Seven new saints

Today was a day of great joy in Rome, and in the Church as a whole. Seven new saints were canonized in one ceremony, including Pope Paul VI (my first Pope when I was growing up) and Archbishop Oscar Romero of El Salvador. A very powerful film was made about +Romero in 1989 starring Raul Julia. If you get a chance to see it, you should.

The bishops first gathered in the basilica itself for vesting and general getting ready:

Once all was set, we headed out to the upper level of the steps, as the mass was to take place outside. It was a gorgeous day! Banners were hung off the balconies of Saint Peter's showing the images of the seven saints to be canonized. I could only get 6 in the frame of my camera at once, so here are two pictures of the banners so you can see all 7 images:

I had never been to a canonization mass before, so I was not too sure what to expect. As it turns out, it was pretty much like any other mass, with a few additions. We began with the sign of the cross as usual, and then we began the ritual of canonization. After the singing of the Veni Creator Spiritus, the Prefect of the Congregation for Saints came forward and made a formal request asking the Pope to canonize the seven candidates. A brief biography was ready for each, and the Pope declared that their enrollment among the saints and that the Christian faithful could venerate each as such. We sang the Gloria, and the Pope ordered that Apostolic letters be drafted for each saint corresponding to the declaration that had just been made. The mass then proceeded as usual.

Except, of course, it was not a usual mass! The ritual was pretty much the same (with the nice touch of the 7 new saints being mentioned at the appropriate spot in Eucharistic Prayer III), but the size of the event was huge. Since seeing is believing, I made this little video at the end to give you a sense of scale:

After mass was over we hopped a small shuttle bus that let 3 of the Canadian bishops off close to the Canadian College in Rome, where a reception and lunch was hosted for the bishops of the Synod by the rector and residents of the college. It was a nice conclusion to the morning's events.

Double duty at the Synod

Yesterday and today we were back in our small groups for discussion of part II of the Instrumentum laboris. Once again, I feel so blessed to be in my particular small group. Everyone has participated, and the interventions have never felt out of place.

I wound up doing double duty in our small group, however. We have both a Moderator (Cardinal Joseph Coutts of Pakistan) and a Rapporteur (myself). Cardinal Coutts was unavailable for these sessions, however, so I wound up co-chairing the meeting along with our theological "expert" assigned to the group. Many thanks to Kevin for accepting to help -- we made a good team. Still, it was not always easy keeping my eyes on who was raising their hand to speak while also trying to keep the minutes of the meeting going!

Apart from going out for coffee with a friend in the afternoon the rest of my day was pretty much spent working on my notes from the small group. We will need to be voting on our modi next Monday morning; as well, all Rapporteurs will also need to hand in the small group report to the Synod secretariat by Monday noon.

So no pictures today, but I thought you might be interested to see my commute from my residence to the Paul VI Synod hall:

A very nice walk 2-4 times per day. Good to get some exercise.

Ciao for now!

Condolences to Bishop Jaya Polimera

A week ago I wrote about my connection with +Jaya Polimera, the bishop of the diocese of Eluru in India. 

I learned today that Bishop Polimera's mother just passed away. He has therefore left the Synod to return to India for the funeral arrangements.

I ask your prayers for him, for her, and for the whole family.

You can learn more about the diocese of Eluru from their website.

A first in the history of Synods

What do you do when you are trying to get to your seat in the Synod hall and the Pope is blocking your way?

Why you get out your camera of course! Especially when he is busy chatting with the first two bishops from mainland China to come to a Synod since the Communist takeover in 1949.

The two bishops in question had brought pectoral crosses and episcopal rings that they asked the Pope to bless for them. I caught that moment here:

Not my best picture, but historic nonetheless. I have to thank the official Papal photographer who saw what I was trying to do and allowed me to get in close, even moving aside to give me a bit better angle.

Some have questioned if it was wise for the Pope to sign the agreement with the Chinese government that recognized a role for the Communist party in the selection of bishops in mainland China. This is a serious point, and I for one would like to see the text of the actual agreement that was signed before completing my own thoughts on the matter. I am generally opposed to governments interfering in the selection of successors of the Apostles -- after all, Jesus picked Peter and the rest of the Twelve freely, no one forced him to consult Herod or Pontius Pilate first (thank goodness). Still, a similar sounding agreement has been in place in Vietnam for years (also run by Communists) and has permitted a certain freedom to the Church there. So I am of two minds on the matter.

There is no question in my mind about one thing, mind you: these two bishops were genuinely delighted and touched to be so close to the Pope. They know how rare this chance is, and I have to believe that the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Unity, will touch their hearts as they head back home and share the experience with their brother bishops.

Sitting where a saint sat

While I had already shared the link on other social media (Facebook and Twitter), I thought it might be nice to have a "blog post of record" for the interview I did with Vatican News on Wednesday October 10.

First of all, if you want to listen to the interview, here is a link to the podcast (in French):

https://www.vaticannews.va/fr/podcast/emissions-speciales-synode-des-jeunes/emission-speciale-10-octobre-2018-dowd.html#play.html

The interview took place in a small studio set up for radio. I couldn't help but notice this plaque on the wall:

For those who don't read Italian, the plaque reads:

Studio Karol Wojtyla / In this radio studio, in the period 1972-1978, Cardinal Karol Wojtyla was hosted on 21 radio programs from Vatican Radio in Polish.

And for those who don't know who Cardinal Karol Wojtyla was, he was later more famously known as... Pope John Paul II! Now Saint John Paul II!

Now that was cool. A saint sat in this very room to do much the same thing I was doing. It was very humbling.

The Spiritual Protector of the Order of Saint Lazarus

A few years ago I was invited to join the Military and Hospitaller Order of Saint Lazarus of Jerusalem (Order of Saint Lazarus, or OSL, for short). This was once an order of knighthood recognized by the Holy See, although during the centuries the patronage of the Order passed to other sovereigns. Today, it is no longer an order of knighthood under the Pope, and has evolved into an ecumenical Christian order (as opposed to exclusively Catholic). The Order still has a Spiritual Protector, however, who is the Catholic Patriarch of Antioch of the Melkites, Bishop Joseph Absi. And as it happens, he is also at the Synod!

It was an honour to meet him, and I made sure to get a selfie to share with the other members of the Order back home. I'm happy to share it with you as well!

Reporting in! + our first Synod miracle

Today were were back in our fancy bishop outfits as the small groups were over -- it was time to report back to the Pope and the rest of the Synod members on the deliberations in those small groups. As rapporteur it was my responsibility to offer this report, and it took up most of the morning. Each rapporteur had up to 10 minutes for his report, and there were apparently 14 reports to listen to... well, you can imagine, it got a bit wearisome after a while. I lucked out, mind you. My name was called to get ready to speak, and suddenly the schedule keeper announced that it was time for a break! So I got a chance to give my report after everyone had had a coffee, which helped enormously -- at least for me!

As the break was winding down I got a chance to meet Cardinal Tagle of Manila. I call him the "smiling Cardinal", because it is clear he likes to be happy and cheerful (like most Filipinos I know)!

My presentation after the break went very well, as did the rest. Still, we tired out pretty quickly once again -- it was a lot to take in. We managed to get them all done about half and hour before the usual end time for the morning session, so the chair decided that this would be a good occasion to give the Synod participants a chance to offer "interventi libri" (unplanned, free interventions) on what they had heard. 3 minutes maximum per person, please!

Except... no one pressed the button to request to speak.

Not one.

Not a single one.

Out of 300+ people. Including 250+ bishops, among whom there are usually a few who, shall we say, are not exactly afraid of a microphone.

With that silence, the chair decided that we had had enough, and let us go early.

As I was leaving, I thought to myself in disbelief, "Not a single bishop wanted to take the floor and speak?" There could be only one explanation: I had just witnessed my first Synod miracle. :-)