ROME
The Guardian (UK)
Lizzy Davies in Rome
The Guardian, Sunday 10 March 2013
It was a mass with a difference. For one thing, there were more worshippers in the Santa Maria della Vittoria church than usual. (“Come back!” begged the excited local priest.) For another, the liturgy was led by a jovial American who joked about swiping the church’s most exquisite treasure and taking it back to Boston. What’s more, the congregation knew that by the end of the week, that man, Cardinal Seán O’Malley, could – just possibly – be pope.
He wasn’t the only one, of course. Across Rome, a similar story was being played out in many of the titular churches whose status affords them a special link with one or other of the 115 cardinals who will choose Benedict XVI’s successor. On a day of rest before the start of conclave , many of the most prominent prelates visited their Roman flocks and called on them to pray for the right choice to be made. For many, good communication skills and a solid pastoral record are top of the list of qualities needed in the next pope – a fact that may not have gone unnoticed by the cardinals who chose to spend yesterday among the people.
“The conclave is just around the corner,” said Cardinal Angelo Scola, the archbishop of Milan and a leading papabile (possible candidate). “Let us pray that the holy spirit gives the church a man who can lead her in the footsteps of the great pontiffs of the past 150 years.”
As the preparations for conclave entered the final stretch, the chimney that will emit white smoke when a pope is elected was fixed on to the roof of the Sistine chapel on Saturday. A Vatican spokesman, Federico Lombardi, announced, meanwhile, that, among other objects, Benedict XVI’s fisherman’s ring had been scratched and thus destroyed. With a hint of relief, Lombardi also announced that yesterday was – as he put it – “a holiday”.
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