Author: Eric Deabill

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Becoming a cardinal is an insistent call to put Jesus at the center of one’s life, to love the poor as he did and to strengthen the bonds of unity within the Catholic Church, Pope Francis said as he created 21 new cardinals from 17 nations.

“To walk in the path of Jesus means, in the end, to be builders of communion and unity,” the pope told the new cardinals during an afternoon consistory Dec. 7 in St. Peter’s Basilica.

Cardinal Angelo Acerbi, a 99-year-old former Vatican diplomat, was the first to receive his red hat from Pope Francis. And Cardinal Domenico Battaglia of Naples, whom Pope Francis added to the list of new cardinals in November — a month after announcing the others — was the last.

Cardinal Francis Leo of Toronto was the only North American among the new cardinals.

Pope Francis presided over the prayer service with a large bruise on the lower part of his right cheek and chin. He had fallen early Dec. 6, and photos from his audiences that morning showed him wearing a small bandage on his chin.

Matteo Bruni, director of the Vatican press office, said the pope had hit his chin on his bedside table.

The creation of cardinals took place within a prayer service, which included reading the Gospel of St. Mark’s account of the Apostles James and John asking Jesus to “grant that in your glory we may sit one at your right and the other at your left.”

The disciples’ concern about earthly glory also can infect followers of Jesus today, the pope said. “Our hearts can go astray, allowing us to be dazzled by the allure of prestige, the seduction of power, by an overly human zeal for the Lord. That is why we need to look within, to stand before God in humility and before ourselves in sincerity, and ask: Where is my heart going? Where is it directed?”

“Among the disciples, the worm of competition was destroying unity, while the path that Jesus walked was leading him to Calvary” and the ultimate sacrifice, Pope Francis told the new cardinals and thousands of people – including current members of the College of Cardinals – who gathered to celebrate with them.

On the cross Jesus fulfilled his saving mission, the pope said, and he tore down “the dividing wall of hostility” so that “all might see themselves as children of the same Father and as brothers and sisters of one another.”

“For this reason, the Lord is looking to you, who come from different backgrounds and cultures, and represent the catholicity of the church,” the pope told them. “He is calling you to be witnesses of fraternity, artisans of communion and builders of unity.”

In one reflection of the church’s diversity and universality, four of the new cardinals were not wearing a red cassock with a white surplice, topped by a red cape. Instead, the two cardinals from Eastern Catholic churches — Cardinals Mykola Bychok, a Ukrainian Greek Catholic, and George Jacob Koovakad, a Syro-Malabar Catholic – wore vestments from their church traditions. And the two Dominicans – Cardinals Timothy Radcliffe, a theologian, and Jean-Paul Vesco, archbishop of Algiers — wore their white habits.

Pope Francis gave each of the new cardinals from the Latin-rite church a red zucchetto, a red biretta and a ring. Cardinals Bychok and Koovakad received special headdresses.

And echoing the practice centuries ago when the clergy of Rome elected the pope, the bishop of Rome, each of the new cardinals was assigned a title or “titular” church in the city, making them members of the diocese’s clergy.

Pope Francis asked the cardinals to wear the cardinals’ red as a reminder of their call to “be fearless witnesses to Christ and his Gospel in the city of Rome and in faraway regions.

During the consistory, the new cardinals made a profession of faith by reciting the Creed in Latin and made an oath of fidelity to Pope Francis and his “canonically elected” successors.

With the consistory, the College of Cardinals reached 253 members, 140 of whom were under the age of 80 and eligible to enter a conclave to elect a new pope.

Speaking on behalf of the group, Cardinal Acerbi thanked Pope Francis and emphasized how the new cardinals were committed to strengthening the unity of the church and promoting peace at a time when, “unfortunately, the human family is disturbed and disfigured by inequalities, wars and poverty in many parts of the world.”

In his homily, the pope told the new cardinals that the Lord was calling them to be “a radiant sign in the midst of a society obsessed with appearances and power” by not arguing over who is the greatest or who is right most often.

“Love one another with fraternal love and be servants to one another, servants of the Gospel,” Pope Francis told them.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Anyone interested in Catholic Church can now see a detailed, interactive breakdown of the body that will elect the next pope.

The Vatican launched a “dashboard” for the College of Cardinals Dec. 5, allowing users of the web page to see a comprehensive list of the church’s cardinals and sort them by age, rank, country of origin, electoral status and religious order. Initially it was available only in Italian.

The dashboard, created with Microsoft Power BI – an AI tool designed to visually organize data – was published on the Vatican press office’s public website just two days before Pope Francis was scheduled to create 21 new cardinals Dec. 7.

The page — https://press.vatican.va/content/salastampa/it/documentation/cardinali—statistiche/dashboard-collegio-cardinalizio.html — allows users to see a map of where current cardinals are from, as well as the percentage of cardinals from each region who are under the age of 80 and eligible to vote in conclave. As of Dec. 5, for example, 47.8% of cardinals from Europe are eligible to vote in a conclave while 100% of cardinals from Oceania are eligible electors.

Cardinals lose their right to vote in a conclave on their 80th birthday or when they lose the rights and privileges of a cardinal, as was the case with Cardinal Angelo Becciu, former prefect of the Congregation for Saints’ Causes, who was convicted by a Vatican court for financial malfeasance related to when he was substitute for the Vatican Secretariat of State.

Beyond age, rank and geographical distribution, users can also sort cardinals by precedence, which is based on the timing of their appointment as cardinals and their seniority within their rank and dictates matters such as seating arrangements and the order of liturgical processions. The College of Cardinals is divided into three ranks — cardinal bishops, priests and deacons — which reflect a cardinal’s responsibilities or seniority within the church’s hierarchy.

Previously, the Vatican website only offered separate lists of cardinals, organized alphabetically by name, by country, by age or grouped according to the pope who appointed them.

According to the Vatican statistics, which include the 21 soon-to-be cardinals, there are 253 members of the College of Cardinals, 140 of whom are eligible to vote in a conclave.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Pope Francis received a new, emission-free, all-electric popemobile from representatives of Mercedes-Benz, the German car manufacturer that has been supplying vehicles for the popes for nearly 100 years.

“We are overjoyed to be able to fulfill the Holy Father’s wish for an electric popemobile and are particularly proud to be able to build the vehicle according to his requirements,” Britta Seeger, head of sales and marketing and member of the board of management of Mercedes-Benz Group AG, said in a press release Dec. 4.

It is the first time the company has manufactured an all-electric popemobile and “this cooperation … is a valuable symbol of sustainable change together,” she said.

The pope met with the representatives, which included engineers who led the project, in a courtyard at the Vatican. Ola Källenius, Mercedes-Benz CEO, presented the pope with the white and chrome key fob and showed him the vehicle’s interior.

The new popemobile sends “a clear call for electromobility and decarbonization,” Källenius said.

A team of specialists worked for a year to complete the handcrafted vehicle, which is based on the new G580 model. It is outfitted with “an electric drivetrain, which was adapted to the particularly low speeds required for public appearances,” the press release said.

“The vehicle represents an incredible amount of manual labor and passion — but it’s also full of state-of-the-art technology,” said Klaus Millerferli, one of the development engineers. “The fact that Pope Francis has invited some of us to hand it over personally really tops everything off. It’s an experience that you’ll tell your grandchildren about.”

Mercedes-Benz has been manufacturing and supplying vehicles for the popes for nearly 100 years, the company said, starting with a Nürburg 460 Pullman Saloon for Pope Pius XI in 1930.

The German company was awarded the contract, it said, in part because it was able to transfer to a motor-powered vehicle “an important characteristic” then only found in horse-drawn carriages: “the possibility of traveling with two dignitaries and other staff using folding seats.”

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – The celebration of a Holy Year every 25 years is an acknowledgment that “the Christian life is a journey calling for moments of greater intensity to encourage and sustain hope as the constant companion that guides our steps toward the goal of our encounter with the Lord Jesus,” Pope Francis wrote.

Opening the Holy Door to St. Peter’s Basilica on Christmas Eve, the pope will formally inaugurate the Jubilee Year 2025 with its individual, parish and diocesan pilgrimages and with special celebrations focused on specific groups from migrants to marching bands, catechists to communicators and priests to prisoners.

Inside the Vatican basilica, the door had been bricked up since Nov. 20, 2016, when Pope Francis closed the extraordinary Holy Year of Mercy.

Dismantling the brick wall began Dec. 2 with a ritual of prayer and the removal of a box containing the key to the door and Vatican medals. The Holy Doors at the basilicas of St. John Lateran, St. Mary Major and St. Paul Outside the Walls were to be freed of their brickwork in the week that followed.

In January 2021, as the world struggled to return to some kind of normalcy after the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic, Pope Francis announced that he had chosen “Pilgrims of Hope” as the theme for the Holy Year.

“We must fan the flame of hope that has been given us and help everyone to gain new strength and certainty by looking to the future with an open spirit, a trusting heart and farsighted vision,” the pope wrote in a letter entrusting the organization of the Jubilee to Archbishop Rino Fisichella, president of the then-Pontifical Council for Promoting New Evangelization.

The pope prayed that the Holy Year would be marked by “deep faith, lively hope and active charity.”

A holy year or jubilee is a time of pilgrimage, prayer, repentance and acts of mercy, based on the Old Testament tradition of a jubilee year of rest, forgiveness and renewal. Holy years also are a time when Catholics make pilgrimages to designated churches and shrines, recite special prayers, go to confession and receive Communion to receive a plenary indulgence, which is a remission of the temporal punishment due for one’s sins.

Crossing the threshold of the Holy Door does not give a person automatic access to the indulgence or to grace, as St. John Paul II said in his document proclaiming the Holy Year 2000. But walking through the doorway is a sign of the passage from sin to grace which every Christian is called to accomplish.

“To pass through that door means to confess that Jesus Christ is Lord; it is to strengthen faith in him in order to live the new life which he has given us. It is a decision which presumes freedom to choose and also the courage to leave something behind, in the knowledge that what is gained is divine life,” St. John Paul wrote.

Pope Boniface VIII proclaimed the first Holy Year in 1300 and decreed that jubilees would be celebrated every 100 years. But just 50 years later, a more biblical cadence, Pope Clement VI proclaimed another holy year.

Pope Paul II decided in 1470 that holy years should be held every 25 years, which has been the practice ever since — but with the addition of special jubilees, like the Holy Year of Mercy in 2015-16, marking special occasions or needs.

The Jubilee of Mercy had a special focus on encouraging Catholics to return to confession, but the sacrament is a key part of every Holy Year.

Pope Francis, in his bull of indiction for the 2025 Holy Year, said churches are places “where we can drink from the wellsprings of hope, above all by approaching the sacrament of reconciliation, the essential starting point of any true journey of conversion.”

The pope also asked Catholics to use the Jubilee Year to nourish or exercise their hope by actively looking for signs of God’s grace and goodness around them.

“We need to recognize the immense goodness present in our world, lest we be tempted to think ourselves overwhelmed by evil and violence,” he wrote. “The signs of the times, which include the yearning of human hearts in need of God’s saving presence, ought to become signs of hope.”

Even in a troubled world, one can notice how many people are praying for and demonstrating their desire for peace, for safeguarding creation and for defending human life at every stage, he said. Those are signs of hope that cannot be discounted.

As part of the Holy Year 2025, Pope Francis has announced the canonization of Blessed Carlo Acutis April 27 during the special Jubilee for Adolescents and the proclamation of the sainthood of Blessed Pier Giorgi Frassati Aug. 3 during the Jubilee for Young Adults.

The lives of the two men, active Catholics who died young, are emblematic of Pope Francis’ conviction that hope, “founded on faith and nurtured by charity,” is what enables people “to press forward in life” despite setbacks and trials.

Both young Italians knew that the hope they drew from faith had to be shared with others through their words, their way of acting and their charity.

Pope Francis, in the bull of indiction, told Catholics that “during the Holy Year, we are called to be tangible signs of hope for those of our brothers and sisters who experience hardships of any kind.”

In addition to individual acts of charity, love and kindness like feeding the hungry, welcoming the stranger or visiting the sick and the imprisoned, Pope Francis has continued his predecessors’ practice of observing the jubilee by calling on governments to reduce the foreign debt of the poorest countries, grant amnesty to certain prisoners and strengthen programs to help migrants and refugees settle in their new homes.

Italy and the city of Rome are keeping one of the messier and tension-producing traditions of a Holy Year: Roadworks and the restoration or cleaning of monuments, fountains and important buildings. With the opening of the Holy Door just three weeks away, none of the major projects had been completed, but Mayor Roberto Gualtieri promised in late November that most of the roads would open and most of the scaffolding would come down by Jan. 1.

Archbishop Fisichella, the chief Vatican organizer of the Jubilee Year, said in late November that the Vatican had commissioned a university to forecast the Holy Year pilgrim and tourist influx. They came up with a prediction of 32 million visitors to Rome.

The multilingual jubilee website — www.iubilaeum2025.va — has been up and running for months and includes the possibility of reserving a time to pass through the Holy Door at St. Peter’s and the other major basilicas of Rome.

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops also has a special section on its website — www.usccb.org/committees/jubilee-2025 — with information about traveling to Rome for the Holy Year and for celebrating the special jubilees in one’s own diocese or parish.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Homilies must be prepared with the help of the Holy Spirit, be shorter than 10 minutes and put the spotlight on the Lord, not oneself, Pope Francis said.

Those who preach must convey “one idea, one sentiment and an invitation to action,” he said.

Preaching loses its power and starts to ramble after eight minutes, he said to the applause of visitors gathered for his general audience in St. Peter’s Square Dec. 4.

The pope continued his series of audience talks on the Holy Spirit, focusing on its role in evangelization and preaching in the church.

It was also the first general audience to include a greeting and a summary of the pope’s catechesis in Mandarin Chinese. The pope gives his catechesis in Italian, and aides read summaries in English, Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, Polish, Arabic and, from Dec. 4, standard Chinese.

In his main audience talk, the pope said, “The church must do precisely what Jesus says at the beginning of his public ministry,” which, according to St. Luke’s Gospel, is to accept the anointing of the Holy Spirit “to bring glad tidings to the poor.”

“Preaching with the anointing of the Holy Spirit means transmitting, together with the ideas and the doctrine, the life and profound conviction of our faith. It means doing so ‘not with persuasive (words of) wisdom, but with a demonstration of spirit and power,'” he said, citing the First Letter to the Corinthians.

The Holy Spirit comes to those who pray, which is the first thing a preacher must do, he said.

“Woe to those who preach without praying,” he said, because they become, as St. Paul described, “a resounding gong or a clashing cymbal.”

“The second thing is not wanting to preach ourselves, but to preach Jesus, the Lord,” Pope Francis said.

Often homilies are so long, 20 or 30 minutes, that people will go outside to smoke a cigarette and come back, he said.

“Please,” he said, “do not go longer than 10 minutes, ever! This is very important.”

“Not wanting to preach oneself also implies not always giving priority to pastoral initiatives promoted by us and linked to our own name, but willingly collaborating, if requested, in community initiatives or (those) entrusted to us by obedience,” he said.

The pope asked that the Holy Spirit, “help us, accompany us and teach us” how to preach the Gospel to men and women today.

(OSV News) – As Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris officially reopens Dec. 7-8, bells will ring in churches an ocean away in the United States to celebrate the historic moment.

The Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington has invited local churches to toll their bells Dec. 7 at 2 p.m. EST, when the two-day reopening ceremonies — led by Archbishop Laurent Ulrich of Paris, and attended by dozens of dignitaries, including France’s President Emmanuel Macron, U.S. first lady Jill Biden, and U.S. President-elect Donald Trump — will begin.

The USCCB in a Nov. 29 post on X (formerly Twitter) had also invited local churches to join in ringing their bells in celebration.

“Please join us in celebrating the reopening of this iconic cathedral that holds a special place in the hearts of all believers and people of goodwill worldwide,” it added in another X post.

“This gesture of uniting our local Churches with the Cathedral of Paris would be one more sign of our union to the eldest daughter of the Church whose forefathers contributed so much to the U.S. struggle for Independence,” said Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, in a Dec. 3 post to the USCCB’s X account.

Indiana’s University of Notre Dame confirmed to OSV News in an email Dec. 3 that its Basilica of the Sacred Heart “will join other Churches across the United States in ringing our bells” that day.

“This time has been deliberately chosen, since it will be the exact time the doors of Notre Dame de Paris Cathedral will be formally reopened and they will begin their rededication ceremony,” said Carrie Gates, the university’s associate director of media relations.

The iconic cathedral, built over the 12th to 14th centuries, was badly damaged in a devastating April 15, 2019, fire that was believed to be accidentally caused, possibly through an electrical fault or careless smoking. A number of pre-existing safety violations enabled the blaze to rapidly spread through the cathedral, which some 600 firefighters battled for 15 hours, with no injuries or deaths reported.

During the five-year reconstruction process, more than 1,000 artisans painstakingly restored the 12th-century cathedral’s stone, wood and art fixtures.

Notre Dame’s spire, which collapsed at the peak of the April 15, 2019, blaze, was reconstructed with some 1,000 historic French oak trees, and was unveiled in February as scaffolding was removed. In December 2023, Archbishop Ulrich placed the relic of the Crown of Thorns, as well as relics of St. Denis and St. Genevieve, inside the restored golden rooster — a symbol of Christ’s resurrection, and reimagined as a phoenix — that tops the spire.

Also renovated was the cathedral’s grand organ, the largest in France with some 8,000 pipes and 109 stops. The instrument had been coated by toxic lead dust during the blaze.

Gates told OSV News that students from the University of Notre Dame’s school of architecture traveled to Paris in the spring of 2023 to see the ongoing restoration firsthand.

During the visit, the students met “with the architects in charge of the restoration, climbed the scaffolding to observe construction,” and even “visited a quarry where they were sourcing stone for the cathedral,” said Gates.

As a result, she said, the reopening of Notre Dame Cathedral “will be a meaningful moment for those students and faculty, in particular, as well as so many others here and around the world.”

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Hours after the last visitors and pilgrims left St. Peter’s Basilica for the day, a chisel clanged and dust flew as a group of prelates chanted their prayers before a simple wall marked with a cross.

In preparation for the opening on Christmas Eve of the Holy Door in St. Peter’s Basilica, Cardinal Mauro Gambetti, the archpriest of the basilica, led the brief prayer service and ritual late Dec. 2.

As the cardinal and other priests prayed, workers broke into the wall that has sealed the Holy Door shut since the Jubilee of Mercy ended in late 2016.

The workers removed a metal box, tied with a ribbon and sealed with wax, that contains the handles and the key to the Holy Door as well as Vatican medals, documents about the last Holy Year and four gold-covered bricks.

As the clergy sang the litany of saints, Cardinal Gambetti led them in procession to the altar over the tomb of St. Peter and paused for a moment of prayer.

In a formal meeting room, the metal box was set on a table in front of Cardinal Gambetti, Archbishop Rino Fisichella, pro-prefect of the Dicastery for Evangelization, and Archbishop Diego Ravelli, master of papal liturgical ceremonies.

The workers pried open the box and unnailed another inside it, revealing its contents.

After Cardinal Gambetti signed a document attesting to what he found, Archbishop Ravelli took custody of the box to deliver it to the pope, the Vatican press office said.

Similar ceremonies were planned to prepare the Holy Doors of the Basilica of St. John Lateran Dec. 3, St. Paul Outside the Walls Dec. 5 and St. Mary Major Dec. 6.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Despite the problems and worries in the world, Jesus invites Christians to look toward heaven, trust in his saving love and make room for him in order to find hope again, Pope Francis said.

“Sadness is awful,” he told visitors gathered in St. Peter’s Square for the Angelus Dec. 1, the first Sunday of Advent.

“Indeed, it can happen that the anxiety, fears and worries about our personal lives or about what is happening in the world today weigh down on us like boulders and throw us into discouragement … and induce us to close in on ourselves,” he said.

“Jesus’ invitation is this: raise your head high and keep your hearts light and awake,” he said, reflecting on the day’s Gospel reading from St. Luke, which speaks about “cosmic upheavals and anxiety and fear in humanity.”

“In this context, Jesus addresses a word of hope to his disciples,” he said, by encouraging them to not let their hearts “become drowsy” and to await the coming of the Son of Man with vigilance.

The disciples’ hearts were “weighed down with fear,” the pope said. “Jesus, however, wants to free them from present anxieties and false convictions, showing them how to stay awake in their hearts, how to read events from the plan of God, who works salvation even within the most dramatic events of history.”

Jesus’ invitation is important for the faithful today, he said. “Let’s ask ourselves: what can I do to have a light heart, a wakeful heart, a free heart? A heart that does not let itself be crushed by sadness?”

Jesus, he said, “invites us to lift up our heads, to trust in his love that wants to save us and that draws close to us in every situation of our existence; he asks us to make room for him in order to find hope again.”

“May this Advent season be a precious opportunity to lift our gaze to him, who lightens our hearts and sustains us on our way,” Pope Francis said.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Pope Francis praised a new ceasefire reached in Lebanon, prayed for Israeli hostages and Palestinians in Gaza, and appealed to world leaders to help put an end to the war in Ukraine.

After praying the Angelus with visitors in St. Peter’s Square Dec. 1, the pope highlighted the devastating conflicts underway in the Middle East and Ukraine, and he encouraged all people to pray and work for peace.

“When one renounces the use of weapons and engages in dialogue, a good path is taken,” he said.

“As we prepare for Christmas, as we await the birth of the King of Peace, let these peoples be given concrete hope,” he said on the first day of Advent.

“The quest for peace is the responsibility not of a few, but of all. If habituation and indifference to the horrors of war prevail, the whole, entire human family is defeated,” he said.

A 60-day ceasefire deal between Israel and the Lebanon-based militant group, Hezbollah, went into effect Nov. 27. It also requires Israeli troops to pull out of Lebanon and Hezbollah to pull away from the southern border.

The cross-border bombing and fighting, which began more than a year ago, has forced more than 1.2 million Lebanese and 50,000 Israelis from their homes and left more than 3,700 people dead in Lebanon and more than 130 people dead in Israel, according to The Associated Press. The conflict began when Hezbollah launched rocket attacks against Israel in support of Hamas’ attack on southern Israel in October 2023.

Pope Francis said he welcomed the ceasefire agreement “and I hope that it may be respected by all parties” so that all those displaced could return home “soon and safely.”

He also made “an urgent call to all Lebanese politicians, so that the president of the republic may be elected immediately, and the institutions return to their normal functioning, so as to proceed to the necessary reforms and assure the country of its role as an example of peaceful coexistence between different religions.”

Former President Michel Aoun’s term ended in October 2022. The Lebanese parliament has failed to elect his successor.

Pope Francis said he hoped the “glimmer of peace” represented by the agreement between Israel and Hezbollah “may lead to a ceasefire on all fronts, especially in Gaza. I very much have at heart the liberation of the Israelis who are still held hostage and access to humanitarian aid for the stricken Palestinian population.”

The pope also called for prayers for Syria, “where unfortunately war has flared up again, claiming many victims.”

And the pope expressed his ongoing concern and sorrow for the conflict in Ukraine.

“For almost three years we have witnessed a terrible sequence of deaths, injuries, violence and destruction,” he said. “Children, women, the elderly and the weak are the first victims” and winter will only exacerbate the difficulties facing millions of displaced persons.

“I renew once again my appeal to the international community and to every man and woman of goodwill, to make every effort to stop this war, and to make dialogue, fraternity and reconciliation prevail. Let there be a renewed commitment at every level,” he said.

MALVERN, Pa. (OSV News) – More than a million people descended upon Logan Circle on a beautiful autumn day in Center City Philadelphia Oct. 3, 1979, for a Mass celebrated by St. John Paul II, the Polish cardinal who had been elected pope less than a year earlier.

At the center of it all, above a covered fountain on the city’s Eakins Oval, the pope celebrated Mass on an expansive altar in the shadow of an enormous 34-foot-tall white cross.

In the days after the papal visit, the cross, a symbol of one of the greatest Catholic gatherings in North America at that time, was taken to the outskirts of the city where it was erected on the grounds of St. Charles Borromeo Seminary. It has been on display at the busy intersection of Lancaster and City avenues the last 45 years.

Earlier this year, St. Charles Seminary moved to another part of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, and the seminary grounds were sold.

Fast forward to Nov. 11, another beautiful weather day in the Philadelphia area, and the newly refurbished cross was unveiled at its new place of honor at Malvern Retreat House where Father Douglas McKay offered prayers for a gathering of about 100 people. The formal rededication of the statue is scheduled for June at a Mass to be celebrated by Philadelphia Archbishop Nelson J. Pérez.

Father McKay, current rector at the retreat house, was a seminarian in 1979 and was chosen to be a cross bearer at the Mass with the pontiff.

“It means to me … what this is all about … the cross is the most precious image that we have, because it’s a symbol of the paschal mystery of Jesus,” said Father McKay, ordained for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia in 1982. “The life, the death and the resurrection of Jesus. It’s so Eucharistic. And the Holy Father, John Paul II, he was so Eucharistic. He was so contemplative.”

Father McKay recalled the pope praying before the huge gathering.

“Then we started the procession to the holy sacrifice of the Mass. That’s what this cross is all about, the holy sacrifice of the Mass, the gateway to God, where all the glory lies. What it means to me is Eucharistic, the holy sacrifice of the Mass, and the banquet of heaven that is now. The kingdom of God is with us now.”

Of course, it’s the type of service a person never forgets.

“The privilege of being the cross bearer Oct. 3, 1979,” he said, “standing next to the Holy Father as he celebrated the Mass. … That’s what it all means to me. It’s all about the paschal mystery. Life, death and resurrection, coming home to God where we all belong.”

The idea of bringing the cross to Malvern came when a priest friend called Father McKay. Father Mike Kelly, a seminary official, called him and said with the seminary closing, they didn’t know what to do with that cross. “Do you think Malvern would want it?”

“Everybody got excited,” said the rector, who is a nationally recognized retreat director, author and evangelist.

The blessing and installation service for the cross included remarks from Michael Norton, president of the Malvern Retreat House. Father McKay said Norton and the active Malvern volunteers and donors were instrumental in helping arrange the heavy lifting required for the move.

The cross was moved to the grounds of the retreat house where a team of craftsmen painstakingly restored it for permanent installation on the 125-acre campus.

Officials said many individuals and companies have donated their time to the initiative, including JPC Group, Inc., Pennoni Engineering and Thackery Crane Rentals. JPC Group is a family-owned, full-service construction contractor operated by the Petrongolo family, whose members have been coming to Malvern for decades, organizers said.

Malvern Retreat House is billed as the oldest and largest Catholic retreat community in the nation. Founded more than 100 years ago as the Laymen’s Retreat League, Malvern hosts retreats for men, women, couples and young Catholics. It includes three chapels, four private oratories, four Stations of the Cross walks, a replica of the Grotto at Lourdes and countless shrines.

In August, Malvern was recognized as having the official diocesan shrine to Blessed Carlo Acutis, who will be canonized by Pope Francis April 27, making him the Catholic Church’s first millennial saint.

And now Malvern has a very large relic connected to St. John Paul II.