By Cindy Wooden, Catholic News Service
ROME (CNS) — As Catholics in Rome await the election of their new bishop, the pope, some of them celebrated Sunday Mass at their parishes with the cardinals who will enter a conclave May 7.
When prelates are made cardinals, they are assigned a “titular” parish in Rome, which makes them members of the clergy of the Diocese of Rome. In the early days of the church, the clergy of the diocese elected the pope.
Several cardinals chose to celebrate Mass at their titular churches May 4, the last Sunday before they enter the Sistine Chapel to begin voting for a new pope.
Cardinal Joseph W. Tobin of Newark, New Jersey, was at St. Mary of the Graces Church where it was first Communion Sunday. There were prayers for the late Pope Francis, for Cardinal Tobin and for the new pope, but the focus was solidly on the children.
The cardinal and his priest secretary arrived at the parish by subway. Wearing a clerical suit with his pectoral cross tucked in his pocket, no one recognized him, he said.
Outside the church, journalists did know who he was and asked him how the pre-conclave meetings were going. “There is a growing consensus about the qualities needed for the next Holy Father, but not names. A lot depends on the Holy Spirit.”
Still, he was predicting a fairly short conclave “because the majority of cardinals, including me, are diocesan bishops and we need to get back.”
Cardinal Tobin said there is a desire “to have continuity” with the papacy of Pope Francis, but not an “exact” replica. “There is no going back,” he added.
Father Antonio Fois, the pastor, welcomed Cardinal Tobin “home” to his Rome parish. “In a few days, you and your brother cardinals will elect the new bishop of Rome. And we pray for you and with you that you will choose a pastor with the heart of Jesus.”
In his homily, Cardinal Tobin focused mainly on his “little brothers and sisters” who were about to receive Communion for the first time, and he prayed that their encounter with the risen Lord, who gives himself in the Eucharist, would lead them, like St. Peter in the day’s Gospel, to respond, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.”
Cardinal Tobin told the children that he was the eldest of 13 children and every day after school he and his friends would be playing ball in the street. “At a certain point, mom would come to the door with good news: ‘Dinner’s ready.'”
It was good news, he said, “not only because we were hungry,” but thinking about it more deeply, it also meant that it was time to gather around the table as a family. “It was a big table with a lot of people around it and a lot of noise, but we were a family.”
Jesus gathered his disciples and gathers believers today around a table, the cardinal said, “not only to nourish us but to show us that God wants to be with us, God wants to remain with us, God wants us to leave behind despair and discover the joy of being a family.”
In the announcements before Mass ended, Father Fois asked parishioners to join a special recitation of the rosary and Mass at noon May 8, the feast of Our Lady of Pompeii.
During the services the day after the conclave begins, he said, “We will pray in thanksgiving for the new pope or pray that they will give us a good bishop of Rome soon.”
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