VATICAN– The dean of the College of Cardinals stressed the need for unity despite the Church’s diversity as an expression of Christ’s “new commandment” of self-emptying love, in his homily for the Mass for the Election of the Roman Pontiff at St. Peter’s Basilica on Wednesday, May 7.
READ: FULL TEXT: Cardinal Re’s homily at conclave’s opening Mass
Referring to the Gospel reading from John, Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re said Jesus’ love “reveals no limits and must characterize the thoughts and actions of all his disciples, who must always show authentic love in their behavior and commit themselves to building a new civilization, what Paul VI called the ‘civilization of love.’”
Re said Jesus loved without discrimination, noting that he washed the feet of Judas, who would betray him.
“Among the tasks of every successor of Peter is that of fostering communion: communion of all Christians with Christ; communion of the Bishops with the Pope; communion of the Bishops among themselves,” the Italian cardinal said.
“This is also a strong call to maintain the unity of the Church on the path traced out by Christ to the Apostles. The unity of the Church is willed by Christ; a unity that does not mean uniformity, but a firm and profound communion in diversity, provided that full fidelity to the Gospel is maintained,” he added.
The homily at the Mass for the opening of the conclave is deemed important as it sets the tone for the process to elect the next pope.
Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger’s homily ahead of the 2005 conclave, where he spoke against moral relativism in the world, led to his election as Pope Benedict XVI.
But Re, 91, is way over the age limit of 80 and is thus ineligible to vote in the conclave.
“The election of the new Pope is not a simple succession of persons, yet it is always the Apostle Peter who returns,” he said.
“The Cardinal electors will cast their votes in the Sistine Chapel, the place, as the Apostolic Constitution Universi Dominici Gregis states, ‘where everything is conducive to an awareness of the presence of God, in whose sight each person will one day be judged.’”
Referring to Pope St. John Paul II’s words in the late pontiff’s poetry collection “Roman Triptych,” as well as Dante’s work “Inferno,” Re said he hoped the image of Christ in Michaelangelo’s “The Last Judgement,” which will loom over the 133 cardinal-electors, “would remind everyone of the greatness of the responsibility of placing the ‘supreme keys’ in the correct hands.”
“Let us pray, then, that the Holy Spirit, who in the last hundred years has given us a series of truly holy and great Pontiffs, will give us a new Pope according to God’s heart for the good of the Church and of humanity,” he said.
“Let us pray that God will grant the Church a Pope who knows how best to awaken the consciences of all and the moral and spiritual energies in today’s society, characterised by great technological progress but which tends to forget God.”
After the Mass, the 133 cardinal-electors are to process into the Sistine Chapel and take their oaths of obedience and secrecy.
They will begin the process of “scrutiny” or secret ballot to choose the 267th pope and successor of St. Peter, as Rome and the world awaits for the blessing of a white-robed figure who will emerge from the loggia of St. Peter’s Basilica.
