Hello and welcome!
Of course, when talking about the events of the last month, we have to begin with the election of our new Holy Father, Pope Leo XIV.
I was at the North American College when the white smoke appeared, accompanied by the bells of St. Peter’s, which confirmed the election of our new Holy Father. I immediately went down to St. Peter’s Square and waited with the people. It was a beautiful day, unlike when Pope Francis was elected, when it was at night and rainy. So, this time, the crowd was very big; I think they said there were 200,000 people gathered.
While we were waiting almost an hour for the Holy Father to come out on the balcony, different military groups from the state of Italy played the Italian national anthem and the papal anthem, which provided a little entertainment.
I heard from many people that I appeared on television quite a few times while we were waiting for the Holy Father to appear. I got a kick out of that because it was just a case of being in the right place at the right time at a moment when everybody in the world was watching. I received messages from all over, and I told them that I felt like only the seagulls had more air time than I did!
But one of the most moving things for me, being in the square that day, was seeing the faith of the Catholic people who were joyful at the announcement that there was going to be a new pope. Even before they knew his name or his origin, everyone was filled with joy. You could hear people shouting “Viva il Papa!” and it didn’t matter to them who appeared on that balcony. But they all knew, in faith, that Christ’s promise to continue guiding the Church through the ministry of Peter was once again being fulfilled for us. So, it was a beautiful moment.
After the Holy Father addressed us, the cardinals went to Casa Santa Marta to greet the Holy Father there and congratulate him.
The day after his election, all the cardinals gathered for Mass with the Holy Father in the Sistine Chapel.
While we were there for the Mass, I took this photo with my fellow Capuchin cardinals, Cardinal Celestino Aós Braco and Cardinal Raniero Cantalamessa.
That brought to mind this photo that a friend recently sent me of the tomb of another Capuchin cardinal, Cardinal Antonio Barberini. He is buried in the famous Church of Santa Maria della Concezione dei Cappuccini, what they call the “bone church,” where a number of our saints are actually buried.
His tombstone, which is in the middle aisle as you walk through the church, says, “HIC IACET PVLVIS CINIS ET NIHIL,” which means, “Here lies dust, ashes, and nothing.” I’ve often wondered if he chose that epitaph or whether the friars chose that for him!
The American Embassy, which is right up the street, was originally the palace of the Queen of Italy. The monastery garden extended all the way up to the palace, and the friars were the chaplains for the queen there. Now, the Via Veneto has sort of become the center of “la dolce vita,” and I find it ironic that in the midst of all of that is this memento mortis, the Capuchin crypt with all the skeletons and skulls.
Then on Saturday, we had a meeting in the Synod Hall with the Holy Father for the whole morning. It was sort of a conversation, back and forth with the cardinals. It was a wonderful meeting, though it was obvious that a lot of cardinals did not know each other well, though the three weeks of congregations certainly were a help.
I think the impression is that the Holy Father is going to have more opportunities to bring the whole College of Cardinals together. This is something that Pope Francis did at the beginning, but afterwards it was mostly the C9 who met with him. But going forward, I think the Holy Father will gather us with greater frequency.
On May 14, I had a private audience with the Holy Father in a small office behind the Paul VI Audience Hall. It was held there because earlier in the morning, he had met in the hall with a large group of pilgrims who were in Rome for a Jubilee event for the Eastern Catholic Churches.
It was my first opportunity to talk to him about the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, our hopes for the future, our desire to be helpful to him and to raise some of the issues I thought he should be aware of. It was a very good meeting.
While I was waiting to see him, some tennis stars, including Jannik Sinner, were also there with the Davis Cup. The smaller cup is the women’s trophy, the big one is the men’s.
Then, on May 18, we had the Inauguration Mass of the Holy Father, which was a very moving experience. I don’t recall if we did this when Pope Francis was elected but, before the Mass began, all of the cardinals stood in a semicircle around the Confessio, where the tomb of St. Peter is, and the new pope and the Catholic patriarchs went down to pray at the tomb. I thought that was a very beautiful way of stressing the catholicity of the Church because, in Rome especially, the Church is so overwhelmingly Latin Rite. But here, a special consideration was made for the 20-some Eastern Rite Catholic Churches.
Then the procession went to the sagrato, where the Holy Father’s Mass was celebrated.
He was given three symbols: the ring, the pallium, and the Gospels. Three cardinals were chosen to make the presentation: one from the cardinal deacons, one cardinal priest, and one cardinal bishop.
In another acknowledgment of the Eastern Churches, during the Mass, the Gospel was sung in Greek as well as in Latin.
That weekend was also the Jubilee weekend for people belonging to cofradías and hermandades (confraternities and brotherhoods), which are groups that support different shrines and images of popular Catholic religiosity. Many of them brought their images with them, particularly from Spain.
One of the members of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors lives in Spain and is involved in one of these groups. So, they asked if I would have Mass for them. We celebrated it in the Capella Clementina, which is a beautiful little chapel in St. Peter’s Basilica, where the altar is closest to the tomb of St. Peter.
I was happy to be able to be a part of their pilgrimage to Rome for the jubilee.
While in Rome, I was very happy to see Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, who was staying at the Domus for the inauguration of the new Holy Father.
He had been so gracious to us, giving us hospitality when we visited him in Constantinople with Metropolitan Methodios on our pilgrimage in 2007, so it was good to see him once again.
I returned to Boston on May 19 to attend the installation of Bishop Bruce Lewandowski of Providence on May 20. Bishop Lewandowski is a Redemptorist who was working in Philadelphia and then became the auxiliary bishop of Archbishop Lori in Baltimore, and from there has been made the Bishop of Providence. As a young religious, he worked in St. Lucia in the West Indies, and, of course, I was in the West Indies for 10 years working with many of his confreres from the Redemptorist order, including the bishop who ordained me, Bishop Harper.
He had prepared to go to the missions, so he learned Spanish and Portuguese, and during the installation ceremony, he used both languages fluently to greet the people of Providence. Those are very important immigrant groups there, so I’m sure that was very well received. At the end of his talk, he also he said, “I plan to be here a long time,” which, of course, was an allusion to the fact that Bishop Henning was there only a year before the Holy Father moved him to Boston.
The following day, May 21, we had a little birthday party for Msgr. Kevin O’Leary at the cathedral with a couple of his priest friends. He had another celebration with his family, of course, but we didn’t want the occasion to go unmarked at the rectory.
On May 22, I went to Father Michael Nolan’s 25th anniversary Mass at St. Mary’s in Waltham. It was a beautiful Mass.
Father Nolan has been such an extraordinary pastor. St. Mary’s is one of the few parishes where the numbers increase every year, and he has been so creative in his many pastoral initiatives and his outreach to immigrants, particularly the Ugandan and the Hispanic communities there. So, we were very pleased to help celebrate this important milestone with him.
Then, from May 25-28, I traveled to Cleveland for the Provincial Chapter of our Capuchin province at the seminary in Wickliffe, Ohio. The chapel there has been recently renovated and is very beautiful. Father General was not with us, but he sent one of the counselors, Father Robert Williams.
They had asked me to give a talk on synodality, which I did. We also had an election for provincial, and Father Robert was elected for a second term. At one point, Bishop Edward Malesic of Cleveland also came and presided at one of the Vespers ceremonies for us.
It was wonderful to be with all of our friars. In all, I think there were about 130 men gathered for the chapter, including a number of priests working in our missions from Puerto Rico and Papua New Guinea. It’s always a wonderful opportunity for fraternity and for the friars to get together and to hear the reports of what’s happening in different parts of the province.
After that, on my way back to Rome, I passed through Portugal on May 31 to celebrate the wedding of Tomás Lobão. Father Jonathan Gaspar and Father Roger Landry were also there with us.
I had baptized Tomás many years ago, and he and his wife were married in the cathedral in Beja, which is a very beautiful church near the Spanish border.
From Portugal, I then went on to Rome for a meeting of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors with the Holy Father on June 5.
He had asked for this meeting about two weeks ago, so it was sort of last minute, but I’m so glad we were able to put it together. About 20 commission members and some of our staff were able to meet with him for an hour or so.
This is obviously a time of transition as we’re waiting for the Holy Father to name a new president, but it was very important to see his commitment to safeguarding. It was an opportunity for us to talk about the work of the commission. And we were very gratified that, within a month after his election, he had already met with me once and asked for this meeting with the commission.
In relation to the meeting, I conducted interviews with Vatican Media, which I would like to share with you here:
Until next time,
Cardinal Seán