Posted on 03/26/2013 11:48:33 AM PDT by NYer
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Francis has decided not to move into the papal apartments in the Apostolic Palace, but to live in a suite in the Vatican guesthouse where he has been since the beginning of the conclave that elected him, said Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, Vatican spokesman.
"He is experimenting with this type of living arrangement, which is simple," but allows him "to live in community with others," both the permanent residents -- priests and bishops who work at the Vatican -- as well as guests coming to the Vatican for meetings and conferences, Father Lombardi said March 26.
The spokesman said Pope Francis has moved out of the room he drew by lot before the conclave and into Suite 201, a room that has slightly more elegant furnishings and a larger living room where he can receive guests.
The Domus Sanctae Marthae, the official name of the guesthouse, was built in 1996 specifically to house cardinals during a conclave.
Celebrating Mass March 26 with the residents and guests, Pope Francis told them he intended to stay, Father Lombardi said. The permanent residents, who had to move out during the conclave, had just returned to their old rooms.
Pope Francis has been there since his election March 13, taking his meals in the common dining room downstairs and celebrating a 7 a.m. Mass with Vatican employees in the main chapel of the residence.
He will be the first pope in 110 years not to live in the papal apartments on the third floor of the Apostolic Palace.
In 1903, St. Pius X became the first pope to live in the apartments overlooking St. Peter's Square. The apartments were completely remodeled by Pope Paul VI in 1964 and have undergone smaller modifications by each pope since, according to "Mondo Vaticano," a Vatican-published mini-encyclopedia about Vatican buildings, offices and tradition.
The large living room or salon of the apartment is located directly above the papal library where official audiences with visiting bishops and heads of state are held.
Pope Francis will continue to use the library for official audiences and to recite the Angelus prayer on Sundays and holy days from the apartment window overlooking St. Peter's Square, Father Lombardi said.
The apartments contain a chapel, an office for the pope and a separate office for his secretaries, the pope's bedroom, a dining room, kitchen and rooms for two secretaries and for the household staff.
When Pope Francis returned to the guesthouse after his election, Father Lombardi had said the move was intended to be short-term while a few small work projects were completed in the papal apartments. He said March 26 that all the work had been completed, but at least for the foreseeable future, Pope Francis would not move in.
The Domus Sanctae Marthae, named after St. Martha, is a five-story building on the edge of Vatican City.
While offering relative comfort, the residence is not a luxury hotel. The building has 105 two-room suites and 26 singles; about half of the rooms are occupied by the permanent residents. Each suite has a sitting room with a desk, three chairs, a cabinet and large closet; a bedroom with dresser, night table and clothes stand; and a private bathroom with a shower.
The rooms all have telephones and access to an international satellite television system.
The building also has a large meeting room and a variety of small sitting rooms. In addition to the dining room and the main chapel, it also has four private chapels, located at the end of hallways on the third and fifth floors of each of the building's two wings.
Forgive me for anticipating that Augustine Thompson's "modern historical methods" are more likely to distort St. Francis than to illuminate him. But then, I haven't read the book, and so may be wrong about that. However, I believe that St. Francis is absolutely irreducible to the rationalistic, direct-observation-based analytical approach so typical of modern thinking, which can only deal with "facts," not with meaning or values.
I am not surprised that Francis' prayer, which I quoted, is not the Canticle of Brother Son. Moreover, it seems that Fr. Thompson regards the prayer as a forgery; for "Francis would not have written such a piece, focused as it is on the self, with its constant repetition of the pronouns 'I' and 'me,' the words 'God' and 'Jesus' never appearing once."
Which, were this true, would be deeply distressing to me: For I say this prayer at least once a day, and have done so for the past ten years at least — as a salutary daily reminder of what "I" and "me" have to do in order to be transformed in and by Christ, a process enabled and facilitated by the Holy Spirit. Plus another prayer I say daily — Psalm 23 — also does not name God or Jesus. Like Francis' prayer (which I do believe is authentic), it involves an invocation of, and appeal to, the Lord.
St. Anselm also prayed in such manner, i.e., by invoking the Presence of the Lord. Faith for Anselm is more a volitional state than an epistemic state; i.e., it is about what one does, not primarily about what one knows. It is love for God and a drive to act as God wills. It is a type of prayer that seeks to engage the Lord in a divine dialogue with one's soul:
Speak to my desirous soul what you are, other than what it has seen, that it may clearly see what it desires [Proslogion XIV].... O Lord, you are not only that than which a greater cannot be conceived, but you are also greater than what can be conceived [Proslogion XV].If God is greater than what can be conceived, then it seems to me our "modern" modes of reductionist analysis (typified in the natural sciences) cannot give a "complete" account of God in principle. Which is why science "evicts God" from its purview.
St. Francis' prayer — whoever "'wrote it" — is the prayer of a mystic and ascetic personality, which St. Francis certainly was. Perhaps only people who tend to be of such a persuasion can appreciate it.
What is arresting to me is that Cardinal Bergolio took Francis' name as his own pontifical name. There seems to be at least a passing resemblance between Pope Francis and the Saint, in that both are ascetics.
Steve86, you were actually correct to point out that Pope Francis, like the original Francis, is an ascetic. Yet like the original Francis, he does not withdraw from the world, but constantly, actively engages it, including in the realm of "politics."
One of the beauties — consolations? — of being an ascetic is the recognition that if one possesses nothing, then there's nothing to take away from one — except for one's mortal life, of course — nothing to "hold over one" to compel compliance to the things of this world. Satan cannot tempt such a one, for such a one doesn't value "things." If anything, one is empowered by one's own material poverty.
Well, just some thoughts, FWIW.
Thank you so very much for writing ELS!
P.S: Fr. Zuhlsdorf's characterization of Francis of Assisi as a "mediaeval peacenik" is, to me, totally ludicrous. Talk about anachronistic thinking — backloading the fashions and concerns of the present day onto 13th century thinking, where such concepts were entirely unknown! JMHO. FWIW.
Some biographical info. of Fr. Thompson, O.P.:
Fr. Augustine Thompson, O.P. (born New York, 1954), is a Catholic priest of the Order of Preachers and ... holds a Ph.D in medieval history from the Univ. of California, Berkeley CA. His books and publications focus on medieval Italy and medieval religious history.Maybe he actually knows something about the time that St. Francis lived in?
From one of the reviews of the book: (emphasis mine)
A common pitfall faces all the biographers of Francis of Assisi: how reliable are the early legends about the saint? How does one find the 'historical' Francis behind sources that have theological points to make, standard hagiographical tropes to draw on, and political arguments to press? Augustine Thompson, O.P., is acutely aware of this problem and takes a very interesting and unique approach to overcoming it. In this very well-written book, he first gives us a biography of Francis based on the best use of the sources as he understands them, then assesses the biography itself in light of the sources and the scholarship about them. He brings to his examination the careful eye of a trained medieval historian.From another review:(emphasis mine)
Writing a biography on Saint Francis, is a challenging task. Most historical treatments of Francis leave little left of the poor saint, while others tend to be too hagiographic. Fr. Augustine provides a scholarly account of Francis that balances the historical figure and the saint well. Although many a joke can be had of a Dominican writing a book on Francis, however he brings fresh insights to Francis thanks in part to his knowledge of medieval history and experience as a brother mendicant.As someone who has read many biographies on Francis, this one is a refreshing balance. As a Franciscan friar and seminarian, this biography will remain on the book self with Francis' collected writings. His extensive notes in the second part of the book will prove helpful to anyone interested in deepening their understanding and scholarship on Franciscan Studies.
it seems that Fr. Thompson regards the prayer as a forgery; for "Francis would not have written such a piece, focused as it is on the self, with its constant repetition of the pronouns 'I' and 'me,' the words 'God' and 'Jesus' never appearing once."
No, he found that "The “Peace Prayer” is modern and anonymous, originally written in French, and dates to about 1912, when it was published in a minor French spiritual magazine, La Clochette." And he probably has the citation(s) in the bibliography to substantiate his claim.
Which, were this true, would be deeply distressing to me: For I say this prayer at least once a day, and have done so for the past ten years at least
Fr. Thompson also said that the prayer has noble sentiments. It is just that it was not written by St. Francis. Whomever the author was should not change the effect the prayer has on you or for you.
P.S: Fr. Zuhlsdorf's characterization of Francis of Assisi as a "mediaeval peacenik" is, to me, totally ludicrous.
Let's look at what Fr. Zuhlsdorf said. (emphasis mine)
... we should consider who Francis of Assisi really was, what he did and said. He wasn’t the bunny-hugging bird kisser that people think he was from their viewings of garden statues and Brother Sun, Sister Moon. (Remember that?)St. Francis of Assisi, some think, was a medieval peacenik. However, Francis went to the Egypt and confronted Sultan al-Kamil, a nephew of Saladin.
Notice that he said "some think" of St. Francis as a peacenik. That is his way of saying that he doesn't agree with that characterization. If he agreed with it, he would just say so in a straightforward manner.
What is arresting to me is that Cardinal Bergolio took Francis' name as his own pontifical name. There seems to be at least a passing resemblance between Pope Francis and the Saint, in that both are ascetics.
Thank you.
Dear sisters and brothers, may God bless you and all your dear ones on this holy day, may you have a blessed Easter!
In Christ's Love and Peace — bb
Forgive me for being skeptical on this point, but exactly how does Fr. Thompson know for a certain fact that St. Francis didn't "write" this prayer? Certainly he seems very "fact-based" in his approach to St. Francis.
But there are limits to that sort of thing. Even if Fr. Thompson had each and every detail of the saint's life and a thorough knowledge of his cultural setting (so very, very different than our own and impossible in any case), I see no reasonable expectation that, by simply adding them all up, we can get a complete picture of St. Francis. "The sum of the parts" — biographical items verified by expert analysts — do not and cannot give a full, complete description of who St. Francis is.
IOW, the authenticity of St. Francis, and the meaning of his mission to the world, cannot be discovered by reducing him to a catalogue of biographical and cultural "facts" as determined by even the most highly-qualified experts....
As you are probably well aware, ELS, the Church has a long tradition of something called fides quarens intellectum, or faith in search of its reason, or reasons. I believe St. Anselm typifies this approach to the reconciliation of faith and reason, all enabled by the Holy Spirit in "dialog" with the soul — thus faith comes first. It seems Fr. Thompson's method reverses this order, which amounts to finding reasons to believe.
Does this make any sense to you, dear ELS?
May God bless you and all your dear ones on this holy day!
Happy Easter!
You really think this child got AIDS through risky behavior? Really?!?.
No. The parents did. Aren't they responsible for anything in your world view?
Second the motion boop
God's blessings on each and all that is theirs! (everyone . . . as one certain little fellow would say)
Ping!!!
Human imagination is no magic answer all by itself: Imagination disconnected from Reality conduces to nothing good....
And my faith tells me it is God Who creates and charters Reality, Alpha–Omega, beginning to end. And we are all parts and participants of this divine Reality, of the Great Hierarchy of Being — God–Man–World–Society — that it implies, God's Creation in its evolution and beyond....
HUGS!!! dearest brother 'pipe!!!
May God ever bless you, and all your dear ones!
Oh thank you so very much, dear brother in Christ, for posting this link!!!
” Human imagination is no magic answer all by itself: Imagination disconnected from Reality conduces to nothing good....”
Interesting concept reality.. Boopster.. without my imagination I could not imagine that there was a God..
And after conceiving of such a thing as God..
I then must construct a narrative.. maybe of snippets from the past.. or something else..
Having never actually seen God.. I must imagine one..
I agree this a bit much for literalism.. but I can believe in things I’ve never seen.. i.e. like Italy..
This does indeed place me suspended above a place to put my foot down..
BUT you can get used to that.. over time.. kids do it all the time..
Heck I imagine Betty Boop and Alamo Girl.. and Wiley E. Coyote.. Easter Bunnys and Santa Claus..
Imagining there is a God has been quite useful to me..
Some even imagine Obama is NOT a foreign agent constructing the demise of the United States..
I do not.. there is so much evidence to the contrary..
Much of reality “IS” imagination... i.e. Tesla, Edison, Einstein..
also; Mozart, Chopin, Beethoven, Rembrandt, DaVinci... PeeWee Herman..
from your Post it seems you yourself have imagined quite a lot..
Me, not wanted to “harsh” your vision accept it.. as a view on reality..
I have always imagined a love for YOU.. and am doing so right NOW..
Can you “feel it”?... i.e. much love going out on the ether waves..
As for me, a person's testimony stands on its own merit. It is what it is.
Thank you so much for sharing your insights, dearest sister in Christ!
Exactly my point, dearest sister in Christ. Most people of that time were illiterate, and more significantly in my view, they never heard of "the scientific method": Francis Bacon, pioneer of the scientific revolution, didn't show up for another three centuries. St. Francis himself — unlike the great Saints and Doctors of the Church Augustine, Aquinas, and Anselm — was not a writer of books; so we have few written records to go by.
What we do have is a rich oral tradition regarding this Saint communicated down the ages which is, by definition, "unscientific." But does that mean the tradition is in error because it is unscientific?
The fact that so many people have embraced this tradition for so very long, over generations, presents to my mind evidence of the truthfulness of the tradition. What has the scientific method to do with such purely spiritual matters? What can science "falsify" here, given its method, which primarily reduces to direct observation of empirical phenomena?
Plus how can the "materialist reduction" inherent in so much of modern science — i.e., the widely-accepted notion that everything in the world "supervenes on the physical" — ever address the non-physical aspects of Reality? Answer: It can't. The "scientific strategy" entails denial of the existence of all such aspects of Reality. [Which really is risible; for the very physical laws of the natural world are themselves non-physical aspects of that world.]
In conclusion, in what way can "forensics" even approach matters of the Spirit?
Thank you ever so much, dearest sister in Christ, for your astute observations!
Plus how can the "materialist reduction" inherent in so much of modern science — i.e., the widely-accepted notion that everything in the world "supervenes on the physical" — ever address the non-physical aspects of Reality? Answer: It can't. The "scientific strategy" entails denial of the existence of all such aspects of Reality. [Which really is risible; for the very physical laws of the natural world are themselves non-physical aspects of that world.]
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