Only 5 weeks, but what a difference!

Just over five weeks ago, on Monday, February 11, 2013, we started our second semester at the Angelicum.  About noon, just as we were finishing our morning classes and moving toward the bar for a little caffeine and nibbles to get us through the rest of classes, one fellow student came rushing up with his phone announcing that Pope Benedict had "given up"!  I was confused, and automatically connected that with reconciliation talks with the SSPX.  He asked if I had internet, and shortly after that, I returned to my computer and saw that indeed, the Pope had just officially announced his abdication effective in about two weeks thence. 
I was shocked, and could not really resign myself to believe him.  I kept thinking something would happen, he would change his mind, he would say something to make it all better.  I was sad, disappointed, worried, and felt somewhat abandoned.  I joked that I felt abandoned by our "German shepherd." Others laughed feebly.  Some expressed similar sadness, many, joy, some, relief.  One priest told me how much courage it took the Holy Father to step down when he saw he was no long effectual.  Some people added that JPII ought to have done the same, and it was edifying to see that someone so old would not keep going until he collapsed.  I just felt sad, shocked.
As other people immediately started putting forward their favorite candidates for the next pope, I prayed hard for Benedict XVI; and waited for some sort of announcement telling me that he would stay in his post, though perhaps cut back on some his public appearances.
It didn't happen, and we kept going.  Classes continued almost as normal.  For Ash Wednesday, Pope Benedict chose to celebrate Mass at St. Peter's instead of Santa Sabina, the traditional station church of the day where he had celebrated each year since his election to the Petrine ministry.  This was to allow many people to attend what would be his last public Mass.  Our classes were not cancelled, but our professors excused anyone wishing to go, and mine generously reviewed what was missed the following class.
The press came to Rome in droves, and crowded St. Peter's Square seeking opinions of all and sundry, getting ready to camp out for a conclave so as to be there when the white smoke would rise, even though Pope Benedict was still around.  They also wanted to be sure to capture the final moments of his historic papacy with its unprecedented termination.
For Pope Benedict's last audience classes were cancelled, and no tickets were required, in order to allow as many people as possible to attend.  We are a pontifical university, making the Holy Father the head not only of our Church but our school.  About 150,000 attended, though I watched it on my computer, waiting still for some announcement of a change in plan.  Then, the following day, February 28, 2013, about 5pm, Pope Benedict climbed in a helicopter, flew to Castel Gandolfo, and thus ended his papacy.  I was teaching English at the time, at the house of one of the Angelicum employees, and she had us watch him as he got in the helicopter, and then we walked out the window (funny enough) to watch the white papal helicopter fly over and wave a final farewell to our supreme pontiff.  After the lesson, my friend and I went to a restaurant where we ate hamburgers and watched the doors close and the Swiss Guard retire.  And that was it.

Then followed an uncertain period, wondering what would happen next, who would be our next bishop and pope, when the conclave would begin.  While many people speculated, several of us just prayed all the harder.  I avoided conversations regarding "candidates" for the papacy, though there were of course several conversations around me with names coming up as possibilities or impossibilities.  I don't remember hearing Cardinal Bergoglio's name mentioned particularly in any of those conversations around me, though.

When the conclave began, several people skipped class to attend the opening Mass, while the rest of us continued as normal.  It began in the rain and hail.  I was helping a friend prepare a reception for a doctoral defense that evening.  We ran back and forth in the rain carrying refreshments and decorations, and my friend ended up giving up on her homemade cookies which were destroyed by hail in transit and bought some fresh baked cookies and pastries instead.  And a few people stayed for the defense, instead of going to watch the first black smoke. However, as I used my computer to play appropriate music for the defense, many asked if I was checking up on the conclave, and if we'd had any smoke yet.
The next day I didn't go to the square, as I thought it was too soon for an election yet, and I was so tired I didn't even make it to morning Mass.  I went to school in the early afternoon for my classes which were to go through the evening.  When I arrived for my 3:30 class, one of the priests from the American seminary asked if we might proceed without a break in order to leave 15 minutes early so as to run to St. Peter's.  They were smart to ask.  It was still cold and rainy, and I had another 2 hours of class after that one.  Still, it was only the second day of the conclave, so I wasn't too worried about going to the piazza.  It was just as that following lecture was supposed to end, right after 7pm, when one of the students in the back of the room raised his had and said, "Excuse me, Father.  I don't want to interrupt, but... I THINK WE HAVE A POPE!" At that point, he raised his phone, the professor suggested we offer a new prayer for the pontiff before leaving, and said we'd resume the the lecture the following lesson.  On the way out the door, that student showed me his cell phone with the four letter message, "POPE" written across it.  
I hurried and packed my things, and double checked with the receptionist on my way out the door, but ran to Mass with the Spanish Dominicans instead of St. Peter's.  On the way, my Ethiopian friend called me from a taxi and volunteered to pick me up along the way, when I told her I hadn't yet been to Mass.  As I walked past the Quirinale, with the beautiful view of St. Peter's which I use on the top of this blog, I saw white smoke still rising from the chimney over the Sistine Chapel.  I was so excited that I half ran toward the church for Mass, and announced to all I saw that, "Habemus papam!  Habemus papam!" Most hadn't heard the news yet, and asked me who, but none of us knew that much by that point.
Mass started at 7:30, and the Dominican celebrating announced at the beginning to the 3 or 4 of us faithful present (in a church that is usually fairly full at that time) that the Mass would be short, though reverent, to allow the friars to hurry to the TV afterward to see the new pope.  So, the usual Vespers and homily were cut out of the Mass, though we still sang the Salve Regina at the end, and the "O Lumen Ecclesiae" hymn to St. Dominic.  Then, the priest with the key came to lock us out almost immediately after Mass ended, and one of my professors who lives there ascertained that I would be able to watch the pope come out on the loggia from my apartment, and I ran home and pulled out my computer.

So, while I was not actually in the square with the roughly 100,000 or so other faithful, I did have some advantages by staying home.  One, it was warm and dry and I could sit and watch peacefully and comfortably.  Two, I could hear the announcement as it was made, and was at my computer so I could immediately look up Cardinal Bergoglio, and I was actually on that Wikipedia page when the heading changed from Cardinal Bergoglio to Pope Francis.

Today, all our classes were cancelled, both in the morning and afternoon, that we might join the throngs in welcoming our new Holy Father in his first public Mass as bishop of Rome.  What with the rumors of a million people coming, especially from Latin America, and security helicopters buzzing all around Rome, I chose to stay home and watch again on Vatican TV.  So, I went to an earlier Mass, and typed this while watching the Mass in the Square, where, after all, only about 200,000 people attended, and 500 priests distributed Communion, and 31 heads of state offered their support.

Oremus pro pontefice nostro Francisco!  Dominus conservet eum et vivificet eum et beatum faciat eum in aeternum, et non tradat eum in animam inimicorum eius.