Latest news with #VeniCreatorSpiritus
Spectator
08-05-2025
- Politics
- Spectator
It's been a tough week for the frontrunner to be pope
The 133 cardinal electors participating in the conclave entered the Sistine Chapel yesterday, singing Veni Creator Spiritus. As they conducted their first vote – which resulted in black smoke – they were no doubt unable to avoid contemplating the highly damaging stream of revelations that have plagued the frontrunner to be the next pope, Cardinal Pietro Parolin. The cardinals will be locked inside the chapel surrounded by Michelangelo's astounding frescoes – incommunicado with the world but not with God – until two thirds of them coagulate around a single name. In the 13th century this process once took 1,006 days. But in the past 150 years the longest conclave has lasted five days. There was only one ballot yesterday but will be four on subsequent days. Parolin – Secretary of State throughout the papacy of Pope Francis – remains the bookmakers' favourite – despite the damning press coverage which it must be said many Italian media outlets have done their best to ignore.
Yomiuri Shimbun
07-05-2025
- Politics
- Yomiuri Shimbun
In Choosing a Pope, Cardinals Will Call on a Partner: The Holy Spirit
Salwan Georges/The Washington Post Cardinals at the funeral Mass for Pope Francis at St. Peter's Square on April 26. ROME – As the cardinals walk into the Sistine Chapel on Wednesday evening to open the papal conclave, they'll chant the plaintive prayer that their forebears have sung for centuries: Veni Creator Spiritus. Come, Holy Spirit. The process of selecting a pope is fully a blend of the political and the spiritual, theologians and cardinals say, an effort to take all the humanness and experiences of the men in the conclave and partner with the Holy Spirit – in Christian belief, an equal person of the Trinity, with the Father and the Son – to decide together the leader the Church needs. The Holy Spirit is like the backstage star of the conclave. One theologian compares the concept to 'the deep music in a song, the deep bass line' under the rhythm and melody. Some cardinals use Holy Spirit-accessing rituals that sound a bit like cognitive behavioral therapy. Pope Benedict XVI said it's more like a 'good educator' who doesn't pick the pope but encourages. It could play a unique role this year, cardinals and theologians say. The conclave to choose a successor to Pope Francis – 133 cardinal electors – will be the largest ever. For the great majority of cardinals, it will be their first. Those who were created in recent years – Francis named his last group in December – are unlikely to know many of their peers. Two dozen come from countries that have never participated in a conclave. With no interpreters allowed and no group meetings once the doors are shut, cardinals say they could be relying on the Holy Spirit in a new way. 'It is the Holy Spirit who has to guide us and help us, because it's not immediately easy to see for whom to vote,' said Cardinal Anders Arborelius, the bishop of Stockholm. Christians differ in their understanding of the Holy Spirit When the cardinals sing 'Come, Holy Spirit,' the Rev. Louis John Cameli said, they're really praying 'for their own openness to the inspiration that the spirit might bring to them.' People wrongly think the process is akin to 'figuring things out and then coming to a decision,' said Cameli, a Chicago priest who studies spirituality, but it's more nuanced. Humans bring intelligence and logic, he said, and the Holy Spirit helps to bring that along. Many Catholics and non-Catholic Christians have different ways of understanding or describing it. Pentecostal Christians associate the presence of the Holy Spirit with a discernible sign, such as speaking in tongues. The writer Anne Lamott, whose fiction and nonfiction books often explore faith, says the Holy Spirit comes to her aid when she's 'feeling tiny and vulnerable and scared.' 'I have the theological understanding of a bright second-grader,' she wrote in an email to The Washington Post, 'but my understanding of the Holy Spirit is that it's the comforter. The motherly tender feeling of Jesus' love around me and indwelling me. Sometimes a very Jewish mother – 'HAVE YOU EATEN?' – and sometimes as … a very gentle cooling breath when I am tweaking and overheating with bad thoughts.' 'I call on Jesus when I am in a hole too deep to get myself out of, and the Holy Spirit wafts in, like Casper the Friendly Ghost meets Bette Midler.' The study of the Holy Spirit is called pneumatology, which has the same Greek root as pneumonia: breath. People asked about the subject can bristle – as some did for this article – because they prefer not to think of it as something explainable. Especially when talking about the forces that pick a new pope. Chanting 'Come, Holy Spirit,' the Catholic University canon lawyer Kurt Martens said, 'emphasizes they are not just casting ballots. The ballots are the results of prayer and reflection, but not in a Harry Potter way.' 'God is deadly serious about human freedom' Catholic theologians emphasized that the cardinals participate fully in the selection of the pope; they're partners with the Holy Spirit. The concept applies also to the people who wrote the Bible. The human authors of scripture 'aren't scribes. They aren't court reporters,' said the Rev. Peter Folan, a theologian at Georgetown University. 'God is deadly serious about human freedom.' If the cardinals and their lives and relationships with one another weren't essential, Folan asked, why bother having a conclave? Popes the Holy Spirit 'obviously would not have picked' But can the Holy Spirit make a mistake? How do you know you're hearing the Holy Spirit and not an evil spirit? The spirit is God, and it is reliable, said Cameli. 'We're not so reliable. We can misinterpret, be inattentive, be so absorbed in our own world that we throw blocks and resistance. The problem is not on the side of God, who wants the best for us.' Benedict, when he was Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, told Bavarian television in 1997 that he wouldn't say 'the Holy Spirit picks out the pope. … I would say that the spirit does not exactly take control of the affair, but rather like a good educator, as it were, leaves us much space, much freedom, without entirely abandoning us.' 'Probably the only assurance he offers is that the thing cannot be totally ruined,' he said. 'There are too many contrary instances of popes the Holy Spirit obviously would not have picked!' Trying to access the spirit The cardinals in the conclave will use many spiritual tools and prayer practices to try to access the Holy Spirit. One, attributed to Saint Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of the Society of Jesus – the Jesuits – is the Examen, an exercise that has attributes of cognitive behavioral therapy in that practitioners ask themselves about their behaviors, feelings and thoughts in a systematic way. The Examen, Jesuits say, calls for people 'to place themselves in God's presence … and pray for the grace to understand how God is acting in your life.' Then they review their day, recall moments and feelings at the time, and reflect on a question: 'Were you drawing closer to God or further away?' Most of the time 'God doesn't answer audibly' The Holy Spirit 'is symbolized by breath, wind and fire, [and] is not an impersonal force,' Cardinal Michael F. Czerny, a Canadian Jesuit, wrote to The Post. 'It's both a very human and a very spiritual experience.' 'The Holy Spirit is at work in the congregations and the conclave,' he wrote. 'The cardinals are praying, celebrating Mass, invoking the Holy Spirit, and, very important, too: listening to one another, reflecting personally and dialoguing together.' Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York, writing in 2013 on the conclave that elected Francis, praised the prayers of Saint Ignatius. 'If you put a lot of thought, time, and prayer into making a decision, once you make it – tough as it is – you'll sense some interior serenity and peace.' But 'most of the time,' he wrote, 'God doesn't answer audibly. When people say they actually hear God's voice, we usually call Bellevue Hospital and ask if they've got room for another patient.' A belief that has evolved over time The concept of the Holy Spirit has evolved from the days of the early church. In the first centuries, early Christians were still trying to establish and understand what the Trinity meant. 'There was development of what people thought Jesus was,' Folan said. 'Is this a second god? So are we not monotheists anymore? … Then what do you do with the spirit? All of these things develop.' The concept of 'spirit' has become much wider and blurrier in modern life. 'Spiritual but not religious,' according to sociologists, is one of the biggest segments of the American belief landscape. The spiritual writer Frederick Buechner wrote in his 1973 book, 'Wishful Thinking,' that the word spirit 'has come to mean something pale and shapeless, like an unmade bed. School spirit, the American spirit, the Christmas spirit, the Spirit of '76, the Holy Spirit – each of these points to something that you know is supposed to get you to your feet cheering, but that you somehow can't rise to. The adjective spiritual has become downright offensive.' In the Sistine Chapel on Wednesday, the cardinals will call to the Holy Spirit with different images. 'Living fountain, fire, love … finger of the Father's right hand,' the prayer reads in Latin. 'Inflame our senses with Thy light, pour Thy love into our hearts, strengthen our weak bodies with lasting power.'
NBC News
06-05-2025
- Politics
- NBC News
No phones, no news — only God and church politics as Catholic elders choose Francis' successor
Given the stakes, extreme measures have been taken to avoid eavesdropping, not just sweeping the Sistine Chapel for bugs but shuttering its windows to prevent scanners from detecting vibrations of the cardinals' words on the panes. The electors must not only give up their cellphones, but are also encouraged to vote using disguised handwriting. They will stay in the H block-shaped St. Martha House, built in the 1990s. But these unglamorous, proletarian quarters will contrast with the day of pomp and high-ceremony that follows. At 10 a.m. (4 a.m. ET) Wednesday the cardinals will swap their small zucchettos, or skullcaps, for tall, white miters woven with damask fabric. And Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, dean of the college of cardinals, will then lead a Mass in St. Peter's Basilica. In the afternoon, they will proceed from the Pauline Chapel into the Sistine Chapel, festooned with Michelangelo's frescos, singing the Litany of Saints prayer or the hymn 'Veni Creator Spiritus,' as they did in 2013. In a scene depicted in 2024's Oscar-nominated 'Conclave,' Cardinal Diego Giovanni Ravelli, master for papal liturgical celebrations, will announce 'extra omnes' — 'everyone out' in Latin. All those not involved in the ballot, including cardinals over the age of 80, must leave. The first poll that afternoon is often a chance to sound out front-runners and give token votes to friends and respected colleagues. That can backfire; in 1334, Cardinal Jacques Fournier, not seen as a serious candidate, was accidentally elected Pope Benedict XII. Then there are four votes daily, two in the morning and two in the afternoon. After the final morning and afternoon votes, ballots are burned in a specially installed furnace and mixed with a specific compound of chemicals depending on the result: black smoke for no decision, white for a two-thirds majority and a new pope — 'Habemus Papam!' ("We have a pope!"). While some conclaves have taken hours, in recent history they've lasted two to three days. Few foresee a repeat of the longest conclave, in 1268-71, in which the townsfolk became so exasperated with the deadlocked cardinals that they locked the doors, tore off the roof and fed the cardinals nothing but bread and water until they made a decision. Hence the term 'conclave,' meaning 'with key' — i.e., a lock-in. This time, the favorites among bookmakers like Polymarket is Cardinal Pietro Parolin, 70, Francis' secretary of state who is seen as a centrist stabilizer. He is also top choice for the some 60,000 players of Fantapapa, or Fantasy Pope, which mirrors sports-based draft games and allows people to select their top 11 most likely pontiffs. However, Parolin has faced significant criticism over a 2018 deal he engineered giving the Chinese Communist Party control over bishop appointments in exchange for greater freedom for worshipers. Behind him is Cardinal Luis Antonio Gokim Tagle, 67, of the Philippines, often dubbed 'the Asian Pope Francis' because he holds progressive views and champions the poor. 'We would be so happy if he was elected,' Ida Del Rosario, 72, of Manila, said of Tagle. She spoke to NBC News as she took selfies with her husband, Rody, 69, outside the Basilica during a 12-day trip to Europe. 'He is very modern yet very holy — he is able to mix those two perspectives.' Not everyone would be happy with those choices. a Massachusetts-based church watchdog, said Friday of Parolin that 'no church official in the world has played such a central role in keeping hidden information about sexual crimes within the Vatican.' And it accused Tagle of being 'ineffective' at combating abuses in his native Philippines. In a statement the same day, the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines said Tagle advocated for a church that 'acts decisively to protect the vulnerable.' NBC News has requested comment from the Vatican. Other contenders considered 'papabile' include a conservative favorite, Péter Erdő, 72, of Hungary, and Cardinal Peter Turkson of Ghana, 76, who would be the first African pope in more than 1,500 years. This can easily become an outsider's game, with one local saying that 'he who goes into the conclave a pope, comes out a cardinal.' Whether front-runner or lesser-known, the red-cassocked cardinals are treated as rock stars and draw excited glances whenever spotted in the streets surrounding St. Peter's. 'God bless and have a good day,' said Cardinal Frank Leo, archbishop of Toronto, approached by NBC News in Rome's Borgo neighborhood, a warren of lanes and trattorias where these eminences, many of whom do not know one another, have been seen lunching in recent days. 'I really can't say any more right now,' Leo said with a smile and a thumbs-up, leaving a group of young student-types open-mouthed when they realized who had just walked by. The electors will pray for guidance, but the choice will ultimately rest with mortal men, Regoli, the professor and priest in Rome, said. 'There is often a spiritualization,' he said. 'But this is an election like all the others in the world.'
