VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Reporter
by Dennis Coday,Joshua J. McElwee | Mar. 12, 2013
Rome —
If the 115 cardinal electors were hoping to receive marching orders in the final hours before they enter the conclave and begin to elect a new pope, they must have been disappointed in the homily at Tuesday morning’s Mass.
Following Pope John Paul II’s death in 2005, then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger’s extended homily claiming modern society had allowed a “dictatorship of relativism” was thought to have sealed his case for election as Pope Benedict XVI.
Cardinal Angelo Sodano, the dean of the cardinals, had the chance to deliver a similar homily Tuesday as the final advice the church’s cardinals would receive publicly before sealing themselves off from the world Tuesday afternoon, but delivered instead a ferverino to charity and unity.
In a 10-minute address, Sodano did not mention church governance or the scandals among the Roman Curia that have been in the spotlight in the weeks following Pope Benedict’s resignation Feb. 28.
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