OUR Roman Catholic Church has entered a period called “sede vacante” (the empty chair) since Benedict XVI’s retirement last Thursday. The Pope Emeritus has taken refuge at Castel Gondolfo, the palace used by popes as a summer retreat. He will be there temporarily until renovations on the monastery inside the walls of Vatican City are complete. Then he will take up residence in the monastery, according to Vatican sources.
Our present generation has never experienced a pope resign and retire. The last pope who retired was Gregory XII in 1415. And so, it’s a strange feeling for many of us, Roman Catholics, to have a Pope Emeritus.
This is now an intense and an exciting period for our Roman Catholic Church as the 117 Cardinals who are eligible to vote prepare for the Papal conclave. The Cardinals will have their first General Meeting on Monday, March 4, 2013 to discuss the needs of the Church and to set the date of the conclave.
It is crucial for our Roman Catholic Church to have the best candidate elected as the new pope, especially in these post-modern times when the Church is beset by many turmoils, problems, and challenges such as the church sex scandal, the prevailing secularism in our society, the shortage of priests, and the financial crises in Vatican and in many dioceses. It is important to have the most fitting candidate as the highest leader of the 1.2 billion Roman Catholics in the world.
The Gospel of this Third Sunday of Lent connects well with this crucial need for a strong leadership in the Church. Jesus told his disciples the Parable of the Fig Tree. A person found a fig tree in his orchard bearing no fruit in the past three years. He then asked the gardener to cut it down. The gardener pleaded to keep it alive for another year, hoping that it will bear fruits after fertilizing it.
Most biblical exegetes explains that Jesus was referring to the religious leadership in his time as the “fig tree” that was not bearing fruits. Without implying that our present Church has not borne fruits at all in its missionary efforts, the parable is indicative of a Church that needs an authentic, holy, effective, relevant, fruit-bearing, evangelical and apostolic hierarchy in order to be alive and to keep growing. And the next pope should lead this kind of church leadership.
The next pope should be able to dialogue effectively with the world, particularly with other religions and the secular society, to be open to change without sacrificing the integrity of the Church, to inspire youth to have the courage to follow the less traveled path of discipleship as priests, religious and missionaries. The next pope should be able to lead a band of bishops and priests who are humble, transparent, genuine, caring, open, understanding, approachable, engaging, pastoral, intelligent, wise, passionate and effective preachers of the Gospel, and most of all holy.
Let’s keep entering into an intense period of prayer during this Lent as we await for the new Vicar of Christ in the Roman Catholic Church. And as Catholic faithful, let’s keep the faith alive in our homes, parishes, and schools, knowing that the future of the Church rest not only on the hierarchy but on all of us, ordinary priests, religious, and lay people, who would never want our Catholic faith to grow barren or to die.
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Reverend Rodel G. Balagtas attended St. John Seminary in Camarillo, California and earned his Doctor of Ministry in Preaching from Aquinas Institute of Theology in St. Louis, Missouri. For twenty years, he has been in the parish ministry of large multi-cultural communities. Since 2002, he has been the pastor of Immaculate Heart of Mary Church in Los Angeles. Please email Fr. Rodel at [email protected].
