Notes from Rome - Cornelius Sullivan

THE UNPRECEDENTED PAPACY

March 11, 2013

By Cornelius Sullivan

Rome

The normal Sede Vacante, the vacant Chair of Saint Peter period, usually involves a funeral followed by a Conclave. In this uncertain interregnum time we can be certain of only one thing. There will be a Papal Funeral at some time celebrated by a Pope. A funeral for a Pope by a Pope is unprecedented in Modern Times.

The mourning time for Pope John Paul II that preceded his funeral involved lines of pilgrims for days coursing through the city streets leading to Saint Peter’s Basilica. The Funeral celebrated by Cardinal Ratzinger was a world event that dominated the interregnum period before the conclave.

The spotlight of History is now focused on the future next week. In Rome time seems to be racing ahead even though it is a waiting time. A big story now is about the press, there will be five thousand six hundred journalists temporarily accredited by the Vatican Press Office. With large laminated identity badges strap slung around their necks they are intent in anticipation, wide eyed and aware of the immense historical importance of the coming days.

I have seen people fervently praying in Piazza San Pietro, amid the crowds, on their knees, looking at the basilica and looking at the light-less empty Papal Palace.

Sunday was a day without meetings for the Cardinals. They said Masses at their respective titular churches. I had dinner last night with two experienced media journalists, who are busy now doing TV spots, and a writer from the Vatican newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano. The reporters went to the Mass celebrated by Boston’s Cardinal Sean O”Malley at Santa Maria delle Vittoria, the church with Bernini’s Ecstasy of Saint Theresa. They were impressed with Cardinal Sean’s strong voice and by the fact that if he is chosen, as a Capuchin Franciscan, he will still wear his sandles. My companions are all pulling for Cardinal Ouelett from Quebec. The writer from Osservatore went to his Sunday Mass at his church on Via delle Conciliazione, Santa Maria in Traspontina, only hundreds of yards from Saint Peter’s. She said he was very nervous and that he shook.

I said that the words of Cardinal Dolan resound with clarity through the canyons of New York, and that he could clean house because he has political genius, meaning that, we like him no matter what he says. He has the gift of doing things in a way that even those that he sends away after cleaning house may end up thanking him.  My friends said that he can not relate to the Europeans. I reminded them that Pope Benedict in 2012 asked him to speak to all the Cardinals on the subject of “Evangelization in a Secular World”. My academic friends say he hit a home run with that talk. I saw him in Rome at that time, more about that later. My European friends in the United States scoff at the idea of an American Pope. Cardinal Weurl has said that it would be a problem because the US is a super power. Only a Cardinal from Washington DC would say something like that.

It is getting loud in the Press Office. Phones ring and conversations in many languages get louder as they increase in frequency. And now we await Farther Federico Lombardi’s press release for the day, Monday. The Cardinals have met for a final time before the conclave to allow the Cardinals who arrived late to speak.

At 1:15 PM Father Lombardi speaks In Italian, then there is an English translation, and then in Spanish. This is the last briefing before the conclave. The conclave begins tomorrow with a Mass in the morning.

Today there were one hundred and fifty two Cardinals present. Three Cardinals were chosen to assist the Head of the College of Cardinals.

Twenty eight Cardinals spoke this morning. Some who wished to talk did not get chance to speak because of a vote to end the talks.

The Mass tomorrow will be celebrated by Cardinal Sodano with his homily in Italian and with music by Palestrina.

After the Mass there will be a solemn procession through the Pauline Chapel below the Michelangelo frescoes of the Conversion of Saint Paul and the Crucifixion of Saint Peter with the chanting of the Litany of the Saints.

Then to the Sistine Chapel and the Cardinals take an oath in Latin and each places his hands on the bible.

The Master of Ceremonies takes out the observers and the doors are closed and locked.

It is expected that there will be a vote by 4:30 and probably some smoke by 8:00 PM. It is not likely that it will be white because this is only the first vote.

The Vatican camera will be on the chimney. “If you see white smoke, you will know what to do.”

Once elected, the one chosen will be asked, “Do you accept?” Then, “What name do you take?”

Then there will be a special prayer.

The new Pope is taken to “The Room of Tears” where he is vested with a white cassock.

The new Pope will stop at the Pauline Chapel to pray alone before the Blessed Sacrament.

Then the world will see him on the balcony.

Last time it was 45 minutes between smoke and balcony.

The Mass of ordination does not have to be on a Sunday, there will be a period of time for people from all over the world to travel.

If the Cardinals choose to not vote tomorrow, Father Lombardi with his inside information, will know because the Cardinals will have made their way to Saint Margaret’s Hall for dinner.

The whole process is both grand and familiar at the same time.

My Interview with Saint Peter, the Art of Martyrdom

Cornelius Sullivan- Rome

Talking of the papacy, Cornelius Sullivan interviews the first pope

Saint Peter, Rembrandt, 1632, National Museum, Stockolm.

Saint Peter said, "You’re back."

"Yes, Caravaggio said I could speak with him again. I brought a copy of the portrait of you by Rembrandt for your mother. You said she liked the Caravaggio painting of you. Rembrandt catches a good likeness, don’t you think?"

"He’s Rembrandt, yes, that’s me."

"Saint Peter, can I ask you a few questions while I’m here about the Caravaggio painting of you being crucified upside down? What is the look on your face? It’s not fear."

Crucifixion of Saint Peter, Caravaggio, Santa Maria del Popolo, Rome.

"You want an interview with me?"

He went on, "The problem with an interview is that whatever I say in response to you must be in a form that you can comprehend. Did you study theology? Heaven is a place, you can see that, it’s also a state, being in the presence of God. I can only, with great difficulty, pretend to not be living in that presence. To speak with you, I must imagine that I am the old me, bumbling around on earth. It feels ingenuous to do so, but it’s the only way that we can connect since you are neither here nor there."

"That’s fine, I see, but I don’t fully understand what I’m seeing. I feel like Alice or Gulliver, not at all like Dante, would that I had a guide like Virgil."

"Alright, there is some truth in the Caravaggio painting of my crucifixion. The time for fear had passed. I was jailed and freed many times. You know of my chains in the church named for them in Rome, San Pietro in Vincoli, Saint Peter in Chains, now the resting place for Michelangelo’s Moses and the tomb of Pope Julius II." He continued, "The term ‘martyr’ envelopes choice. Do you know the story of ‘Quo Vadis’?"

"I know of the church by that name on the Appia Antica in Rome. I think there was a Hollywood epic movie by that name too, from the fifties. Peter Ustinov played Nero."

Peter Ustinov as Nero

He said, "In Technicolor, and I was played by a Scottish actor with an agreeable accent. He made me look like Moses, tall, dresseed all in white, with flowing white hair and beard. ‘Quo vadis’ was what I questioned when I saw a vision of the Lord on the road. I was fleeing the city. I said ‘Where are you going?’ He said he was going into the city to be crucified again. I knew then that I had to turn around."

I said, "I have noticed that in the art about martyrdom that Rome is full of, that the martyr willingly grasps the palm branch, the symbol of that fate. And they are often shown experiencing a transcendent vision."

Saint Peter said, "Yes. There are only two possibilities of why anyone would choose a violent death, seeing a vision of what lies beyond that reality, or, the alternative is that the person is insane."

"The worst thing about being crucified upside down is that the blood rushes to your head. Sorry, we do martyrdom jokes here all the time."

I knew of one such. "Didn’t Saint Lawrence say on his grille, as he was being roasted, something like, turn me over, I’m done on this side? Is that true?"

"You would have to ask him yourself."

Saint Lawrence, Bernini, Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence.

I said, “Gian Lorenzo Bernini’s first great sculpture was of his patron saint, Saint Lawrence. 

“Yes, and he carved flames in marble.”

On this visit I was able to look around a little. I realize now that my old idea of where I would see Saint Peter was an impoverished vision. I imagined a barren expanse of blue and a cloud, a gate, a sense of being precariously high up, and a lonely silence. It wasn’t like that at all. It was more like a city with many people doing many different things. Many were doing things together or were talking in groups. There was music, I could only hear it if I thought about it. Saint Peter was very close to me and yet I was aware of many things happening around us. I think some of those that I saw may have been angels. I say this because of the way they walked. I felt like I did as a boy. My parents loved me and I knew it. They told me that people were good and the world made sense. I sensed beauty everywhere.

I said, "San Pietro, I see art everywhere, is that just me?"

He said, "You think your own predilections cause you to perceive things that way? What you see is an environment of order. Not like the order of nature that you are familiar with, that as Paul has said, still groans for perfection. I think the analogy with art is apt, I like it."

He continued, "So to conclude about martyrdom. Do you know that all but two, of the fifty two of my immediate successors as Bishop of Rome are saints, most were martyrs?"

I was proud to say, "I know, someone gave me a piece of paper on the street in 2005 with a list of all the popes. Typed in at the bottom was the name of the new pope. I have kept that list. It is well worn, I will tell you how I used it. Some years ago I did tours of the Vatican Museums. There was another docent who was saying that the museums were all about propaganda and the Church reifying its power. I was not content to read the interpretations of historians of what the place was about. I hoped that I could know for myself the reality behind the grand collection and the buildings. The key was the paper that I had saved. The place is built over the grave of the fisherman, you, and on the blood of the martyrs. When I showed it to visitors they noticed the capital "M", for martyr, after the names of the first popes, thirty three of them, often in office for a short time. Pope Cornelius made it for three years before he was murdered. I continued, Caravaggio painted many martyrdoms."

Saint Peter said, "Yes, he never shied away from telling graphic tales. Losing one’s head, being pierced, or cooked, is not for everyone. There was a time when we had to think about it. We had to be prepared. You had to give it all. It was a big distinguished club to join. There were some seriously impressive witnesses. The Greek word for witness means martyr. You wanted to be like them, and then most of all was the master’s example, so fresh in our minds. You know it happened so fast. It seemed right for me given the position that I had. What else could I do, get another fishing boat?"

Then he went on, "As far as the wealth of art all over Christendom, especially in Rome, there are more works about miracles than there are about deaths."

I said, "Yes, the longer I stay in Rome the more I find that there is art about a miracle on every street."

"How true, that’s Rome, do come back and see me again."

home - (c) Cornelius Sullivan

Non Habemus Papam

Cornelius Sullivan

February 11, 2013

Commentary

Soon we will not have a Pope. Pope Benedict XVI will retire to a monastery inside the Vatican to pray, he will no longer be the Holy Father but may remain like a God Father, not the Cosa Nostra type, more like the mostly unseen spiritual presence assumed by Catholic godfathers when they become baptismal sponsors. He has yet to define what his new title will be. He will be Cardinal Ratzinger.

It is easy and natural to joke about such events as the retirement of a pope because humor involves the clashes of matrixes. A friend said that the conclave should elect Joseph Ratzinger. This announcement is shocking because it is counter-traditional and we thought we knew Ratzinger as a traditional pope. He has surprised at times with his daring.

Perhaps his decision can be best understood if we look at the theme of his pontificate, which is the compatibility of faith and reason. Not long ago I was struck by what Vatican Art Historian, Elizabeth Lev, said in the room in the Vatican Museum, that was once the private study of Pope Julius II, the Stanza della Segnatura, with the Raphael frescos of The School of Athens and The Disputation on the Holy Sacrament. She said these paintings used to be called Theology and Philosophy, but now, in the reign of Pope Benedict XVII, they can be called Faith and Reason.

The Vatican journalist who has been the voice of Vaticano, the EWTN television weekly of Vatican news, David Kerr, said today that Pope Benedict has supplanted the 17^th and 18^th Century Enlightenment errors that separated faith and reason and the idea that religion should exist only in the private sphere. Kerr said that Benedict knows the tyranny of Relativism and has stressed that Christianity is not a philosophical system but rather a personal relationship. 

Benedict was daring at Regensberg, has been bold with candid interviews, and has dared to do Twitter. He never tried to emulate his revered predecessor. Not an actor, he could not be other than the university professor that he is. Bishops from around the world used to be interviewed individually. He changed the format to interviews with groups of fourteen. He conducted them as if they were university seminars.

Two weeks ago I watched the film, a collaboration of Italian TV RAI called, “We have a Pope”, “Habemus Papam”. It was made in 2011. A Cardinal is elected pope and at the time for him to appear on the balcony in front of the faithful in Saint Peter's Square, he has an anxiety attack. Remarkably the Vatican press is able to keep the world at bay for a long time saying that the new pope is in reflection, as he hides in the Vatican. Then he escapes and stays in a hotel in Rome. The charade continues. A search finds him and he finally consents to make the balcony appearance in full papal regalia. Then he- should I ruin the ending? I was dissappointed because the ending reminded me of the cheap suicide endings to films from the seventies. The author ran out of ideas. That is what a Hollywood critic said about this ending. I could not help but wonder what effect the pontificate of Pope John Paul II, a quarter of a century, in a place where history is measured in centuries, had on the writers of this film. Papa Wojtyla gave all and showed us how to die as his mentor, his Lord, had done. It was a striking contrast because in the film the man’s refusal was not based upon anything that we could understand. On the other hand, Pope Benedict’s decision has a unique character that will become understood eventually as being courageous and right for the Church and for the time.

This is a serious announcement no doubt chosen to be on the Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes “The Day of the Sick”. Out of curiosity, I looked to see what the liturgical calendar would say about February 28^th. It is “Thursday of the Second Week of Lent,” not remarkable. It seems as though the choices of these dates, sacred for the former, and mundane, end of the month, for the latter, say something about the real world practicality of this decision.

Because Pope Benedict is the most articulate and clear writer, we can understand his reasoning from his own statement. There may be at some time more particular revelations about his health, but at this point, we can put to rest any conspiracy theories. No one knew this was coming and he said, “I have come to the certainty that my strengths, due to an advanced age, are no longer suited to an adequate exercise of the Petrine ministry.” And “with full freedom I declare that I renounce the ministry of Bishop of Rome.”

This decision shows independence and a special humility. If you are “the chosen one” you might think that the ministry depends only on you. Pope Benedict could have created a papal substitute of some sort to sit through the three hour Masses at Saint Peter's during Holy Week, or carry the cross at the Coliseum on Good Friday, or go to Rio for World Youth Day, and he could remain Holy Father, Theologian in Chief, in his study. He did say “The pope will be in Rio, whether it is me or my successor.” He has understood that the successor to Saint Peter needs to be an apostle, which means going out to spread the Gospel.

With events like this, many of us wish that things could stay the same, stay as they are. After eight years, Papa Ratzinger has settled in as pope. The Greek philosopher Heraclitus said that the only thing constant is change. He appears in the foreground of Raphael’s School of Athens. He is the solid sculptural figure that the painter added last, only after Bramante, Pope Julius II’s architect, was able to sneak him into the Sistine Chapel to see the great revolution in painting that the sculptor had made on the ceiling. Raphael embraced change and realized that he must learn a new way to paint because of what he had seen, and in tribute he made his Hericlitus a portrait of  Michelangelo. 

I will miss seeing Papa Benedetto regularly. I will imagine him writing his books and still being (perhaps not walking briskly as he did) in the Vatican Gardens. Vatacanista Princess Alessandra Borghese, who has known him and dined with him with German Princess Gloria Thurn und Taxis, has said convincingly and with sincerity, that he is a sweet man. We have come to see that. He reintroduced two places for silence in the Mass, after the homily, and after communion. At those times you could see him praying and presenting the posture of prayer. Pope Saint Gregory I in 590 initially used the phrase to describe a pope, “Servant of the Servants of God.” It was repeated by Pope Benedict when he assumed his office.

The School of Athens, Raphael, Stanza della Segnatura, Vatican Museum

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