Posted on 04/09/2005 3:48:16 PM PDT by NYer
VATICAN CITY -
Cardinals began "an intense period of silence and prayer" before their conclave to choose the next pope, saying Saturday they would stop speaking publicly to protect the strict secrecy surrounding the centuries-old tradition.
The throngs of pilgrims who attended John Paul II's funeral Friday flowed out of Rome, leaving mainly tourists in a quiet, rainy St. Peter's Square. The Vatican said a decision on calls to put John Paul on a fast track to sainthood would rest with the next pope.
Italian Cardinal Francesco Marchisano celebrated the second Mass for John Paul in St. Peter's Basilica, a daily rite over nine days that began with the funeral Mass. His homily praised "this infinite humanity" that he called the late pope's hallmark.
The unanimous vote Saturday by 130 cardinals to maintain public silence was unprecedented. But in an era of continuous news updates and constant speculation, Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls called the media ban an "act of responsibility."
He asked journalists not to ask the cardinals for interviews and said they should not take the prelates' silence as an act of "discourtesy."
"The cardinals, after the funeral Mass of the Holy Father, began a more intense period of silence and prayer, in view of the conclave," Navarro-Valls said. "They unanimously decided to avoid interviews and encounters with the media."
At least two cardinals later turned down requests for interviews.
The lack of access to the cardinals was unlikely to stem the speculation about John Paul's successor, with worldwide interest peaking in what could be a tight competition between reformers and conservatives.
Navarro-Valls said 115 prelates will participate in the conclave, which will begin April 18 — all the cardinals under the age of 80 except for Cardinal Jaime L. Sin of the Philippines and Cardinal Alfonso Antonio Suarez Rivera of Mexico, who are too sick to attend.
John Paul took the name of an additional cardinal — kept secret apparently to protect him from a government that represses religious activity — to the grave.
Cardinal Karl Lehmann was quoted by the German newspaper Allgemeine Zeitung as saying race and background will play a role in the choice of the next pope, but there were no clear favorites and "probably also no firm alliances."
"One must be moved through voting, contacts and discussion to a consensus," he was quoted as saying.
John Paul was the first non-Italian pope in 455 years. Some cardinals have called for a Latin American pope to reflect the huge number of Catholics in the region. Others have said the papacy should return to an Italian, while there are contenders from elsewhere in Europe, as well as from Nigeria and India.
St. Peter's Square, which was packed during the funeral by 250,000 pilgrims and dignitaries from 138 countries, was quiet a day later under a steady rain. Cafes and souvenir shops along nearby Via della Conciliazione reopened, finally freed of the crush of pilgrims.
"I can't talk to you," said a man hawking religious trinkets, key chains and figurines. "After 10 days without work, every second counts."
The exodus of pilgrims was wrapping up Saturday as visitors carrying backpacks, folded flags and rolled-up sleeping bags headed for train stations and parking lots on the outskirts of the city. Few stayed around to see the sights.
"We have come here only to pray," said Ula Maciejowska, 33, who was heading home to Oswiecim, Poland. "We will come another time to shop."
Rome's Mayor, Walter Veltroni, said Rome's population of 2.6 million doubled over the past week, giving a lower figure than earlier police estimates of 4 million visitors. He said 1.3 million people filed past John Paul's body.
Remarkably, the mayor said not a single incident of purse-snatching or theft was reported from Vatican City, the diminutive state that in 2002 was reported to have the highest crime rate in the world, mostly incidents such as pickpocketing.
He said Rome's main train station and the square at Tor Vergata University, where John Paul held a huge Youth Jubilee in 2000, will be renamed after the late pope.
The Vatican post office said special "vacant see" stamps, valid only until a new pope is named, will go on sale Tuesday. Collectors were expected to snap up the 700,000 stamps, which will be sold at the post offices around St. Peter's Square.
We can be sure that the MSM will come out with plenty of misinformation, spin, and free advice, all best ignored.
Telecommunications has improved significantly in the 26 years since the last Papal Conclave. It is consoling to know this vote was unanimous - no email, cell phones or Blackberries!
From left, British Cardinal Cormac Muphy-O'Connor and U.S. Cardinals Theodore Edgar McCarrick, Edward Egan and Justin Francis Rigali attend a Mass in St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican, Saturday, April 9, 2005. Starting with the funeral of Pope John Paul II on Friday, Cardinals celebrate a series of funeral Masses for nine days and known as the 'Novendialis'. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
Catholic Ping
Please freepmail me if you want on/off this list
Reuters posted a story today on the dissident group "We are Church", calling JPII 'contradictory'. They argue that the majority of America's Roman Catholics want a greater voice for the laity in the church, that priests should be allowed to marry and that there should even be women in the clergy.
It didn't take long before I was shouting at the radio. The ignorant interviewing the even more ignorant. I'm heartened and consoled to know that the Cardinals arrived at this decision unanimously.
I know he has pracically no chance, but I think Cardinal Rigali would make a pretty good pontiff.
Among those who put their money where their mouth is, sports bettors, one sportsbook has about a dozen hopefuls, at varying odds. The favorite named cardinal is an Italian named Tetrasomethingorother, at about 2-1. But the real favorite, at about even money, is "other", leading me to believe that bettors think the new man will be a big surprise.
I would think it logical for it to be someone from the Middle East, if there is such a cardinal -- like maybe the guy from Iraq who was kidnapped and released by terrorists.
Yah - church of Rome cardinals and 'media silence': the rest of 'em are learning a thing or two from their eleven American co-workers.
In my younger days, I used to disagree with JPII about many things. As I've aged, I've come to recognize more and more that he's been right all along.
They can't even get one term correct:
From the caption of the photo in post #1 - "Novemdiales"Didn't they get the "memo" from the Vatican Press Office? It said, "SCHEDULE FOR NOVENDIALI, NINE DAYS OF MOURNING FOR POPE" Sheesh! And they expect us to put stock in their "analysis" of events in the Vatican?
From the caption of the photo in post #3 - "Novendialis"
And this
Cardinals ban media interviews before conclave
Associated Press
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/1113050242822_21/?hub=TopStories
ROME — The Roman Catholic Church's cardinals are under a media blackout rule in the period leading up to the April 18 conclave.
They have all agreed to not talk in public or with the media as the church begins its official nine-day mourning period following Friday's funeral for Pope John Paul II, who died April 2.
Asked if he had a message for the world's one billion Catholics, Cardinal Wilfred Fox Napier said, "Pray for us. Just pray for us, OK?"
When the mourning period ends and the conclave begins, 115 cardinals under the age of 80 will gather again at the Vatican to pick a new pontiff.
Two cardinals eligible to vote are too ill to attend. They are Cardinal Jaime L. Sin of the Philippines and Cardinal Alfonso Antonio Suarez Rivera of Mexico, said Joaquin Navarro-Valls, the Vatican's top spokesman, on Saturday.
While Italian news media claimed Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the dean of the College of Cardinals, had successfully argued for the ban.
Navarro-Valls would only say the cardinals unanimously approved it and that they considered it an "act of responsibility" to remain silent.
The cardinals swore an oath of secrecy about their deliberations on April 4, two days after the Pope's death at age 84. But it didn't preclude them from giving interviews.
Breaking that oath would lead to excommunication, according to guidelines set out by John Paul in 1996.
Pilgrims pack up
While the cardinals entered their silence period, the massive numbers of pilgrims who flocked to Rome to say goodbye to John Paul II started leaving.
City officials in Rome estimated most would be gone by the end of Saturday.
Walter Veltroni, Rome's mayor, said the pilgrims had doubled his city's normal population of 2.6 million. Police had earlier estimated that four million pilgrims had come to Rome.
Giuseppe Pisanu, Italy's minister of the interior, said about 1.4 million people managed to see the Pope's body for the four days it lay in state. The average wait was 13 hours.
Police had cleared St. Peter's Square in front of the Vatican late Friday, blocking it off with barricades.
Placing John Paul's coffin in a resting place in the Vatican grottoes was the final act of Friday's funeral.
Navarro-Valls said the grottoes will re-open to the public on Monday, although the Vatican released video on Saturday.
One other matter Navarro-Valls addressed are early calls for John Paul to be declared a saint. Normally, one has to be dead for five years before being considered for sainthood, although John Paul himself bent the rules for Mother Teresa.
"This subject falls under the exclusive responsibility of the new Pontiff. We cannot make any comment at all because only the new pope can decide," Navarro-Valls said.
With a report from CTV News and files from The Associated Press
The media was shut out? LOL Well, they've already made one sound decision.
In youth, we want to have our 'actions' sanctioned. As we age, hopefully, we grow in wisdom.
In 1968, Pope Paul VI issued his Encyclical Humanae Vitae ON THE REGULATION OF BIRTH. In it, he writes:
"Finally, careful consideration should be given to the danger of this power passing into the hands of those public authorities who care little for the precepts of the moral law. Who will blame a government which in its attempt to resolve the problems affecting an entire country resorts to the same measures as are regarded as lawful by married people in the solution of a particular family difficulty? Who will prevent public authorities from favoring those contraceptive methods which they consider more effective? Should they regard this as necessary, they may even impose their use on everyone. It could well happen, therefore, that when people, either individually or in family or social life, experience the inherent difficulties of the divine law and are determined to avoid them, they may give into the hands of public authorities the power to intervene in the most personal and intimate responsibility of husband and wife. "
Both catholics and the media were stunned when the pontiff did not eliminate the ban on artificial birth control. Many catholics chose to disregard his teachings and follow their own consciences.
Knowing what we do now, nearly 40 years later, the encyclical seems almost prophetic in nature. Indeed, we have seen where all of these 'sanctioned' actions lead - in Europe, the populations of many countries have shriveled up necessitating open immigration to fill the gap. Many of those immigrants are Muslims. Frozen embryos, abandoned in labs, await their fate; some scientists seek to use them for embryonic stem cell research or, worse, cloning.
The church is not a democracy. The Holy Father conserves the deposit of faith entrusted to it by our Lord. It is an awesome, albeit an unpopular, responsibility.
I believe you are referring to Archbishop Georges Casmoussas of Mosul...
bttt
As splendid, and moving, and inspirational as the papal funeral coverage was...several times I had to Laugh Out Loud as an MSM commentator tried to get one of the Cardinals...or some other "Insider"...to speculate about favorite candidates as JPII's successor.
Yikes...here are representatives of the Vatican (an instituion with a 2000-year tradition of keeping secrets) and the MSM goober expects them to babble away like this is a panel discussion on the eve of the Iowa caucuses.
The reactions varied...from a polite change of subject to a curt "You know I'm not going to talk about that."
Now it's a complete blackout...the speculators are going to go crazy! *smirk*
"In my younger days, I used to disagree with JPII about many things. As I've aged, I've come to recognize more and more that he's been right all along."
On all things of dogma and doctrine, he was 100% right. No doubt he will some day be known as St. John Paul the Great.
Yes, that's the man. Now, I do not believe he's a Cardinal; but there is one guy out there who is, secretly (because they said making him, openly, a Cardinal might have endangered him). The Pope is said to have carried this "secret" to the grave. Now I'm wondering if it is Casmoussas.
Actually, Nigerian Cardinal Francis Arinze is the odds-on favorite according to PaddyPower.com.
http://www.paddypower.com/bet?action=show_type_by_main_market&category=SPECIALS&ev_class_id=45&id=520
Dionigi Tettamanzi of Italy is a close second.
Arinze managed to tick off 70 Georgetown University professors following a conservative speech that he gave there. That's a good thing in my book!
Also, the latest odds have Benedict ahead of John Paul as the name he will take. Both fit in with the 700 year old prophecies of St. Malachy.
If say, its one of the middle eastern prelates though selected, here's an awesome choice for him to take:
Abraham I
Here's why.. Judaism, Christianity, and Islam all recognize and revere Abraham as the father of their respecitive religions. Such a name selection could make a huge difference in peace in the middle east--given what John Paul II did toward freedom in eastern europe (ending of communist regimes) and toppling of other dictators and potentates in the countries he visited.. Papal power appears to be pretty big in the world (granted not as great as the awesome power of God himself, but still prety immense.).
something to chomp on...
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.