Habemus Papam!

Eminentissimum ac Reverendissimum Dominum, Dominum Georgium Marium,
Sanctae Romanae Ecclesiae Cardinalem Bergoglio
qui sibi nomen imposuit Franciscum!

Oremus pro Pontifice nostro Francisco.
Dominus conservet eum, et vivificet eum, et beatum faciat eum in terra, et non tradat eum in animam inimicorum eius.

Pater noster. Ave Maria.

Deus, omnium fidelium pastor et rector, famulum tuum Franciscum, quem pastorem Ecclesiae tuae praeesse voluisti, propitius respice: da ei, quaesumus, verbo et exemplo, quibus praeest, proficere: ut ad vitam, una cum grege sibi credito, perveniat sempiternam. Per Christum, Dominum nostrum. Amen.

A suggestion for the next week or so...

Now that we know that the Conclave will start on Tuesday, a prayer idea came to me this morning when praying the Rosary during my parish's holy hour. If you say the mysteries of the Rosary each day, with the Joyful Mysteries on Mondays, Sorrowful on Tuesdays, etc., why not dedicate the third decade to the election of a holy Pope.

Why the third decade?
The third Joyful Mystery is the Birth of our Lord. We can pray that the Pope is a humble man and has a care for the poor especially. While this may seem rather obvious, the Holy Spirit does not guarantee a humble Pope as history has shown. Therefore, this simple yet obvious virtue is highlighted by this decade.

The third Sorrowful Mystery is the Crowning of our Lord with thorns. We can pray that the Pope chosen will reject any desire to conform to the world and that he may accept any ignominy from the world that he may receive by following God's will and that he will unite this suffering with the Lord's suffering.

The third Glorious Mystery is the Descent of the Holy Spirit. This is also obvious, but we can pray that the Cardinals are also open to the Holy Spirit as the Apostles were.

And, if you pray the Luminous Mysteries, the third Luminous Mystery is the Proclamation of the Kingdom and the Call to Conversion, which is a summary of the Pope's task. While it is the task of each and every one of us, it is the Pope's task in a particular sense.

It's now the day before Ash Wednesday and the start of Lent. My favourite term for this day is not the jovial terms of Pancake Day or Mardi Gras, but Shrove Tuesday. Why? Because to be shriven is a beautiful thing.

Based on yesterday's unexpected news, this Lent is set to be a particularly interesting one. The next Urbi et Orbi blessing that the faithful can receive at the end of Lent will be from a new Pope.

I think one of the best things we can do this Lent is to offer our penances and sacrifices for the cardinal electors and the new Pope, that he may be a faithful guardian of the Church's teaching and an image of Christ to the world. Naturally, we can offer our penances for other things, but the issue of the new Pope will be one that shapes the Church and the world. It will affect our daily lives in some way. Just think of what our current dear Pope has achieved within almost eight years. The Mass of Blessed John XIII is a lot more available. We have Youcat. The Year of Faith. Tighter rules on reporting child abuse. A Pontifical Academy for Latin.

On the other hand, Lent can help put things into perspective. Through prayer, we can gain reassurance that the Holy Spirit is in charge of all things and we should not be too afraid of what is to come. Even if the future is to bring great difficulties, if God is for us, who can be against?

Here is a good article on the importance of Lent.

And here is the collect from the Roman Missal for the election of a Pope. It might be a good idea to pray this in place of Pope Benedict's intentions for March (what happens with those and indulgences during sede vacante anyway??*):

O God, eternal shepherd, who govern your flock with unfailing care, grant in your boundless fatherly love a pastor for your Church who will please you by his holiness and to us show watchful care. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

*Update: Fr Zuhlsdorf has an answer to this and it seems as though we should continue to pray for the intentions in March. So pray the prayer above in addition to the intentions for March. Et sequitur that the normal conditions for indulgences apply too. 

Lenten reading...

Part two of Jesus of Nazareth by Pope Benedict arrived today.
:-D

 It's a hardback copy, too!

Dani Garavelli on the "Condom Conundrum"

Dani Garavelli, a journalist at the Scotsman's Sunday paper - the Scotland on Sunday - wrote a piece today on the whole debacle about one of the Pope's responses in the book-interview Light of the World. Garavelli often comments on Catholic affairs because she herself is Catholic. One only needs to read one article to realise that she is of the liberal persuasion but nevertheless she is honest. Here is an example:

THE way the world has reacted to Pope Benedict XVI's "reassessment" of his position on condoms last week you would be forgiven for thinking he'd whole-heartedly embraced them and was now personally dispensing them from his Popemobile. The truth is far more prosaic and predictable. [...] Not only did the Pope confine his qualified acceptance of condom use to those involved in the sex trade, he seemed to be motivated not by a desire to protect those at risk, but by the hope that the act of putting one on might signal the start of a journey that would eventually lead to a more chaste lifestyle.

I am glad that she has written this even though she's on the other side of the fence, so to speak. It's important for people to realise that what they think has been said is in fact not what has been said. It's always good when the people who disagree with you understand what you are saying. 

So far, I've avoided mentioning the whole affair as I thought it more prudent to wait and see what would happen. I must say that, like many others, I have been disappointed with the official response to the misunderstanding being proclaimed in the mainstream media. The most difficult things to read were quotes from aid agencies who clearly were looking to misread what the Pope was saying and so use it as justification for the distribution of condoms. Those without access to unbiased media would have very little on which to base any counterargument. For this reason, I hoped for a greater response from Church officials on this. On other less important issues, their response is often more than adequate. Sadly, this time it wasn't the case.

V. Oremus pro Pontifice nostro Benedicto.
R. Dominus conservet eum, et vivificet eum, et beatum faciat eum in terra, et non tradat eum in animam inimicorum eius.
Pater noster. Ave Maria.
Deus, omnium fidelium pastor et rector, famulum tuum Benedictum, quem pastorem Ecclesiae tuae praeesse voluisti, propitius respice: da ei, quaesumus, verbo et exemplo, quibus praeest, proficere: ut ad vitam, una cum grege sibi credito, perveniat sempiternam. Per Christum, Dominum nostrum. Amen.

Bellahouston Mass and the ongoing Papal Visit

Well, the Mass yesterday was wonderful and totally worth the long wait. It was a very long day but I loved every moment of it. The Pope's homily was particularly interesting and totally accurate. Since I have poor analytical skills, I'll leave it to the countless others who have commented on blogs. Here is a list of some of them, which I will update over the next few days as well as more speeches are delivered by the Pontiff:

By Father Z at What Does The Prayer Really Say?:
http://wdtprs.com/blog/2010/09/benedict-xvis-state-visit-begins-in-scotland/#comments
There are loads more on WDTPRS but they start from this point in terms of reporting on the actual visit as opposed to the run-up.

By Scottish Catholic Teuchtar:
http://catholicteuchtar.blogspot.com/2010/09/papal-homily-at-bellahouston-park.html
http://catholicteuchtar.blogspot.com/2010/09/papal-mass-youngster.html
http://catholicteuchtar.blogspot.com/2010/09/scotland-does-pope-proud.html
http://catholicteuchtar.blogspot.com/2010/09/hear-him-read-him-love-him.html

By Seraphic Spouse:
http://seraphicgoestoscotland.blogspot.com/2010/09/live-from-bellahouston-park.html
http://seraphicgoestoscotland.blogspot.com/2010/09/home-from-glasgow-achoo.html
http://seraphicgoestoscotland.blogspot.com/2010/09/bellahouston-mass-report-official.html

At Whispers In the Loggia

By Joe Heschmeyer at Shameless Popery:
http://catholicdefense.blogspot.com/2010/09/police-thwart-possible-terrorist-attack.html

Yawn... it must be getting late...

... either that or fact that Peter Tatchell's The Trouble With The Pope was as expected.

The Mass at Bellahouston (part two)

Today I will continue on with the description of the Mass which is to take place at Bellahouston Park in Glasgow next Thursday. I will admit that it is mainly a description of the music with a little bit about the liturgical texts to be used:


The Offertory to the Preface
During the Offertory and the Preparation of the Gifts, "Celtic Invocation" will be sung, which looks like a rendition of St. Patrick's Breastplate. Then the Preface and its introduction will be sung in Latin to the usual chant. Having a quick glance at the Latin and its accompanying English translation to the left of it (which then is oddly and confusingly to the right on the following page, meaning the Latin is always found nearer the middle of the page and the English to the edges), there is a slight omission, namely "through Jesus Christ our Lord".

The Mass at Bellahouston (part one)

Given that I've managed to wangle my way to Bellahouston due to having a relative with friends in high places (she's best friends with a Vicar General), I think it is meet to "hae a wee shufty" at how it will pan out. My relative handed my brother and me two golden booklets by Magnificat outlining everything about the Papal Visit. At first I felt privileged at having this golden piece of treasure that no one else seemed to have until they were handing them out willy-nilly to everyone after Mass last Sunday. That sure burst my bubble about being privy and in possession of such arrangements. Anyway, I digress. Here is a quick outline of the Mass at Bellahouston, from the "Gathering" to the Prayer of the Faithful (the rest will be up another time, as it's late):

Gathering In
Starting like a football match, the "Gathering In Prayer - Hymns" section (a misnomer since we won't be gathering but rather will have already been there for about two hours) are How Lovely on the Mountains with the delightful refrain "Our God Reigns" to rival any chanting coming from the nearby Ibrox football stadium (Glasgow Rangers, for those not cognizant thereof) followed by Hail Redeemer (the chorus ends with a belting of "King of love on Calvary"). After this, the Choir sings "My Dearest Lord: Prayer of St Columba". Then we're all back in with "When Christ our Lord" with the choir coming in afterwards again with "To Christ the Seed" (here's the tune).
I must admit at this point that I don't know any of the previous three hymns so I cannot comment on whether they are good or bad. All I know is that the first one is a Kevin Mayhew one so you can draw your own conclusions from that fact.
Then it comes back to us again with that old favourite of the strumming guitar group at Masses at my school - "City of God". I remember disliking this one even when I was eleven or twelve (at time when staples such as "Colours of Day" "I the Lord of sea and sky" and the one above, "Our God Reigns" were perfectly fine for me). There's something about "tears be turned into dancing" accompanied with the tune which just sounds ridiculous. Following this there is then "Ninian of Galloway" to remember that it is the Feast of St Ninian when this Mass takes place.

The Scotsman on the Papal Visit (Parts 2 & 3)

Unfortunately, yesterday and on Tuesday I had no time to write anything about the second and third parts of The Scotsman's little series on the Papal visit by Stephen McGinty. So here they are now, but together.

The second part on Tuesday focused on the "key issues of concern" for the Pope. It starts with a summary of various issues which the Pope has dealt with in some way, particularly those which caused headlines such as the Regensburg speech, the comment on condoms contributing to the AIDS crisis and the lifting of the excommunications of the four SSPX bishops. And of course the child sex abuse crisis was mentioned. However, the tone of the article is not too condemnatory, stating that Benedict is trying to prepare the Church for the Dark Age of Secularism and also noting a description of the Holy Father's reaction when listening to abuse cases as Prefect of CDF, saying "the physical disgust you could see on Ratzinger's face". It continues on with various people describing the Pope's gentleness and contrasting it with the media's initial description as "God's rottweiler" and "panzer cardinal". It also mentions his membership in the Hitler youth but also saying that his father was an anti-Nazi and that attendance at the HY was compulsory. Finally, the article continues with various anecdotes such as meeting Pele and not knowing who he was and then what the Pope may talk about. The media seem concerned a lot with whether a "controversial statement" (read "reiteration of Catholic doctrine") but John L Allen, his biographer and writer for the National Catholic Reporter, imagines that issues such as homosexuality and life issues may come up but it won't be his main point.
So all in all, for any Catholic who knows anything about the Pope, all of this is nothing new under the sun but I suppose it is quite useful for those who don't. Overall, the article was quite a fair one without too much bias. The only other thing on the page is to conform with The Scotsman's standards of parochiality, boasting of the fact that Monsignor Leo Cushley, a priest from the Diocese of Motherwell, is the head of the English Language desk at the Secretariat of State, meaning he is responsible "for the Church's relations with the English speaking world, a massive territory that includes North America, Australia, Britain and territories in the Far East".Oooh, well there you go!

The third and final part of the series centred on the future of the Church, particularly in Scotland. It featured interviews with three Bishops - Bishop Devine of Motherwell, Bishop Tartaglia of Paisley and Cardinal O'Brien of St Andrew's and Edinburgh. Each one basically discussed the challenges ahead and the need to stick to the teachings of the Church even if comes to the point that preaching them is "illegal" because of hate speech laws. The Cardinal says that he would like Catholics to be able to fight their corner, even if small in number and he quotes Paul, calling Catholics to "preach in season and out of season". I liked this article because there was actually very little commentary and it was mainly a platform for the most senior representatives of the Church in Scotland to voice their views and hopes. Nevertheless, the article states that while at one point the Scottish College of Bishops was once one of the youngest in the world, it is now one of the oldest, meaning that these senior representatives are senior in more ways than one. This was also made evident at the Mass I went to yesterday for the Silver Jubilee of Cardinal O'Brien's episcopal ordination. It was a reasonably grand affair and I got to shake his hand at the end and even pose in a photograph (though I did protest a little). Never mind - at least he didn't find out my full name and realise I was the one whom he told off about a letter I sent about a year ago...

The Scotsman on the Papal Visit (Part 1)

From today till Wednesday, the Scotsman will be providing us lucky readers to some information and background to the Papal Visit. Today, in the first of the three parts, a comparison is drawn between the Scotland of 1982 when Pope John Paul II visited and the Scotland of today. A whole range of figures and diagrams showing various statistics are shown demonstrating that pretty much across the board every figure has fallen (except, perhaps notably, but I'm not going to comment on it, the average weekly donation in the Diocese of Paisley, which was taken as an indicator of the situation in the whole of Scotland). Alongside this, in tiny writing in the bottom corner, there are also figures from the Church of Scotland, for further comparison (because comparing is what we love to do, and it's easier for journalists to fill a page without saying much). In addition to this, we are told that membership of the Humanist Society of Scotland has risen 700 per cent.

Speaking of not saying much, it's not like we didn't know all this anyway, as it is rammed down our throats with relish at every opportunity. But then, to back this up, there are stories about Clare, a biology teacher who decided that the inability of a priest to explain something to her was one of the reasons why she stopped believing and John, a former priest who couldn't reconcile celibacy with his desire to marry and then felt abandoned by the Church. Finally, to warm the cockles of our hearts, we hear of Rachel, a yoof (relatively speaking - she is a little older than me, but the other two above are in their 50s and 60s) who was rather out of control in her teens. She had the enlightening experience of attending a World Youth Day, hoping to simply get a cheap holiday out of it, but this, couple with what I suspect was the real turning point for her, sitting in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament, led to her conversion to the Lord. Excuse the cynical outlook, but for once I am impressed with the Scotsman for actually finding someone, and not only that but someone young, to show that the Faith is still alive in Scotland.

Let's see what's in store for us tomorrow... I can't wait.

Good Shepherd Sunday

Last Sunday I went to the Extraordinary Form of the Mass for the first time since I arrived here in Heidelberg. And I must say that it was excellent. It was held in a relatively small church somewhat linked within the same Gemeinde or Seelsorgeeinheit as the Jesuitenkirche, in the same church where the only regular confession times are held and the only place for Eucharistic Adoration (the St. Anna Kirche that I mentioned in a previous post - clearly the orthodox place to be).
The mass started with an announcement of the fact that it was the 5th anniversary of the Holy Father's pontificate, and as a consequence, we would be singing and praying the Oremus pro Pontifice for the occasion. And thereafter Holy Mass proceeded. It was actually quite different from the Masses I went to in Nantes, where everyone was so clearly used to the EF, but here, where the small church was quite restrictive, it was perhaps less smooth. Nevertheless, they definitely managed it well. They had a "choir" of two men who could really belt out a tune and were perfect for the size of the church. The priest had a capable singing voice and his homily was the best homily I've probably heard here in Heidelberg. It was a very appropriate occasion to be talking of the Good Shepherd, where His vicar on earth is currently under much attack. I found the Oremus pro Pontifice entirely appropriate and beautiful.
Unfortunately, Holy Mass in the EF is nowhere near as common as in Nantes, and I believe the next one is in two weeks. The only other problem is that it is in the evening, which I really do not like, as I do not know what to do in the morning.

Here is the text of Oremus pro Pontifice:

V.Oremus pro Pontifice nostro Benedicto.
R. Dominus conservet eum, et vivificet eum, et beatum faciat eum in terra, et non tradat eum in animam inimicorum eius.

Pater noster. Ave Maria.

Deus, omnium fidelium pastor et rector, famulum tuum N., quem pastorem Ecclesiae tuae praeesse voluisti, propitius respice: da ei, quaesumus, verbo et exemplo, quibus praeest, proficere: ut ad vitam, una cum grege sibi credito, perveniat sempiternam. Per Christum, Dominum nostrum. Amen.

V. Let us pray Benedict, our Pope.
R. May the Lord preserve him, and give him life, and make him blessed upon the earth, and deliver him not up to the will of his enemies.

Our Father. Hail Mary.

O God, Shepherd and Ruler of all Thy faithful people, look mercifully upon Thy servant N, whom Thou hast chosen as shepherd to preside over Thy Church. Grant him, we beseech Thee, that by his word and example, he may edify those over whom he hath charge, so that together with the flock committed to him, may he attain everlasting life. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.