The Catholic Standard and Times

DISPATCHES FROM ROME

The Pope, Our Lady and religious sisters

By Father Joe Roesch, MIC

This has been a year of firsts for me, since I moved here in May.

I will soon experience my first Christmas in Rome. And recently, on Dec. 8, the patronal feast day of my community, the Marians of the Immaculate Conception, I renewed my vows in Italian for the first time.

That afternoon, I took a walk to the Spanish Steps, a beautiful square many tourists visit. On the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, there is a tradition that the people of Rome come to the plaza to greet the Pope, who comes to give honor to Our Lady on her feast day.

When I arrived, around 4 p.m., there were many thousands of people already there. All were praying the rosary and singing in Italian. After a while, Pope Benedict XVI arrived in a car with a sun roof. He was standing and waving to the crowds.

Over his usual white cassock, the Pope was dressed in a short red cape edged with white fur, which reminded one religious sister here of something that Pope John XXIII often wore. It was chilly and drizzly that day, so I can understand why he wore it.

He smiled and seemed at peace. At the foot of a huge column, on top of which is a statue of the Immaculate Conception, the Holy Father placed a basket of roses and paused for some silent prayer.

Earlier that day, at a Mass at St. Peter’s Basilica, the Pope marked the 40th anniversary of the end of the Second Vatican Council with a personal reminiscence about Pope Paul VI: “There is a moment fixed indelibly in my mind, when, on hearing his words, ‘Mariam Sanctissimam declaramus Matrem Ecclesiae’ — ‘Let us declare Mary the Most Holy Mother of the Church’ — the fathers leapt out of their chairs and stood applauding, paying homage to the Mother of God, our Mother, the Mother of the Church.”

Now, before the statue of the Immaculate Conception in the Spanish Plaza, the Holy Father entrusted all of us, her children, to Our Lady. He said, “I bring with me the concerns and hopes of today’s humanity, and I come to place them at the feet of the celestial Mother of the Redeemer.”

He thanked Our Lady for her intercession on behalf of the Church, especially in the 40 years since the Council, which, in many ways, have been very difficult years.

Our Lady has always embraced the heavenly Father’s will completely. The Pope asked her to “teach us how to keep in our hearts and meditate in silence [on] the mysteries of the life of Christ.” He reflected on how close Our Lady has always been to her Son, and especially at Calvary. He asked her, “Make us feel your closeness in every moment of our existence, especially in times of gloom and trial.” She prayed with the apostles in the upper room on that first Pentecost; he asked her to “help us persevere in faithfully following Christ.”

Pope Benedict was once again putting in place the program of his predecessor, Pope John Paul II, entrusting the world to Our Lady, knowing that she will always lead her children to her Son, Jesus.

Two days later, I went with two of my fellow Marians to the Pope Paul VI Hall at the Vatican for a general audience for the religious of the city of Rome with Pope Benedict.

There were about 5,000 priests, brothers and sisters there, from all over the world, who are now studying or working in Rome. The vast majority of the crowd were religious sisters.

When we first arrived, at about 10:30 a.m., a sister was on the stage, helping everyone to practice some Latin and Italian hymns, which we would sing when the Pope arrived. A little after 11 a.m., we began to pray the rosary, interspersed with some beautiful hymns and spiritual reflections.

As noon approached, many of the sisters were jostling for a good place near the center aisle, hoping the Holy Father would come in that way. However, he came in through a door on the stage, and all waved white kerchiefs, which we had received as a souvenir of the day.

He gave his address, thanking us for our service to the Church and encouraging us to live out our vows of poverty, chastity and obedience, since the world needs our good example. The Lord wants us to be faithful to our call.

I looked around at the many religious sisters there, some in wheelchairs, some young and smiling, from all different countries. I reflected on their lives of sacrifice, and thought that their lives are not easy in many ways.

Their desire to get close to the Pope was not a misguided way of focusing too much attention on a man, but a way of honoring the Vicar of Christ, a sign of the unity of the Church. Jesus said, “You are Peter and upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it” (Mt.16:18).

Our Holy Father symbolizes our unity, and we need such symbols to help us to live out the unity that he signifies. The unity is often broken by our sinfulness and selfishness, but God is in charge. He can bring about the unity despite our sinfulness.

At the end of the audience, several religious were allowed to go up on the stage and shake hands with the Holy Father. One of the Polish sisters who cooks for us was able to meet him.

While that was going on, some sisters in the crowd sang something, and began a chant, such as Bene-detto! Bene-detto! (Italian for “Benedict.”) Others would chant, Viva il Papa! (Long live the Pope!).

Some African sisters gave a joyous cry that sounded something like a mountaineer’s yodel. One of our priests from Byelorussia was uncomfortable with those cries and acclamations, and expressed his wish that someone from the stage could have led us in song instead.

However, after the audience, we met a little Italian sister who comes to daily Mass in our chapel, and she talked about how much she liked the Africans’ joyful exclamations.

The Byelorussian priest was surprised to hear she had liked them, and he asked her why. She said they were simply a different way of expressing the joy of the moment. It was certainly an uninhibited cry, and I thought to myself that Christ told us to change and become like children in order to enter the kingdom of heaven. The African sisters meant no disrespect with their cries. They are simply a part of that culture that many of us were unfamiliar with. Unconcerned about public opinion, they “shouted to the Lord,” as the scriptures say.

Let’s pray for our religious sisters all over the world, that they will all experience the joy of this Christmas season in the midst of their difficult tasks.

Father Joe Roesch, who used to write The CS&T’s popular column “Ask Father Joe,” is now Second General Councilor of the Rome Congregation of the Marians of the Immaculate Conception, which promotes the message of Divine Mercy around the world. He has agreed to write a series for us about what it’s like to be in Rome during the opening days of the pontificate of Pope Benedict XVI, and about his own Divine Mercy apostolate.