Pope Francis has been hospitalized since Feb. 14, receiving treatment for double pneumonia
Since Feb. 24, the faithful, led by cardinals and bishops, have prayed the daily Rosary in St. Peter’s Square for Pope Francis’ recovery. “It is the pope who gathers us here,” Cardinal Konrad Krajewski, one of the papal right-hand men, said.
“In this situation, we’re helpless, so prayer is the only solace,” he said, adding that it only seems like it’s business as usual at the Vatican, “but it’s not, because it feels very empty, without a spirit.”
The Polish prelate, who heads the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Service of Charity, is the pope’s point man for distributing alms to the poor and needy — those that Francis put at the center of his papacy. Cardinal Krajewski led the Rosary March 2.
He said people rush to pray every night at St. Peter’s Square — “the heart of Rome, where everything is accomplished” — because “this is where martyrdom takes place. St. Peter’s Square is the cemetery of Christians. But this is also where every election of a pope is announced. So when the pope suffers, it’s so very natural that we rush to this very square, where people rushed when John Paul II passed away, when Pope Benedict passed away. So it’s the natural thing, it’s the pope himself that gathers us here.”
Every night for more than a week now, thousands of Catholics pray the Rosary for Pope Francis’ recovery “to look up to the Blessed Mother,” the cardinal said.
People prayed during Mass March 2 at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C., for the intentions of Pope Francis.
“The Mother of God stood at the foot of the cross. She participated in the suffering of her son. She was helpless. And we too at the suffering of another person, of the Holy Father, are helpless, because we can do nothing. We can send him well wishes, but the only thing we can really do in terms of action — is to simply come together,” Cardinal Krajewski said.
Recalling the Gospel of Matthew passage “For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them,” the cardinal said that Catholics, worried about the Holy Father, feel the presence of God during the Rosaries.
“We cannot afford to do anything else, there are no sermons, no speeches, no greetings during those nightly prayers,” the pope’s almoner said. “Like Mary, we stand under the cross of suffering, because it is the cross of suffering in which the Holy Father participates.”
In the Rosary “we repeat the angel’s greeting, and interestingly enough — when we pray Hail Mary — we pray for ourselves, for us sinners, now and when it will be most difficult, in the hour of death,” Cardinal Krajewski said.
Stressing that the Rosary is “the best prayer for this time,” the cardinal said: “I’ll honestly admit that as I’m in this square, I’m reminded of how much good has been done over these 12 years by Pope Francis. During this prayer, Lord Jesus reminds us of that — and we would like this pontificate to continue.
“But before each decade of the Rosary, there is also the Our Father prayer, and it has such an amazing overtone — ‘Thy will’ — not mine. That is, we give ourselves completely to the Lord Jesus. Let it be as God wills.”
He stressed that the prayer, which gathers — by the cardinal’s count — at least 5,000 faithful every night, including Jubilee pilgrims, is powerful as it “is beautiful to just stand together with Mary before the great mystery of suffering.”
“Nobody tells those people to come. Everyone just runs to that square driven by his or her own necessity. It is literally a river flowing,” Cardinal Krajewski said.
This evening prayer is much needed for the faithful worried about the pope “and as if all these invocations in the Rosary were not enough, then the Litany of Loreto is also sung,” he said. Among invocations sung “are those that affect us greatly,” the cardinal pointed out. He said the invocation “Mother of the Church, Mother of Mercy, Mother of Hope — which reminds us that even though the Blessed Mother suffers terribly, but she still had hope.”
Cardinal Krajewski said the evening Rosaries will continue “until the pope returns to the Vatican.”
He also said people appreciate clear communications from the Vatican on the pope’s health status.
“It is known to everyone that this illness is very tiring for him, so tiring that he needs to rest after the night. So while these messages seem laconic, they are very balanced and they are true. Because if the pope didn’t need to rest, he wouldn’t be in the hospital.”
The cardinal said that for him, “it’s very, very wise these announcements are not sensational, they are true. I think it’s also just very beautiful that the pope is telling us what we don’t need to guess, there is no need for any speculation.”
Cardinal Krajewski concluded that while journalists are trying to find out what will happen, “the only thing we have is our prayer. And the Lord God is already directing the fate of the Church. We are not alone.”
