The Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi confirmed that a homemade explosive device was found Sunday by Brazilian authorities in a public toilet near the basilica at Aparecida, a Marian shrine that Francis will visit Wednesday.
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The global economic crisis is hitting Vatican employees in their cassock pockets.
The Vatican said Thursday that Pope Francis, known for his frugal ways, had decided Vatican employees won’t be getting the bonus that traditionally comes with the election of a new pope.
In the past, the Vatican’s 4,500-plus workers — both religious and lay — would get an extra little something upon the death of one pope and another upon the election of his successor: In 2005, the total reportedly came to 1,500 euros (nearly $2,000) apiece.
Vatican spokesman the Rev. Federico Lombardi said that given tough economic times — the Vatican posted a 15 million-euro deficit in 2011 — “it didn’t seem possible or appropriate to burden the Vatican’s budget with a considerable, unforeseen extra expense.”
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The renovations on the papal apartment are finished, but Pope Francis has decided to stay put in the Vatican hotel for the time being.
The Vatican said Francis, who has long shunned fancy digs, told staff and guests of the Domus Sanctae Martae on Tuesday that he had no plans to move out any time soon. The occasion was the 7 a.m. Mass that Francis has celebrated each morning in the hotel chapel since his election March 13.
Francis has invited groups of guests to the daily Mass, including Vatican gardeners, street-sweepers, hotel workers and staff of the Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano.
Vatican spokesman the Rev. Federico Lombardi says it’s not clear how long the “experiment” of hotel living will last but that Francis has at least moved into the papal suite.
The two men in white embraced and showed one another the deference owed a pope in ways that surely turned Vatican protocol upside down: A reigning pope telling a retired one, “We are brothers,” and insisting that they pray side-by-side during a date to discuss the future of the Catholic Church.
Pope Francis traveled Saturday from the Vatican to this hilltown south of Rome to have lunch with his predecessor, Benedict XVI, an historic and potentially problematic melding of the papacies that has never before confronted the church.
In a season of extraordinary moments, starting with Benedict’s resignation and climaxing with the election of the first Latin American pope, Saturday’s encounter provided perhaps the most enduring images of this papal transition as popes present and past embraced, prayed and broke bread together.
“It was a moment of great communion in the church,” said the Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi. “The spiritual union of these two people is truly a great gift and a promise of serenity for the church.”
Benedict, 85, has been living at the papal retreat in Castel Gandolfo since he stepped down Feb. 28 and became the first pope to resign in 600 years. From the moment he was elected, Francis, 76, made clear he would go visit him, refusing in a way to let Benedict remain “hidden from the world” as he had intended.
Wearing a white quilted jacket over his white cassock to guard against the spring chill, Benedict greeted Francis on the helipad of the Castel Gandolfo gardens as soon as the papal helicopter landed. They embraced and clasped hands. And in a series of gestures that followed, Benedict made clear that he considered Francis to be pope while Francis made clear he considered his predecessor to be very much a revered brother and equal.
Traveling from the helipad to the palazzo, Benedict gave Francis the seat on the right-hand side of the car, the traditional place of the pope, while Benedict sat on the left. When they entered the chapel inside the palazzo to pray, Benedict tried to direct Francis to the papal kneeler in the front, but Francis refused.
Taking Benedict‘s hands and drawing him near, Francis said, “No, we are brothers,” Lombardi said. The two used a longer kneeler in the pews and prayed side-by-side, the papal kneeler facing the altar left vacant.
It was a gesture that, 10 days into Francis’ papacy, is becoming routine: a shunning of the trappings of the papacy in favor of a collegial and simple style that harks back to his Jesuit roots and ministry in the slums of Buenos Aires.
Francis also brought a gift for Benedict, an icon of the Madonna.
“They told me it’s the Madonna of Humility,” Francis told Benedict. “Let me say one thing: When they told me that, I immediately thought of you, at the many marvelous examples of humility and gentleness that you gave us during your pontificate.”
Benedict replied: “Grazie, grazie.”
Outside the villa, the main piazza of Castel Gandolfo was packed with well-wishers bearing photos of both …read more
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Forgive Pope Francis’ security team for looking a bit nervous.
One pope was shot in St. Peter’s Square while riding in an open vehicle. Another was tackled by a woman with mental problems in St. Peter’s Basilica. So in the early days of Francis’ pontificate, as the pope delights the flock by wading into crowds and pressing the flesh, it’s only natural that chief Vatican cop Domenico Giani seems on edge.
Just consider some of Francis’ acts of papal outreach, which have all made for a refreshing change from the reserved style of his predecessor Benedict XVI, but present a huge headache for a security detail attached to one of the planet’s most high-profile people.
The day after his election, Francis eschewed the Vatican’s armored limousine and traveled through the chaotic streets of Rome in an ordinary car to pick up his things at a downtown hotel.
At his first Sunday Mass as pontiff, Francis caused a stir by mingling with bystanders at a Vatican gate, shaking hands and even allowing himself to be grabbed by the shoulder, all while people jostled to get closer.
Then on inauguration day, Francis stood for nearly 30 minutes Tuesday in an open vehicle that circled the vast square, kissing babies handed up to him and at one point jumping out to bless and kiss a disabled man in the crowd.
It’s not for nothing that Francis has quickly been dubbed the “unpredictable” pope. And for a bodyguard, unpredictable means trouble.
Giani looked particularly worried by the crowd that gathered after the Sunday Mass. La Stampa newspaper quoted an aide at the scene as saying that things “better get back to normal or we’re in trouble.”
Vatican spokesman the Rev. Federico Lombardi said last week that the Vatican was well aware of Francis’ informal and open style and that “proper security measures” would be taken, even if that hasn’t happened immediately.
“There are a lot of nut cases out there,” said another Vatican official, who requested anonymity as he is not authorized to discuss security.
“But you can be sure that the security issues are being examined.”
Even Francis’ habit of …read more
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The Vatican says that before he became Pope Francis, Argentina‘s Catholic leader took the first steps toward granting sainthood status to six churchmen who were murdered in July 1976 as Argentina‘s dictatorship began killing thousands of so-called “subversives.”
Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi says Jorge Bergoglio approved the beatification cause of Carlos de Dios Murias, a Franciscan priest whose eyes were gouged out and hands cut off in Argentina‘s La Rioja province.
Bergoglio also OK‘d a sainthood investigation for a priest and four seminarians killed at St. Patrick’s Church in Buenos Aires.
Father Alfredo Kelly and seminarians Alfredo Leaden, Pedro Dufau, Salvador Berbeito and Emilio Barletti, were shot to death by a right-wing hit squad that sprayed graffiti calling it revenge for a leftist guerrilla bombing.
The Vatican says Pope Francis will visit his predecessor next Saturday.
The Vatican spokesman the Rev. Federico Lombardi said Francis will call on Benedict XVI at the Castel Gandolfo papal retreat in the hills south of Rome.
The visit will be significant given the novelty of having a reigning and retired pope side-by-side. Benedict resigned Feb. 28, the first pontiff in 600 years to step down. Francis was elected on Wednesday.
The honeymoon that Pope Francis has enjoyed since his remarkable election hit a bump Friday, with the Vatican lashing out at what it called a defamatory and “anti-clerical left-wing” media campaign questioning his actions during Argentina‘s murderous military dictatorship.
On Day 2 of the Francis pontificate, the Vatican denounced news reports in Argentina and beyond resurrecting allegations that the former Jorge Mario Bergoglio failed to openly confront the junta responsible for kidnapping and killing thousands of people in a “dirty war” to eliminate leftist opponents.
Bergoglio, like most Argentines, didn’t publicly confront the dictators who ruled from 1976-83, while he was the leader of the country’s Jesuits. And human rights activists differ on how much blame he personally deserves.
Top church leaders had endorsed the junta and some priests even worked alongside torturers inside secret prisons. Nobody has produced any evidence suggesting Bergoglio had anything to do with such crimes. But many activists are angry that as archbishop of Buenos Aires for more than a decade, he didn’t do more to support investigations into the atrocities.
On Thursday, the old ghosts resurfaced.
A group of 44 former military and police officers on trial for torture, rape and murder in a concentration camp in Cordoba province in the 1970s wore the yellow-and-white ribbons of the papal flag in Francis’ honor. Many Argentine newspapers ran the photo Friday.
The Vatican spokesman the Rev. Federico Lombardi noted that Argentine courts had never accused Bergoglio of any crime, that he had denied all accusations against him and that on the contrary “there have been many declarations demonstrating how much Bergoglio did to protect many persons at the time.”
He said the accusations against the new pope were made long ago “by anti-clerical left-wing elements to attack the church. They must be firmly rejected.”
The harsh denunciation was typical of a Vatican that often reacts defensively when it feels under attack, even though its response served to give the story legs for another day.
It interrupted the generally positive reception Francis has enjoyed since his election as pope on Wednesday, when even his choice of footwear — his old black shoes rather than the typical papal red — was noted as a sign of his simplicity and humility.
The Vatican says a retired Argentine cardinal who lives in Rome suffered a heart attack on the day his compatriot Pope Francis was elected.
Francis himself informed cardinals about 90-year-old Cardinal Jorge Maria Mejia‘s heart attack as he greeted them Friday at the Vatican. It was not clear whether Mejia was taken ill before or after the news of the papal election.
Vatican spokesman the Rev. Federico Lombardi told journalists Friday that Mejia was in stable condition. Because of his age, Mejia was not among the voting cardinals, who must be younger than 80 to elect a pontiff.
The pomp surrounding his selection was just the beginning of an exceptionally busy few days for Pope Francis. A look at the first night — and what comes after.
THE SELECTION
From the moment of uttering “I accept” in Latin, in front of his fellow cardinals in the Sistine Chapel, the job is his, and it starts instantly.
According to tradition, his first act is declaring his choice of name as the Roman Catholic church’s 266th pontiff. That done, he’s whisked off to the Room of Tears, just beyond the chapel to be dressed in papal white.
Since Monday, the day before the conclave began, three white robes — in small, medium and large to cover all the bases — had been hanging on a clothes rack in the room. Seven pairs of red shoes waited in white boxes to be tried on for size by the new pontiff.
Per tradition, outfitted in papal garb, the new pontiff heads back to the Sistine Chapel, where the other cardinals pledge obedience to the man they chose to lead the church.
NEXT STEP
Just before Benedict XVI left the papacy last month, to begin the first papal retirement in 600 years, he added another step in the ritual before a cardinal steps out onto the central loggia, or balcony, of St. Peter’s Basilica to announce the name of the new pope. The newly elected pontiff was to pause to pray in solitude in the Pauline Chapel, another magnificent chapel decorated by Michelangelo and smaller than the nearby Sistine Chapel.
GREET THE MASSES
Next up is greeting crowds in St. Peter’s Square.
“Brothers and sisters, good evening,” Francis said to wild cheers in his first public remarks as pontiff. “You know that the work of the conclave is to give a bishop to Rome. It seems as if my brother cardinals went to find him from the end of the earth. Thank you for the welcome.”
FIRST FULL DAY?
As the Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, told reporters a few hours …read more
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The Vatican says the new pope’s official name is Pope Francis, without a Roman numeral.
Spokesman the Rev. Federico Lombardi sought to clear up any possible confusion, noting that Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, who announced the name to the world, said simply Francis. It is listed that way in the first Vatican bulletin on the new pope.
“It will become Francis I after we have a Francis II,” Lombardi quipped.
A church sex abuse victims group is acting out of “negative prejudices” when demanding some cardinals withdraw from the papal election, the Vatican spokesman said Wednesday.
The Rev. Federico Lombardi said at a news briefing that the criticisms raised by the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests are “well known” and cardinals already have responded.
The Survivors Network has said Cardinal Roger Mahony should withdraw from the conclave because confidential church files released last month showed the retired Los Angeles archbishop was among church officials who had shielded abusive priests and failed to protect children.
Mahony has apologized repeatedly for how he responded to abuse claims. His successor in Los Angeles, Archbishop Jose Gomez, stripped Mahony of his public duties. But the cardinal has said Vatican officials told him to participate in the conclave, which began Tuesday.
“We are convinced that there are optimal reasons to believe these cardinals should be held in esteem and should enter in the conclave, and they have all the right to be present in the conclave,” Lombardi said at a news briefing on the second day of the conclave. “We don’t believe they should be inconvenienced or put under pressure by the considerations made by SNAP which are, by my reading, informed by very negative prejudices.”
The Los Angeles archdiocese settled more than 500 abuse claims in 2007 for a record-breaking $660 million. The archdiocese announced a new nearly $10 million settlement Tuesday.
David Clohessy, national director of the Survivors’ Network, called Lombardi’s comments “intimidating” and discouraging for victims.
“It’s disappointing to see Vatican officials continuing to defend virtually every man who holds the title cardinal, regardless of how severe and ongoing his misconduct is,” Clohessy said.
The Vatican is revealing what the smoke signals emerging from the Sistine Chapel chimney are made of, after the stir caused by how much more distinct the black smoke in this conclave has been compared to the past.
The Vatican spokesman the Rev. Federico Lombardi said the black smoke that came Tuesday and Wednesday — indicating a pope had not been elected — was made by adding cartridges containing potassium perchlorate, anthracene (a component of coal tar), and sulfur to the burned ballots.
The white smoke signaling a pope has been elected is produced by potassium chlorate, lactose and chloroform resin.
The Vatican is burning the flares following confusion in past conclaves about smoke color. Lombardi said that neither the chapel frescoes nor the cardinals inside suffered from the smoke.
The papal conclave is steeped in mystery — and the church likes it that way. Elaborate ritual and veils of secrecy, after all, are fundamental to the papal mystique, seen as the glue the binds worshipers in faith.
But in this conclave, the church appears to be making some concessions to the instant clarity expected in the Internet era: Just look at the thick plumes of black smoke that poured from the chimney of the Sistine Chapel on Tuesday and Wednesday to tell the world that the votes had not yielded a winner.
It was a big contrast to conclaves past in which confusion has reigned over the smoke color, with pilgrims in St. Peter’s Square screaming: “It’s white! … no, no … it’s black!!”
The smoke ritual itself dates back more than a century. And, regardless of questions of color, the Vatican has no intention of changing the tradition now — saying the uncertainty is part of the beauty of the process.
“A little suspense is good for all of us,” said Vatican spokesman the Rev. Federico Lombardi. “Don’t expect Swiss-watch precision.”
Mystery is a big idea in the Catholic faith. Its deepest meaning is that parts of faith are unknowable through reason and intellect alone. Wafting incense, Gregorian chants, ringing bells and other grand rituals of the liturgy are seen as outward manifestation of this concept.
In the conclave, it’s the mystery of the Holy Spirit and not a political agenda that is supposed to guide the cardinals in their selection. (In reality, however, everybody knows that politics plays an important role).
Conclaves weren’t always this secret.
They were once public events witnessed by hundreds of ordinary people who would watch the voting a bit like one might a sporting event. And politics was much more overtly a factor than it is today: Until the 20th century, some European royalty could veto the choice of the cardinals.
Now super-secrecy prevails, with cellphones, computers and anything connecting the cardinal-electors to the outside world banned.
“Thank God there’s still all the good old-fashioned things, like burning the ballots and the chimney going up,” said Greg Burke, an ex-Fox News correspondent who is now a communications adviser to …read more
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As cardinals move to elect a new pope, the Vatican has seemed intent on getting people to forget the last one.
Benedict XVI’s papacy ended last month with an act of great symbolism: Swiss Guards banged shut the giant doors of the papal palace in Castel Gandolfo at the strike of 8 p.m. Since then, Benedict has literally been kept out of sight, part of a calculated strategy to show he will play no role in selecting his successor.
The emeritus pope has only been spotted once since retiring — in a photo snapped by a paparazzo hiding in a tree.
Italian celebrity gossip magazine Chi, which carried the topless photos of Prince William‘s wife last year, showed Benedict dressed in a white down coat and white baseball hat while taking an afternoon stroll with a cane in the castle gardens, accompanied by his faithful secretary, Monsignor Georg Gaenswein.
These days, the Vatican rarely even speaks of Benedict. And only a few official details have trickled out on his life after the papacy: He slept well his first night as a former pope, celebrated Mass as usual in the morning and ate breakfast. The sparse details all seem to stem from fears over conflicts arising from having a reigning pope and a retired one.
As part of the process of forgetting Benedict, the retired pontiff’s coat of arms were removed from a floral display in front of the Vatican’s governor’s palace, ready to be replaced by the coat of arms of the new pope.
And the Vatican spokesman Monday was quick to dismiss any suggestion of possible contacts between Benedict and the cardinal electors, saying that none had sought him out since they had gathered in Rome.
The Rev. Federico Lombardi said that Benedict won’t be getting any inside information about the conclave — and that he would probably follow the proceedings on TV and by reading newspapers. That’s a shift from the line taken just two days earlier, when Lombardi said Benedict is receiving regular briefings on cardinals’ meetings from Gaenswein.
Nonetheless, Benedict is bound to cast a big shadow over the conclave.
He named 67 of the 115 cardinals who will be voting, so some sense of loyalty may well influence their decisions about the successor. And some …read more
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Firefighters on Saturday installed the top of the Sistine Chapel chimney that will signal to the world that a new pope has been elected, as the Vatican took measures to definitively end Benedict XVI’s pontificate.
While construction workers prepared the interior of the frescoed Sistine Chapel for Tuesday’s start of the conclave, officials elsewhere in the Apostolic Palace destroyed Benedict’s fisherman’s ring and the personal seals and stamps for official papers.
The act, coupled with Benedict’s public resignation and pledge of obedience to the future pope, is designed to signal a definitive end of his papacy so there is no doubt in the church that a new pope is in charge.
The developments all point toward the momentous decision soon to confront the Catholic Church: Tuesday’s start of the conclave to elect a new pope to lead the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics and try to solve the numerous problems facing the church.
The Vatican outlined the timeline for the balloting and confirmed that the bells of St. Peter’s Basilica will ring once a pope has been elected. But Vatican officials also acknowledged that there is some uncertainty about the whole endeavor, given the difficulties in discerning the color of smoke that will snake out of the Sistine chimney — black if no pope has been elected, white if a victor has emerged.
Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, laughed off concerns, saying that some “suspense” was all part of the beauty of the process.
“We’re not going to send out text messages or SMS messages, you’ll have to come and see,” another Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Thomas Rosica, said.
For the sixth day, cardinals met behind closed doors to discuss the problems of the church and once again they discussed the work of the Holy See’s offices “and how to improve it,” according to Lombardi.
The Holy See’s internal governance has been the major constant in these days of discussion, an indication that the revelations of corruption, political infighting and turf battles exposed by the leaks of papal documents last year are casting a very big shadow over this conclave.
While the cardinals ponder their choices, preparations for the vote continue.
On Saturday, a handful of firefighters climbed onto the Sistine Chapel‘s roof and installed the top of the chimney. Inside Michelangelo‘s frescoed masterpiece, construction workers staple-gunned the felt carpeting to the false floor that has been erected over the chapel’s stone floor.
The false floor both evens out the steps of the chapel and hides the jamming equipment that has been installed to prevent any cellphone or eavesdropping devices from working. And in fact, on Saturday, cell phones had no reception in the chapel.
For such an important decision, the Sistine chimney is an awfully simple affair: a century-old cast iron stove where the voting ballot papers are burned, with a copper pipe out the top that snakes up the Sistine’s frescoed walls, out the window and onto the chapel roof.
After years of confusion about whether the smoke was black or white, the Vatican in 2005 installed an auxiliary stove where …read more
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The Vatican’s spokesman came to his press briefing Friday bearing flowers for female journalists to mark International Women’s Day. “On behalf of all of us men, congratulations and happy Women’s Day!” said a beaming Rev. Federico Lombardi.
A heartfelt gesture, to be sure, but one that came a day after an awkward acknowledgement: The upcoming election of the pope will be an all-male affair — except for the women who cook for, clean up after and serve the 115 cardinals who will pick the leader of the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics, half of them women.
Lombardi’s admission came when a reporter noted that one of the video clips the Vatican had provided of preparations in the Sistine Chapel featured a woman at a sewing machine, making the skirting for the tables where cardinals will sit. Aside from the seamstress, the reporter inquired, how many women are involved in the conclave process?
Lombardi said the total number wouldn’t be known until all Vatican personnel involved in the conclave take their oath of secrecy. But he noted that several women work at the Vatican’s Santa Marta hotel, where the cardinals will eat and sleep during the conclave, which begins on Tuesday.
For many observers, Lombardi’s comment was a tacit acknowledgment of what many consider women’s second-class status in Catholic Church, despite the fact they take a leading role in staffing Catholic schools, hospitals and other charitable institutions that are the cornerstone of the church’s social outreach.
“It is fine to sew and be a seamstress, but women have much to contribute to the political … health and well-being of the people on the planet,” said Janice Sevre-Duszynska, a member of the Roman Catholic Women Priests movement who says she was ordained a priest in 2008.
She and other members of the women’s ordination movement, as well as other dissident groups calling for greater participation of women in leadership positions in the church, have descended on Rome to try to have their voices heard in the papal election.
Lombardi noted that women’s role in the church was discussed Friday during the pre-conclave meetings that cardinals have attended this week to discuss the problems of the church and who should lead it.
He didn’t provide any details.
The Vatican says the conclave to elect a new pope will likely start in the first few days of next week.
The Rev. Federico Lombardi told reporters that cardinals will vote Friday afternoon on the start date of the conclave but said it was “likely” they would choose Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday.
The cardinals have been attending pre-conclave meetings to discuss the problems of the church and decide who among them is best suited to fix them as pope.
By The Huffington Post News Editors
The first general congregation of the day failed to come up with a date for the conclave, as father Federico Lombardi, spokesperson for the press office of the Holy See, explained to journalists today. The cardinals will be getting together again this afternoon, from 5 to 9 p.m. All except one of the 115 electoral cardinals have reached Rome. The only absent cardinal — Vietnamese Pham Minn-Ma — is expected to land this afternoon at Rome’s Fiumicino airport.
After yesterday’s media maelstrom, when parallel press conferences organized by the American cardinals were abruptly cancelled, it has become increasingly clear that inside Paolo VI Hall, where the general congregations are held, the mood feels dire. The delayed decision to set a date for the conclave is simply further proof. Compared to the past few days, the atmosphere has soured significantly: cardinals rush past, their faces dark, ignoring the journalists and photographers waiting around outside.
The American cardinals in Rome for the conclave to elect the next pope have cancelled their popular daily press briefings — purportedly because of concern that details of the secret proceedings under way ahead of the election might leak to the media.
The Vatican denied it exerted any pressure on the Americans to keep quiet. But the Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, said the Holy See considers these pre-conclave meetings to be secret and part of a solemn discernment process to choose a pope.
The U.S. cardinals’ spokeswoman, Sister Mary Ann Walsh, said Wednesday’s briefing was cancelled after concern expressed by other cardinals “about leaks of confidential proceedings reported in Italian newspapers.” As a precaution, interviews were halted.
Italian newspapers haven’t reported any significant information from the confidential talks.
