Month: May 2025

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – As the Catholic Church elects a new pope, a cardinal reminded his fellow electors that true Christian leadership begins not in control, but in surrender to mystery.

“We so often feel like masters of God, perfect knowers of the truth, while we are only pilgrims to whom the Word has been given,” said Cardinal Claudio Gugerotti, former prefect of Dicastery for Eastern Churches, during a memorial Mass for Pope Francis May 2.

In his homily, the Italian cardinal warned against reducing God to human categories, pointing to the idea deeply rooted in Eastern Christianity that God is ultimately beyond comprehension. “Contemplation of the incomprehensible,” he said, reminds believers that even the greatest theologians – like St. Thomas Aquinas in the West – could speak only of what God is not, rather than define what God is.

Cardinal Gugerotti celebrated Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica with cardinals and representatives from the Eastern Churches on the seventh day of the “novendiali” — nine days of mourning for Pope Francis marked by Masses.

Calling on the church to remain attentive to the cries of creation and of suffering humanity, Cardinal Gugerotti lamented that “creation and the human person seem to have so little value today.”

Some parts of the church however, such as in Africa, are attentive to the beauty of creation around them, “because new life is for their peoples an inestimable value.”

He described creation as a “companion on the journey of humanity” and recalled how Pope Francis often insisted that caring for the earth and for the poor are inseparable tasks. Creation “asks for solidarity from the human race,” the cardinal said, “so that it may be respected and healed.”

Reflecting on the legacy of Pope Francis, he said the late pope “taught us to gather the cry of violated life, to assume it and present it to the Father, but also to work to concretely alleviate the pain that this cry evokes.”

At times, he said, a wounded humanity struggles even to voice its need for God.

“This desperate humanity, in its cry, finds it difficult to express prayer and invocation to the God of life,” the cardinal said. In such moments, the Holy Spirit gives voice to what the human heart cannot articulate, transforming “our rocky silences and unexpressed tears into an invocation to our God with inexpressible groanings.”

Cardinal Gugerotti said this interior prayer – silent but powerful – must guide the church through its mourning and discernment. “In this Eucharist we intend to join, as we can and know how, the inexpressible groaning of the Spirit that cries out to God what is pleasing to him,” he said.

The cardinal also praised the witness of Eastern Catholic communities present at the Mass, many of whom have faced persecution, war or exile. Though diminished in number, he said, “they remain firmly attached to a sense of catholicity that does not exclude but indeed implies the recognition of their specificity.”

Their liturgical and spiritual traditions, he noted, “enrich the church with the variety of their experiences, their cultures, but above all their very rich spirituality.”

As the cardinals prepare to enter the conclave May 7, Cardinal Gugerotti closed his homily by invoking the Holy Spirit through a 10th-century Eastern prayer by St. Symeon the New Theologian:

“Come, true light; come, eternal life; come, hidden mystery … so that, seeing you forever I, who am dead, may live.”

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – All but four of the 135 cardinals who are eligible to enter the conclave May 7 to vote for a new pope had arrived in Rome by May 2, according to the Vatican press office.

Spanish Cardinal Antonio Cañizares Llovera, 79, retired archbishop of Valencia, and Kenyan Cardinal John Njue, retired archbishop of Nairobi, who also is 79, have announced they are too ill to take part in the conclave and would not be traveling to Rome.

Matteo Bruni, director of the Vatican press office, told reporters May 2 that he would not name the two others who are missing. The Vatican will provide a list May 7 of all the cardinals who enter the conclave.

Bruni vigorously denied an Italian news report that Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the former Vatican secretary of state widely viewed by the press as a leading candidate to become pope, had a medical emergency during the general congregation meeting April 30.

“No, that is not true. No,” Bruni said.

As the cardinals were meeting May 2, Vatican firefighters were installing the chimney on the roof of the Sistine Chapel. The chimney connects to the stove, installed in a corner of the chapel, where the cardinals’ ballots will be burned. With a chemical additive, black smoke out of the chimney signals that no one was elected while white smoke means the church has a new pope.

Between the death of Pope Francis April 21 and the beginning of the conclave, the cardinals – both those under the age of 80 and eligible to enter the conclave as well as those who are over 80 and are not eligible – meet most days in a general congregation.

The meetings allow the cardinals to study the current state of the church and the Vatican, to discuss challenges the world poses to believers and to exchange views on the qualities the next pope should have.

Bruni said more than 180 cardinals – more than 120 of whom are electors – were present for the May 2 general congregation.

Twenty-five cardinals addressed the group, bringing up a wide variety of topics, Bruni said.

“They spoke of evangelization as the heart of the pontificate of Francis, the church as a communion” and its connection to evangelization, synodality and “how to communicate the Gospel, particularly to the youth,” he said. They also spoke of the witness and suffering of many of the Eastern Catholic churches.

Another cardinal, he said, spoke of how the unity of the church is an essential witness and quoted the biblical passage that says Christians will be recognized by how they love one another.

The “risk and counter-witness” of clerical sexual abuse and financial scandals was also discussed, Bruni said.

“There was a reflection also on the hermeneutics of continuity between the pontificates of St. John Paul II, Benedict XVI and Pope Francis,” he said, as well as on the Eucharist.

VATICAN CITY (OSV News) – In the heart of Vatican City, the usually quiet Casa Santa Marta is abuzz with workers, engineers, and Vatican officials transforming the guesthouse that was the residence of Pope Francis into a secure, secluded place of lodging that would put Fort Knox to shame.

With the 2025 conclave to elect Pope Francis’ successor set to begin on May 7, the Vatican guest house is now preparing to house 128 of the 133 cardinal electors that are expected to be present during the conclave, according to a source who asked not to be named.

This change from a general hotel to a secure dormitory for cardinals participating in the conclave became evident April 29, when all permanent residents, including some cardinals who have had a room there for years, were required to vacate their rooms. According to a Vatican official with firsthand knowledge of the preparations, many will return to the same rooms once the conclave begins, but only after each room is inspected, secured and sealed.

The following day, staff from the Vatican Governorate began a weeklong overhaul of the facility. Every detail – from the locks on the doors to the alignment of the shutters – is under review. The kitchen, temporarily closed, is undergoing deep cleaning to meet conclave protocols. Even the underground garage has been repurposed as a logistics hub, where clean linens, fresh food, and other essentials will be distributed under the careful supervision of Vatican security.

Though often associated with comfort, the guest house is not a hotel in the traditional sense.

“There’s no minibar or room service,” the official noted. “Some residents had small fridges, but during the conclave, the focus is simplicity and security, not convenience.” Room service? Out of the question, unless you are a convalescing guest.

The kitchen will be staffed by the same small team that normally serves Santa Marta: two young Italian cooks and a female chef from Africa. The menus — while not luxurious — are expected to be high-quality and tailored to the health needs of the cardinals, including those who are diabetic, gluten-intolerant, or require special diets.

While Matteo Bruni, director of the Vatican press office, said during the May 2 press briefing in the Vatican that he “doesn’t have precise indications” on how many cardinals will stay outside of Santa Marta, the source told OSV News that, as the hotel has 129 rooms, there will be space for 128 electors. The room previously used by Pope Francis is sealed until the new pope opens it.

The remaining cardinals, the source said, will be housed in the adjoining “Old Santa Marta” building, which is physically connected to the newer structure. Alongside the cardinal electors, some 70 to 80 support personnel — nurses, doctors, liturgical assistants, servers and cooks — will remain on hand, all bound by an oath of secrecy and isolated from the rest of the world.

That oath is no symbolic gesture. The same Vatican official confirmed that every person inside the conclave environment – whether a cardinal, layperson, priest, or bishop – will be subject to excommunication if they violate the conclave’s strict secrecy rules. Phones, tablets, laptops, radios and televisions will be confiscated, placed into sealed bags labeled with each cardinal’s name, and held in reserve until the conclave concludes.

“Even the windows will be sealed, including the shutters, so no one can so much as glance outside,” the source said.

Every cardinal’s room will be sealed after inspection to ensure it contains no means of communication with the outside world. These seals will only be broken once the cardinal-elector arrives and takes possession of the room, always in the presence of the Swiss Guard or Vatican gendarmes.

These security measures are deeply rooted in church tradition. The word “conclave” itself comes from the Latin “cum clave” — literally “with a key” — evoking the image of the cardinals locked in seclusion until they elect a new pope. The practice of locking electors dates back to the conclave of 1271, which followed nearly three years of deadlock and political interference. In response, Pope Gregory X formalized the conclave process in 1274 with the constitution

“Ubi periculum,” requiring strict isolation and continuous voting.

Secrecy became even more vital in the modern era. During the 1903 conclave, Emperor Franz Joseph of Austria exercised a long-standing but controversial right to veto a candidate — Italian Cardinal Mariano Rampolla — through a representative inside the Sistine Chapel. Though the veto failed to prevent Rampolla from receiving significant support, it likely influenced the cardinals’ final decision. As a result, the newly elected Pope Pius X swiftly abolished the veto and any secular interference in papal elections.

That commitment to autonomy was reaffirmed by St. John Paul II in 1996 with his apostolic constitution “Universi Dominici Gregis,” which governs modern conclaves. The document outlines everything from the required two-thirds majority vote to the penalties for breaking the oath of secrecy. It was later amended by Pope Benedict XVI and Pope Francis to reflect changes in technology and church governance.

This year’s conclave presents both logistical and spiritual challenges. For the first time, the number of cardinal electors exceeds the 120-cap set by Pope Paul VI in 1970, prompting adjustments to accommodate all participants without compromising the conclave’s integrity.

Still, the essence remains unchanged. As the cardinals continue meeting in Rome — with only a handful of the 133 electors missing — the Vatican is quietly locking the doors, sealing the windows, and preparing the rooms of what is now one of the most famous hotels in the world — and out of which will emerge the next pope.

ROME (CNS) – The rules and rituals for the election of a new pope say that immediately after his election, he goes into the sacristy of the Sistine Chapel and puts on “the garments that are appropriate to him.”

That’s all that is written.

For more than 100 year that meant that the Gammarelli family’s clerical tailor shop near the Pantheon in Rome had already sent to the Vatican three white wool cassocks — large, medium and small — with an attached capelet.

But Lorenzo Gammarelli, who now runs the shop with three cousins, told Agence France-Presse April 24 that they will not be sending the customary three cassocks to the Vatican ahead of the conclave scheduled to begin May 7.

“We were told by the Vatican that they have taken care of it,” he told AFP, explaining that he believes the vestments for the new pope would “be those of the previous conclaves, because each time we made three robes, and they used only one.”

Not receiving an order has not stopped Raniero Mancinelli, though.

From his tailor and religious goods shop in the Borgo Pio, near the Vatican, he told Catholic News Service May 2 that he has sewn vestments for Pope Francis, Pope Benedict XVI and St. John Paul II, and he was preparing the set of three – small, medium and large – just in case.

He is sizing for the next pope’s girth, not height, he said, because when the new pope appears on the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica no one will notice how long the cassock is. “Later, the right size will be made.”

Mancinelli said he would deliver the lightweight wool cassocks, with appropriately calibrated sashes and white zucchettos, or skullcaps, to the Vatican liturgy office before the conclave begins.

He’s been a tailor for some 70 years, since he was 15 years old.

The tailor said he once tried to persuade Pope Francis to let him make a pair of white or cream-colored trousers, since the pope’s black slacks were often visible beneath his cassock, especially in bright sunlight. “But he told me he was fine with the way it was.”

Mancinelli is one of the few people working near the Vatican who is not thinking about which cardinal might be elected.

When he is sewing, he said, he does not have a specific person in mind and is not “dreaming” of who might wear his garment.

“I do my work with passion, I like it, and I concentrate on the work, not the person,” he said, adding that focus is especially important when handling papal garments because they are white and easy to stain.

Because the three garments were not an order, Mancinelli said they will be a gift, one he is offering “very gladly because serving the church is a great honor for me.”

WASHINGTON (OSV News) – President Donald Trump on May 1 signed an executive order creating a religious liberty commission during an interfaith event marking the National Day of Prayer in the White House Rose Garden.

Those named to the commission included Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan of New York and Bishop Robert E. Barron of Winona-Rochester, Minnesota.

The White House said the commission, which will advise its Faith Office and the Domestic Policy Council, is tasked with producing “a comprehensive report on the foundations of religious liberty in America, strategies to increase awareness of and celebrate America’s peaceful religious pluralism, current threats to religious liberty, and strategies to preserve and enhance protections for future generations,” and that some of its areas of focus include school choice and conscience protections.

In comments at the event, Trump sought to cast his administration as one defending “people of all faiths, their religious freedoms, at home and abroad.”

“They say, ‘Separation between church and state.’ … I said, ‘All right, let’s forget about that for one time,'” Trump said adding, “Is that a good thing or bad thing? I’m not sure.”

Some of the Trump administration’s policy positions have been criticized by faith leaders, perhaps most notably on immigration. In January, Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said executive orders signed by Trump on issues including migration, the environment and the death penalty were “deeply troubling,” while praising another on gender policy.

Trump lamented the absence of Cardinal Dolan from the event. He is in Rome preparing for the conclave to elect a new pope later in May following the April 21 death of Pope Francis.

“He has really an excuse,” Trump said of the prelate. “Cardinal Dolan is in Rome, I just left Rome, it was a beautiful service,” Trump said in reference to his attendance at the late pontiff’s funeral April 26. “But he’s in Rome having to vote for the next pope.”

“I got extremely upset,” Trump added when he learned Cardinal Dolan would not be able to attend the event. “I said, ‘You can’t do that. This is much more important.’ Actually, he was actually torn, if you want to know the truth, which is pretty good, but he’s on the council too, and he’s a great guy and I’ve known him for a long time.”

In a post on X, Bishop Barron wrote, “I am grateful to President Trump for appointing me to serve on the Commission on Religious Liberty.”

“Freedom of religion in our country has been a central concern of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops for decades, and I see my task as bringing the perspective of Catholic social teaching to bear as the Commission endeavors to shape public policy in this matter,” he said. “In assuming this responsibility, I take as my model Fr. Theodore Hesburgh, the legendary president of the University of Notre Dame from 1952 to 1987. In the course of his career, Hesburgh served on sixteen separate presidential commissions over several decades in both Republican and Democrat administrations. I ask you to pray for me as I commence this important work.”

Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick was named as the commission’s chair and Dr. Ben Carson as its vice chair. Ryan Anderson, president of the Ethics and Public Policy Center, the Rev. Franklin Graham, Pastor Paula White and television personality Dr. Phil McGraw are among its other members, according to Patrick’s office.

In his remarks, Trump credited White with helping him win over skeptical Christians during his first campaign.

“My old friends, they couldn’t believe that I got that kind of a number with (Christians) you understand,” Trump quipped.

(OSV News) – For Pope Francis, the liturgy both defied easy definition, and yet could also be encapsulated in just a couple of sentences: “It is an act that founds the whole Christian experience and, therefore, prayer, too, is an event, it is a happening, it is presence, it is encounter. It is an encounter with Christ,” the pontiff told listeners during a 2021 general audience.

While the liturgical legacy of Pope Francis, who died April 21 at age 88, may have flown under the radar for many, several experts told OSV News his 12-year papacy made a definite impact.

“Pope Francis had a great love for liturgical prayer,” said Father Andrew Menke, executive director of the secretariat for the International Commission on English in the Liturgy, or ICEL. “To see him at Mass was to see someone genuinely praying from the heart, and entering into the mystery being celebrated.”

Msgr. Kevin Irwin, a research professor at The Catholic University of America in Washington and a leading liturgy commentator who wrote “Pope Francis and the Liturgy” (Paulist Press), noted Pope Francis’ liturgical tastes were also quite unadorned.

“His celebration of the liturgy was as simple as a papal liturgy can be,” said Msgr. Irwin, alluding to the inclusion of additional ceremonial elements and specific prayers when the pope celebrates Mass.

On Feb. 28, writing from his Gemelli hospital room in Rome during his final illness, Pope Francis sent a message to professors and students at Rome’s Pontifical Athenaeum of St. Anselm saying dioceses should encourage “a liturgical style that expresses the following of Jesus, avoiding unnecessary pageantry or prominence.”

Still, Father Menke believes liturgy didn’t necessarily define Pope Francis’ 12-year papacy in the way other issues did.

“I don’t think liturgical questions were a major priority of his pontificate,” he said. “We won’t think of his liturgical legacy in the same way we’ll remember his love for the poor and for people on the margins of the church and society.”

Father Menke nonetheless acknowledged the ongoing controversy surrounding Francis’ “Traditionis Custodes” (“Guardians of the Tradition”) — a 2021 apostolic letter dramatically curtailing the previous permissions of St. John Paull II and Pope Benedict XVI for celebration of Mass in Latin according to the 1962 Roman Missal, commonly called the traditional Latin Mass. Those restrictions, Father Menke said, have been a challenge to many Catholics.

A key component of Pope Francis’ liturgical bequest, Father Menke proposed, revolves around the inheritance of the Second Vatican Council and the subsequent liturgical reform that led to the Mass celebrated in local languages.

“In terms of his liturgical legacy, I think he’ll be remembered as a pope who wanted to affirm and strengthen the liturgical reform initiated at the Second Vatican Council,” said Father Menke. “We’re over 50 years distant from the beginning of those changes, and most of us simply take them for granted, or forget the principles behind the reform.”

That’s an outcome Pope Francis perhaps wanted to avoid when he penned “Desiderio Desideravi,” his 2022 apostolic letter “on the liturgical formation of the people of God,” noting that Catholics need to better understand — through “serious and dynamic liturgical formation” — the liturgical reform of Vatican II and its goal of “full, conscious, active, and fruitful celebration” of the Mass.

The apostolic letter “contains many ideas about what participation means, the importance of catechesis, and ongoing formation in the liturgy,” Msgr. Irwin said. “It is up to bishops’ conferences to take up this challenge. The bishops of France, Germany and Japan, among many others, have done so. Not yet here in the U.S.A.”

Father John Baldovin, a Jesuit like Pope Francis and a professor of historical and liturgical theology at Boston College, agreed with Father Menke’s emphasis of Vatican II in Pope Francis’ liturgical outlook.

“It’s important to realize that in some ways, Pope Francis is the first post-Vatican II pope; he’s the first pope to have been ordained a priest after Vatican II,” Father Baldovin said. “So that’s a big part of his legacy.”

Pope Francis additionally expanded the universal liturgical calendar of the Roman rite with both obligatory and optional memorials and other remembrances of a wide diversity of saints, as well as the Blessed Mother.

The feast day of St. Teresa of Kolkata (Sept. 5) was added, as were the feasts of Our Lady of Loreto (Dec. 10), St. Faustina Kowalska (Oct. 5) and St. Paul VI (May 29).

St. Martha already appeared on the calendar, but her sister and brother, St. Mary and St. Lazarus of Bethany, were added to a new July 29 celebration for all three. St. Mary Magdalene — also already on the calendar — had her commemoration (July 22) elevated to the rank of feast due to her role as “Apostolorum Apostola” (“Apostle of the Apostles”).

A new memorial celebration – Mary, Mother of the Church, commemorated on the Monday following Pentecost Sunday – was created in 2018.

And 21 Christian martyrs who were not Catholic — Coptic Orthodox migrant workers in Libya murdered by ISIS terrorists in 2015 — were inducted into the Roman Martyrology.

“In some respects,” Father Menke said, “this is simply a continuation of something that popes have done for centuries. That is, in adding celebrations to the liturgical calendar, popes emphasize to the church new models of sanctity who have a particular relevance in current times.”

“But,” he noted, referring to the Coptic martyrs, “the novelty of recognizing the sainthood of non-Catholics is certainly interesting, and something that could have important ecumenical implications. Time will tell whether this will become a wider trend with future popes.”

Pope Francis also oversaw granting greater translation authority to various national bishops’ conferences; liturgical adaptations for Catholics of Indigenous cultures; and a special Mass and prayers for use “In Time of Pandemic.” He advised shorter homilies for priests, and authorized and encouraged the formal institution of lay men and women to the ministry of acolyte, lector and catechist — while the roles are a common sight worldwide, institution to these lay ministries recognizes a specific way of living out their baptism in their communities.

He also bridged liturgical traditions, as with the Catholic Church’s personal ordinariates for the Anglican tradition – commonly called the “Anglican ordinariate” for short – authorizing the only use of the Roman Missal in traditional English.

Established by Pope Benedict XVI’s 2009 apostolic constitution “Anglicanorum Coetibus,” the personal ordinariates are effectively Catholic dioceses with Anglican traditions. Thanks to Pope Francis’ approval of their liturgical books over the course of his pontificate, they celebrate the Mass, Liturgy of the Hours, sacraments and other liturgies in traditional English, shaped by Anglican traditions that are now fully at home in the Catholic Church.

“Pope Francis always valued and promoted the personal ordinariates since 2013,” said Hans-Jürgen Feulner, a professor of liturgical studies and sacramental theology at the University of Vienna specializing in Anglican and Eastern liturgies. He said a major sign of his support was also his “appointing two bishops, Bishop Steven Lopes for the U.S.A. and Canada (2016) and Bishop David Waller (2024) for England, Wales and Scotland.”

The ordinariates’ “Divine Worship” liturgical books authorized by Pope Francis “represent a momentous development in the history of Catholic worship,” Feulner added, “as for the first time, the Catholic Church has officially recognized and approved a collection of liturgical texts developed outside the bounds of her visible communion.”

Nor were the pontiff’s efforts limited to the Western Church.

“Pope Francis had a tremendous impact upon the everyday life of Eastern Catholic churches,” Father Mark Morozowich, a Ukrainian Catholic mitred archpriest and director of the Bishop Basil Lostern Center for Ukrainian Church Studies at Catholic University, told OSV News.

“He strengthened the episcopal synods that govern Eastern Catholics, as well as striving to encourage the bishops to live their liturgical lives to its fullness,” Father Morozowich added.

Pope Francis supported the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church’s synodal decision — in the face of resistance by some priests and laity — to have a uniform mode of celebrating their form of the Mass, known as the Holy Qurbana, which involved the priest facing the people during the Liturgy of the Word, and then having the priest and people face the East together, part of the church’s ancient tradition, during the Liturgy of the Eucharist.

“He ardently strove to bring unity to Eastern Christianity, and help to encourage Eastern Catholics to serve in their role as people who are building bridges and helping to serve Christian unity,” Father Morozowich said.

Pope Francis was also fond of founding new “days” for the church to celebrate — among them, Sunday of the Word of God (Third Sunday in Ordinary Time on the Roman Calendar); World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation (Sept. 1); World Day for Grandparents and Elderly (fourth Sunday of July, near the July 26 liturgical memorial of Jesus’ grandparents Sts. Joachim and Anne); and the World Children’s Day (May).

Father Menke said that while the Vatican has in recent decades promoted a number of special observances like these, he feels they don’t often receive the attention they deserve.

“In choosing these particular themes for our attention and prayer, I think Pope Francis wanted to make the church more conscious of people and issues that are too often forgotten,” he said.

“I’d say that that’s consistent with the overall theme of his pontificate.”

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – As successors to the apostles, members of the College of Cardinals are called to follow the example of Christ who came to serve and not be served, the subdean of the college said.

Celebrating a memorial Mass for Pope Francis April 30, Argentine Cardinal Leonardo Sandri said that the cardinals, from those who serve in faraway dioceses to those in the Roman Curia, must be mindful that “to reign is to serve, like the Master and Lord, who is in our midst as one who serves.”

“One of the titles that tradition attributes to the bishop of Rome is indeed ‘Servus Servorum Dei’ (‘Servant of the Servants of God’),” Cardinal Sandri said. “Pope Francis lived this, choosing various places of suffering and loneliness to carry out the washing of the feet” on Holy Thursday, “but also kneeling and kissing the feet of the leaders of South Sudan, imploring the gift of peace.”

St. Paul VI, he added, also fulfilled this duty “with that same style considered scandalous by many, yet strongly evangelical,” when he kissed the feet of Eastern Orthodox Metropolitan Meliton of Chalcedon in 1975.

Cardinal Sandri celebrated the Mass on the fifth day of the “novendiali,” the nine days of mourning for Pope Francis marked with Masses in St. Peter’s Basilica.

In his homily, he noted that on Easter the church proclaimed, “Nuntio vobis gaudium magnum quod est Alleluia” or, in English, “I announce to you a great joy, which is Alleluia.”

The words are similar to what the crowds in St. Peter’s Square will hear after the cardinals elect a new pope: “Annuntio vobis gaudium magnum, habemus papamm,” which can be translated as “I announce to you a great joy: We have a pope!”

The similarities, the cardinal said, arise because “it is from the Paschal experience of Christ,” from his self-giving passion, death and resurrection, “that the ministry of the successor of Peter finds its meaning.”

The celebration of memorial Masses for the late pope, he added, are an opportunity to “strengthen us, precisely so that we renew our profession of faith in the resurrection of the body, in the forgiveness of sins – even those of a man who became pope – and in renewing the awareness that the unity of the story of every person is in God’s hands.”

Recalling the first reading from the Acts of Apostles, which recounted St. Peter announcing Christ’s resurrection on Pentecost, Cardinal Sandri said that much like the apostles proclaimed the Good News to all, Christians are called to “encounter and dialogue between generations,” as Pope Francis had often encouraged.

Cardinal Sandri, who at 81 is too old to enter the conclave May 7, told his fellow cardinals that the late pope “also leaves this word to the College of Cardinals, made up of young and more elderly,” so that they “may let themselves be taught by God, to perceive the dream he has for his church, and to try to realize it with youthful and renewed enthusiasm.”

“Our dear Holy Father loved to repeat” the words of Joel 3:1, he said, quoting, “Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions.”

Pope Francis, he said, emphasized “the need for the elderly to share their dreams with the young, and likewise for the young, with their energy and vision, to be able with God’s help to make them reality.”