Tuesday, March 5, 2013

day 2 of the cardinals' meetings

Dear Family and Friends,

The Cardinals continued with their meetings today. This is when they look at what challenges the Church is facing in order to figure out what kind of man the next Pope needs to be. They aren’t necessarily going to pick the smartest, or the most influential, or even the most pious guy in red. They are going to try to pick the guy who is best for the Church now.

It appears they’ve been talking a lot about the importance of the “new evangelization” – the need to re-announce the gospel to people who may have already heard of it, but for whom it never became something real. Personally, I believe that the vast majority of problems today, not only on the global level, but especially in the depths of people’s hearts, would be solved if the Gospel became something living and real for them, and if they really understood who Jesus Christ is.

I got a chance to talk to Cardinal Monteiro de Castro today, and he seemed totally at ease. He didn’t go into what’s going on inside the Cardinals’ meetings, but he seemed very happy and peaceful. He’s an important Cardinal too – one of only two in the Vatican who keeps all his power when there’s no Pope – but he went out of his way to be with us seminarians, tell us stories, answer our questions, and he even had some coffee and cookies with us!

Also today, they closed the Sistine Chapel. The Cardinals will meet there for the conclave – when they start voting for a new Pope. Workers need to get things ready for the conclave, like put in benches, set up the sound system, sweep for any listening devices, and install the famous chimney – one Santa would definitely not fit down!

Tomorrow afternoon, all the Cardinals will have an open prayer service in Saint Peter’s Basilica. Let’s all join in their prayer!

God bless you,
Brother Kevin

PS Feel free to pass these messages on to anyone who’d like to receive them.

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