With full freedom, I declare that I renounce the ministry of Bishop of Rome, Successor of Saint Peter, entrusted to me by the Cardinals on 19 April 2005. With these sober and canonical words did Pope Benedict XVI resign as Pope on 12 February 2013. Only days ago, I commented to a friend that the Church will be seeking a new Pope in the next 5 years or so. I never thought that I would have to wait only 5 days. There's something moving and stirring about the Pope's resignation....
Michael Czerny S.J. of the English Canadian Province is missioned to the office of the president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace. This is the second in a series of weekly articles which Michael will write from Ash Wednesday until the inauguration of the new Pope. Michael will report personally with reflections on the ecclesial and spiritual drama as seen from within. They will be posted every Friday....
On one hand, no one should be surprised by Pope Benedict's resignation, but on the other, everyone is stunned! Reality is quite different than theory. For months many had been speculating that his resignation was imminent. The evidence was mounting: a second consistory for the creation of new cardinals in the same calendar year, the ordination to the episcopate of his personal secretary, and most compelling of all his obvious decline in strength....
We were all initially surprised to hear about Pope Benedict XVI's decision to resign, something not done by a pope since 1415. But then one looks back at the record of his papacy and the clues were there. For Jesuits, one clue stands out. Like the Pope, the Jesuit General Superior is elected for life. When our former General, Pedro Arrupe, asked Pope John Paul II if he could resign, because he was feeling the signs of growing ill health, the answer was a decisive no. Not long afterwards in 1981, Arrupe suffered a major stroke, and died in 1991. Fr. Peter-Hans Kolvenbach succeeded him in 1983....
We all live in imagined worlds and we live in those worlds as if they were real. This is not to say that there is no such thing as reality but it is to say that how we appropriate and construct that reality is through the imagination and that imagination incarnates itself through stories....
As we begin Lent, we ask ourselves the question: what shall I give up for Lent? Or perhaps the flip side of the coin: what special thing shall I do during Lent? Lent is a time to 'pick up the slack' when it comes to our habits: we either want to work on purging those that get in the way of our relationship with God as well as our fellow brothers and sisters, or on developing those that help these relationships....
Students at Loyola College in the early part of the twentieth century found Nicholas A. Quirk, S.J., somewhat eccentric. He was to some extent, yet not to the degree the stories from that era would suggest. Quirk was among the earliest teachers at Loyola College, having been assigned there in 1899....
Margaret Silf's new book, Just Call Me López: Getting to the Heart of Ignatius Loyola (Loyola Press, Chicago, 2012), is a very handsome little hardcover piece of work, as befits its subject. The cover photo shows a warm and inviting corner of a contemporary living room, and on the wall a new portrait of Ignatius composing one of his close to 7,000 letters....
On Monday, February 11, I walked into the house chapel for community prayer a little before 1:00 pm Rome time. One of my colleagues leaned over to me and asked if I had heard the news that the Pope had announced his resignation. Given this fellow's reputation for jokes, I was sure he was just pulling my leg. But almost immediately I realized that he was quite serious and that in fact the Pope had just resigned....
Keeping little children attentive during liturgical services can be a task. Keeping them occupied during a baptism can be a major one. Perhaps my memory exaggerates, but I seem to recall that at baptisms outside of Mass, we spent a fair amount time waiting for some family members to show up. That generally gave the little ones time to unleash their restless energies, usually noisily running about while parents chased after them. One thing I've learned from years of baptizing is to include in the ritual, if possible, any smaller children present, which meant inviting them to gather around the font to "help" with the baptism. Carefully I show them how to scoop the water gently with both hands over the baby's head. They seem to rise to such a solemn event, and in their own way feel they too share in the service....
