
“Everything has darkened”, Francis says. But not only “during the past weeks”
We have witnessed a penitential act presided over by Pope Francis. Adoration, penitential liturgical chants and a cry for help to the Blessed Virgin Mary with the hymn Sub Tuum Praesidium. Exposition and adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, and a mixture of traditional litanies with other “inclusive” ones. Urbi et Orbi blessing, including the possibility of gaining a plenary indulgence for those who watched it through the media or who joined spiritually, if the necessary dispositions were fulfilled.
For the first time we see Francis asking for forgiveness, though without much emphasis placed on penance or the sins mentioned in the Ten Commandments. We see a doubtful, weak Bergoglio, almost inaudible in his final words, on the verge of collapsing for the short time during which he carried the monstrance and performed the blessing. Quite striking.
Alone, alone, all all alone…
This time, as usual, Francis did not kneel before the exposed Sacrament, not even a single genuflection (though in this case a double genuflection corresponds, including a deep reverential inclination). Just a short bow. The reason of this may be that he’s too weak, considering the episode we mentioned before, and the fact that when he first tried to get up from the chair placed ad hoc at the entrance of the Basilica, his strength ran out.
An auspicious gesture; God has been asked for forgiveness, or at least that is what people thought when they saw a Pope praying before a miraculous Christ that saved the city from the plague centuries ago. A Francis apparently extinguished in his body, with serious walking difficulties. A Bergoglio who’s recurrent in the topics of the Open Society Foundation agenda, an infeasible agenda in these increasingly awful circumstances for Italy, where different malls are used as morgues to pile up the bodies, or ice skating rinks – because there are not other places to put the bodies – and with rising and almost uncontrolled death and spread scales (or should we erase the word “almost”?)
Parce, Dómine, parce populo tuo!
No genuflexions before de Most Holy Sacrament, but…
What are the indulgences, and what is a plenary indulgence?
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Translation: Dolores González Calvo