The novena “has been prepared to help pray for the Pope during the time of mourning,” the introduction notes.

Pope Francis “placed the Gospel at the center of all his reflections and placed the face—and the mystery—of each person before any other theological or moral evaluation,” Father Pasolini wrote. “By respectfully approaching the conscience of all, Pope Francis has not tried to impose new certainties. He contented himself with reopening the fundamental question: if God were truly the Father of all, what would be left for us to do?”

Abbot Donato Ogliari, OSB—one of two prelates selected to preach meditations to the College of Cardinals before the election of the new Pope—preached his meditation during the cardinals’ sixth general congregation on April 29.

Archbishop Rino Fisichella, who served as one of the two pro-prefects of the Dicastery for Evangelization until the Pontiff’s death, celebrated Mass for participants in the Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls.

“I think it was a gift to be at this Mass,” said a father of children with Down syndrome. “People with disabilities don’t always experience that. Sometimes they experience the Church as their home. But as often as not, they experience marginalization in the Church or isolation in the Church, not necessarily by malice, but just a failure to appreciate the kinds of accommodations that they need.”

On April 29, members of the College of Cardinals met in their sixth general congregation since Pope Francis’s death. 183 of the 252 members of the College of Cardinals—including 124 of the cardinal electors—were in attendance, the Vatican newspaper reported.

Archbishop Francisco Moreno Barrón said that the plan was conceived in cooperation with Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaun, who visited Tijuana last November. Parishoners are being encouraged to surrender their firearms, with payment offered according to the market value of the weapons.

“In the Church we are never passive bystanders,” Bishop Varden insisted.

Although the papal interregnum is “an uncomfortable state of affairs,” the Norwegian bishop argued that “there is no need, really, to fret. I’d say this is a good time to do the exact opposite: to practice silence and peace.”

Bishop Varden also cautioned against thinking that one prelate would “win” the election. “Do we think of the weight that will be placed on the future pope’s shoulders from the moment of his acceptance? Do we consider the account he will one day have to render to the Judge of all?”

“In these days, Rome is a people that mourns its Bishop, a people together with other peoples who have waited in line, finding a place within the city in order to weep and pray, like sheep without a shepherd,” he preached in St. Peter’s Basilica on the evening of April 28.

The 54-year-old cardinal—whose rise in the hierarchy in recent years has been meteoric—added:

And this cannot be the time for maneuvers, tactics, caution—not a time to follow the instinct to turn back, or worse, to retaliate or seek alliances of power. What is needed is a radical willingness to enter into God’s dream, entrusted to our poor hands ...

Faced with the proclamation of this newness, we cannot give in to that mental and spiritual indolence that binds us to the forms of experience of God and ecclesial practices known in the past, and which we would wish to be repeated ad infinitum, subjugated by the fear of the losses attached to necessary changes ...

To seek a shepherd today means above all to seek a guide who knows how to manage the fear of losses faced with the needs of the Gospel ... To seek a shepherd who confirms that we must walk together, forming ministries and charisms; we are a People of God constituted to proclaim the Gospel.

The cardinals’ message read, in full:

The College of Cardinals gathered in Rome, engaged in the General Congregations in preparation for the Conclave, wishes to invite the People of God to live this ecclesial moment as an event of grace and spiritual discernment, listening to the will of God.
For this reason, the Cardinals, conscious of the responsibility to which they are called, feel the need to be supported by the prayers of all the faithful. This is the true force that in the Church promotes the unity of all the members of the one Body of Christ (cf. 1 Cor 12:12).
Faced with the enormity of the task ahead and the urgency of the present time, it is first of all necessary to make ourselves humble instruments of the infinite wisdom and providence of our Heavenly Father, in docility to the action of the Holy Spirit. Indeed, he is the protagonist of the life of the People of God, the One to whom we must listen, accepting what he is saying to the Church (cf. Rev 3:6).

Under the terms of the secret Vatican accord with Beijing on the naming of bishops, as commonly understood, the government-backed Patriotic Catholic Association proposes candidates, to be approved by the Roman Pontiff. But in violation of that understanding, the Patriotic Association announced the election of Father Li Janlin as Bishop of Xinxiang, and Father Wu Jianlin as auxiliary bishop in Shanghai. In each case, AsiaNews reports, the newly elected bishop was the only candidate presented to the voters, who included religious lay people.

The Chinese authorities’ disregard for the agreement with Rome could have an impact on the papal election, since Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Secretary of State, who has been a strong public defender of the accord, is regarded as a leading candidate to succeed Pope Francis.