
O Mother,
you did not hesitate,
and so I cannot hesitate.

"Behold the handmaid of the Lord! Let it be done unto me according to your word!"

In this way, O Mother, like you,
I embrace my mission.
Into your hands I put my life
and we will
– you-mother and me-son –
we will walk together,
believe together,
fight together,
win together as your Son and you always walked together.

"Woman, behold your son! Son, behold your mother!"

Mother Aparecida,
You once took your Son to the Temple
to consecrate him to the Father,
that he might be fully available for the mission which awaited him.
Lift me up today to the same Father,
consecrate me to him,
all that I am and all that I have.

"Here I am! Send me!"

Mother Aparecida,
I put in your hands,
and so take to the Father, our and your youth, and World Youth Day:
so much strength, so much life,
so much dynamism sprouting and bursting,
which can be at service of life, of mankind.

"Father, welcome and sanctify your youth!"

Finally, O Mother, we ask you:
stay here,
always welcoming your son and daughter pilgrims,
but also come with us, be always by our side
and go along with us,
the great family of your devotees, in our own missions:
especially when the cross weighs heavy,
sustain our hope and our faith.

"Keep faithful, and I will give you the crown of life. Amen!"

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In the Vatican, The Pope of Chaos

(Originally published 18 March 2013.)

Notice something different there? 

(Hint: No Cufflink.)

Normally, a detail of the sort would would be seen as frivolous. In the modern papacy, though, symbolism is substance – and in these first days of a new "Franciscan Rule," so it seems, the world is eating up every last bit.

On another dress-note, meanwhile, much as the new Pope's sticking with his black shoes has caused a stir, his reluctance to change too much extends under the white cassock, to boot: the Argentine pontiff's preferences don't just make his move to keep wearing black pants visible through the garment, but likewise highlight the untucked tails of his white dress-shirt. 

In other words, the lack of fuss isn't just a show for the world. But having declined the Archbishop's Residence in Buenos Aires for a flat where he did his own cooking, and riding around the city on buses and subways without an entourage, that was fairly well-established.

All of four days into his new ministry, Papa Bergoglio's style has already spurred significant tweaks to three pillars of the traditional apparatus surrounding the papacy: the liturgical shop (e.g. Guido Marini, now all in linen – something that, in times past, the Tradition-minded lead MC didn't even do on Good Friday), the press operation (given the Pope's penchant to veer into long stretches off-script, requiring immediate transcription and translation)... and perhaps the most formidable fiefdom of all, the security services.

Much as the latter clash was fairly clear from the get-go, it's already begun to build, most recently as the pontiff veered into the crowd following yesterday's morning Mass at Santa Anna (fullvideo) – Vatican City's "parish church" – going to those who couldn't be inside only after greeting each member of the congregation individually at the foot of the steps outside. Ergo, as Curialists of every stripe tend to do, the guards have taken their case to the ultimate sounding board of life behind the walls: the Italian press.

In Monday's La Stampa, the vaticanista-in-chief Andrea Tornielli reported that the papal security force – a combined effort of the Swiss Guard and the Vatican Gendarmeria (police) – were "seeking to adjust to the new style," but an unnamed member of the troop said that should Francis' habits not "normalize" after his first days, "it will make everybody crazy."

Another instance of the Pope's desire to remain "unbubbled" came Saturday morning. As he exited the Domus Sancta Marthae – the "Conclave Hotel" where he's still saying – for the audience with the press who covered the transition, Tornielli wrote that Francis "found the car and another escort vehicle" waiting to take him the block or so to the event site at the Paul VI Hall.

"The Pope looked at the policemen, smiled, and made an eloquent gesture with his hand, as if to say: 'Did you really think I'd take a car to go 100 meters?'" 

As he wished, he walked. Yet even this only hints at the moral of the story. 

Extraordinary as the response to his sincerity and simplicity has been over these days – a feeling running far beyond Rome and Argentina – Jorge Bergoglio's success at defining himself as himself on the world stage has come thanks to a less visible, yet equally key trait of the 266th Pope: his steely sense of determination. If he lacked it, he never could've proceeded or been received as he has in such a short stretch of time... and to be sure, its early quiet flashes are merely shaping up as a sneak preview of the battle of wills which is almost certain to define his pontificate.

As things pick up steam, a lesson from the Pope's past bears recalling: on ending his term as provincial of Argentina, then-Fr Bergoglio's intensity of conviction and grit served to divide his confreres so severely that he was made to leave the country until things could simmer down.

Then again, perhaps even that bodes well. Given the thick sea he'd inherit, the times called for a strong figure to don the white – someone strong enough to keep his black pants and set the trappings at arm's length if he so chose. Yet most of all, in an office where practically every temptation and modern custom could quickly undermine the intent behind it, only a fool would ever have taken the name Francis... 

...that is, unless he was driven to clear the high bar that comes with it.

PHOTOS: L'Osservatore Romano

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On Day One, The "Build" Began

Even if the general scene more easily recalls the new Pope's "Buonasera" and request for the crowd's blessing at his first appearance before a stunned world, in more ways still, what transpired five years ago today more concretely set the stage for a whirlwind which hasn't let up since.

By lunchtime on his first full day as Bishop of Rome, Francis had fled the Vatican, heading first to St Mary Major to pray before the city's patroness, the Salus Populi Romani – an act which didn't just underscore Jorge Bergoglio's intense Marian devotion, but marked the debut of the blue sedan lacking the traditional "SCV 1" license plate reserved for the pontiff, in place of the bulletproof Mercedes-Benz donated to his predecessor. Yet only afterward came the day's keenest sign that business as usual was being upended, as Papa Bergoglio insisted on returning to Via della Scrofa – the clerical hostel that had been his routine lodging in Rome – to settle his bill (above).

From the very outset, it was a cannily-executed "plan of attack" on the culture and trappings surrounding his new office, which scored the intended result as everyone from the papal entourage to the crowds in the streets looked on slack-jawed. But the method behind the exercise is worth recalling: though his election had come as a broad surprise, having had almost eight years to privately mull over the "What if's" as runner-up at the 2005 Conclave, Papa Bergoglio came to the role with a degree of mental preparedness that, even now, tends to be discounted.

Indeed, especially for a Vatican used to a glacial pace and a habit of reserve, those first days were nothing less than a shock to the system... and by that first weekend, the notion of a "pontificate of chaos" had already taken hold.

After five years, that might feel like the new normal. Still, it helps to remember how astonishing it was as it unfolded.

*   *   *

On the evening of that first day, the traditional post-script of the Conclave took place as the new Pope returned with his electors to the Sistine Chapel for his first Mass in office.

In 2005, Benedict XVI delivered a lengthy, programmatic address in Latin at the end of the liturgy. Yet for his first extended turn at the global pulpit, Francis again charted a distinct path from his predecessors, shirking the celebrant's throne to stand at the ambo, leaving behind his mitre to launch into one of his trademark, unscripted fervorini on the scriptures – one which, in its comparison of a Christ-less church to a sterile "NGO" (non-governmental organization), birthed a genre of papal communication-by-analogy which has arguably become more defining than this reign's major texts.

As that first homily succinctly sketched out a threefold agenda for the church, it's useful to return to as a yardstick for the "movement" since....

In these three readings [Isaiah 2:2-5, 1 Peter 2:4-9, Matthew 16:13-19] I see that there is something in common: it is movement. In the first reading, movement is the journey [itself]; in the second reading, movement is in the up-building of the Church. In the third, in the Gospel, the movement is in [the act of] profession: walking, building, professing.

Walking: the House of Jacob. “O house of Jacob, Come, let us walk in the light of the Lord.” This is the first thing God said to Abraham: “Walk in my presence and be blameless.” Walking: our life is a journey and when we stop, there is something wrong. Walking always, in the presence of the Lord, in the light of the Lord, seeking to live with that blamelessness, which God asks of Abraham, in his promise.

Building: to build the Church. There is talk of stones: stones have consistency, but [the stones spoken of are] living stones, stones anointed by the Holy Spirit. Build up the Church, the Bride of Christ, the cornerstone of which is the same Lord. With [every] movement in our lives, let us build!

Third, professing: we can walk as much we want, we can build many things, but if we do not confess Jesus Christ, nothing will avail. We will become a pitiful NGO, but not the Church, the Bride of Christ. When one does not walk, one stalls. When one does not built on solid rocks, what happens? What happens is what happens to children on the beach when they make sandcastles: everything collapses, it is without consistency. When one does not profess Jesus Christ - I recall the phrase of Leon Bloy – “Whoever does not pray to God, prays to the devil.” When one does not profess Jesus Christ, one professes the worldliness of the devil.

Walking, building-constructing, professing: the thing, however, is not so easy, because in walking, in building, in professing, there are sometimes shake-ups - there are movements that are not part of the path: there are movements that pull us back.

This Gospel continues with a special situation. The same Peter who confessed Jesus Christ, says, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God. I will follow you, but let us not speak of the Cross. This has nothing to do with it.” He says, “I’ll follow you on other ways, that do not include the Cross.” When we walk without the Cross, when we build without the Cross, and when we profess Christ without the Cross, we are not disciples of the Lord. We are worldly, we are bishops, priests, cardinals, Popes, but not disciples of the Lord.

I would like that all of us, after these days of grace, might have the courage - the courage - to walk in the presence of the Lord, with the Cross of the Lord: to build the Church on the Blood of the Lord, which is shed on the Cross, and to profess the one glory, Christ Crucified. In this way, the Church will go forward. 

My hope for all of us is that the Holy Spirit, that the prayer of Our Lady, our Mother, might grant us this grace: to walk, to build, to profess Jesus Christ Crucified. So be it.

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Francis' First "Red Dawn" – Four Months Early, Pope Calls Consistory

As another precedent-shattering move comes to pass in the new Franciscan Rule, suffice it to say, "Eminences, start your engines...."



Even if the timing of consistories for the creation of new cardinals has long been one of the Vatican's worst-kept secrets – last time excepted – never has definitive word come like this: confirming a Tuesday report by the French agency iMedia, this morning the VatiSpox Fr Federico Lombardi SJ announced that, indeed, Papa Bergoglio intends to dole out his first batch of red hats on the feast of the Chair of Peter, 22 February 2014. (This adds further heft to a joke that's been making the rounds lately: in a 180 from past practice, these days, "If you want to know a pontifical secret, just ask the Pope – he'll tell you himself.")

What's more, Lombardi detailed a full plate of events surrounding the first gathering of the Pope's "Senate" since the Conclave. Bookended by the third meeting of Francis' "Gang of Eight" and another summit of the (newly-)all-important Synod Council, Francis will maintain the tradition begun by his predecessor and hold a consultation day with the entire College on the eve of the Consistory, its focus reportedly centered on the reform of the Curia.

Far from the usual means of announcement – a declaration by the Pope himself either at the Wednesday Audience or Sunday Angelus a month before the Consistory date – the date was given this far in advance to allow the nearly 200 red-hats to work the week into their schedules. Though the speculation of prior Consistory dates had largely panned out, far-flung cardinals have long complained that the lack of a formal confirmation until weeks before had the effect of holding their calendars hostage.

By late February, at least 14 voting seats will be available to return the College to its statutory maximum of 120 electors younger than 80. However, as both John Paul II and B16 did at points – Wojtyla having famously ballooned the electorate to 135 in the same 2001 Consistory at which Jorge Mario Bergoglio was elevated – the Pope is perfectly free to dispense from the limit, which was established by Paul VI in 1975.

As for the composition of the new intake, it's fair to say that – with a "Pope of Surprises" who's shown little reluctance about setting his own course – all bets are off. Still, it would be little shock if the first non-European Pope in a millennium started into an effort to significantly shift the geographic makeup of the College, which has habitually seen his home-continent (which contains half the world's Catholics) and much of the global church's emerging standard-bearers significantly underrepresented.

For example, despite boasting the bulk of 1.2 billion Catholics worldwide, Latin Americans only comprised 12 percent of the electors at the March Conclave, its 15 voting cardinals just one more than the North American bloc from a church less than one fifth of its southern neighbor's size. Among other instances of the stark imbalances, among the most glaring is a stack-up between the US church and the Philippines – though both comprise a roughly equal number of members in the range of 70 million, the Stateside voters outnumbered the islands' Cardinal Chito Tagle 11-1 in the Sistine Chapel this spring.

While another 13 seats come open between the February date and April 2015, several ops have indicated that one means Francis intends to use to achieve a geographic reboot is a significant curtailing of the red hats given to Vatican officials, along with a gradual drop of the "cardinalatial sees" in Europe. Taken together, the Curial and Continent blocs accounted for 67 of the 111 electors in March, or precisely three-fifths of the Conclave, just 11 shy of the requisite two-thirds margin needed to produce a Pope.

Among the few bankable names on the coming biglietto – at least, at this point – are but three Curial officials: the new Secretary of State, Archbishop Pietro Parolin, the CDF chief Gerhard Ludwig Müller, and Francis' hand-picked head of the newly-amplified Synod, Archbishop Lorenzo Baldisseri.

On the residential front, meanwhile, Bergoglio's successor as archbishop of Buenos Aires, Mario Poli, especially after his election dropped Argentina's number of resident voters to zero. Yet even more notably, as part of an expected increase of the College's Eastern presence, both protocol and personal ties would see a seat going to the head of the largest Oriental body in communion with Rome – the major-archbishop of the 6 million-member Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, Sviatoslav Shevchuk, who at 43 would become the youngest cardinal elevated in the last century.

Lastly, as was noted at the February 2011 Consistory, with that round's elevation of the archbishop of New York, the US posts traditionally given a red hat either had a sitting cardinal-archbishop, or his predecessor who remained of electoral age – a scenario which (barring deaths) will remain the case until April 2015. In other words, these shores' quota under the customary understanding is more than satisfied for the foreseeable future.

Accordingly, the case then remains in play now – should Francis seek to further expand the Stateside bloc (already, after the Italians, the second-largest electoral group), a Pope of limited familiarity with the domestic scene will have to choose from one of two possibilities: ramp up the elevation of archbishops whose predecessors still have a vote... or continue Papa Ratzinger's project of reflecting a drastically changed Stateside fold by conferring the scarlet on places it's never gone before.

All in all, it bears watching... and as the timetable of today's announcement blew away the norm – for the sake of i Gammarelli and the arrangement of the pilgrimages – don't be surprised one bit to see the designates' names emerge well before January.

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