Benedict XVI prays in front of a statue of Our Lady of Fatima during a candlelight vigil at the Marian shrine of Fatima in central Portugal |
What one may without exaggeration describe as yet another groundbreaking innovation (so far as I can see, hardly noticed, maybe because it was in Latin) of the present pontificate has just emerged in the Acta Sancta Sedis, the official bulletin of the Holy See.
The latest issue of this monthly publication contains among other things the proceedings of the conclave which elected the present Pope. Most of this was already known. But there was one usually entirely secret part of the proceedings of the conclave, which Acta Sancta Sedis has now published for the first time: the complete text of the meditation delivered to the Cardinal electors immediately before the start of the voting. The cardinal who composed the meditation was the Maltese Augustinian Prosper Grech, who at 87 could not vote, and therefore left the Sistine chapel as soon as had finished speaking. You can read a translation of some of the most important passages of his meditation here.
I want to focus on just one passage, for it spoke to me powerfully. He says first that one difficult task of the new Pope would be to resist the “mysterium iniquitatis”, the evil spirit of the world which, said Cardinal Grech, “constantly strives to infiltrate the Church”.
“No less easy for the future Pontiff”, he continued, “will be the task of keeping unity in the Catholic Church itself. Between ultratraditionalist extremists and ultraprogressive extremists, between priests who rebel against obedience and those who do not recognise the signs of the times, there will always be the danger of minor schisms that not only damage the Church but also go against the will of God: unity at all costs. All are free to express their thoughts on the task of the Church, but they should be proposals in line with that ‘depositum fidei’ which the pontiff together with all of the bishops has the task of guarding.” (more...)
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