Advent at the Vatican
By The Most Reverend Edward K. Braxton

I was at the Vatican in early December with the Bishops of the Provinces of New Orleans, Mobile, and Louisville for our Ad Limina Apostolorum visit. Every five years all of the Catholic Bishops of the world are required to make this visit "to the threshold of the tombs of the apostles Peter and Paul" and pray for the Christian faithful entrusted into our pastoral care by the successor of Peter. Six months prior to the visit I sent hundreds of pages of a detailed report of all the activities of the Diocese of Lake Charles during the past five years. This forms the basis of my conversations the Cardinals who assist the Pope as Prefects of the various Congregations. In addition to our group audiences I also had a private audience with the Holy Father. In past Ad Limina visits I joined the Pope for morning Mass in his private Chapel and for pranzo (lunch). These have been discontinued because of his failing health.

Since I lived in Rome as Scholar in Residence at the North American College the eternal city is familiar to me. Because Rome is steeped with centuries of Christian and pre-Christian history almost every street contains something of interest. However, there is no time for sight-seeing during the Ad Limina. The Bishops gathered for Mass at the four Major Basilicas. These historic churches overpowering in their baroque splendor, yet intimate in their side chapels where we gathered. The first celebration is always in the lower church of St. Peter’s Basilica built over the ruins of Emperor Constantine’s Basilica, which was build over the traditional site of Peter’s tomb. Next, we gathered at St. Paul’s Outside the Walls, that is outside the walls of the ancient city of Rome, which marks the site of Paul’s beheading and burial. St. John Lateran is unique because it, not St. Peter’s is the Pope’s cathedral as Bishop of Rome. At St. Mary Major, the largest ("Maggiore") church in Rome honoring the mother of Jesus, we were greeted by the familiar face of a brother Bishop, Cardinal Law, who recently became Archpriest of the Basilica.

I was invited to be the celebrant and homilist on the Second Sunday of Advent at beautiful St. Susanna Church, served by the Paulist Fathers for Americans living in Rome, built over the home of Susanna and her martyred family. In my homily I spoke not of the "three wise men" who cannot be found in Scripture (Magi from the east? Yes. Three wise men or kings? No.) I spoke instead of the two wise men and the wiser woman who are our Advent guides to Jesus, the "Star." They are Isaiah, the prophet who calls us to faith, John the Baptist who calls us to hope, and Mary of Nazareth who calls us to love. I was pleased when some of the faithful remarked that the homily reminded them that Advent had absolutely nothing to do with the maddening shopping on the Via Veneto. I was also interviewed on Italian Television (RAI) and Vatican Radio. To my surprise several people from Lake Charles actually heard the broadcast.

Francis Cardinal Arinze, Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and I have been friends since his days as Archbishop of Onitsha, Nigeria many years ago. During a visit in his home he shared his joy over the beatification of the Nigerian Trappist priest who baptized him. When the Bishops meet with him he urged us to insist on the faithful celebration of the Catholic liturgy in our dioceses. We should not yield to extremist who reject the genuine liturgical reforms of the Second Vatican Council or to those who would presume to further reform the liturgy on their own. In our meeting with the Congregation for the Clergy, the Prefect, Dario Cardinal Castrillon Hoyos, encouraged the Bishops to be strong in faith in the face of the tragedy of clergy harming young people. He told us to reach out with compassion in every way to the victims and at the same time not to abandon priest found guilty of these terrible offenses. Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, Prefect for the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, observed that in the light of this scandal Bishops and their seminary faculties must redouble their efforts to make sure that seminarians have the emotional, psychological, sexual and social maturity needed to be effective priests. In response to my question about Dominius Jesus, the Congregation’s document concerning Christianity and world religions, the Cardinal stressed that our irenic dialogue with other faiths must never obscure our belief in Jesus Christ as the Word of God made flesh.

When the Holy Father addressed the Bishops collectively he focused on the theme of lay involvement in the life of the Church. He reminded the Bishops that, by virtue of their baptism, the Christian Faithful have a right and a duty to contribute to the life of the Church as we face the many challenges of modern largely secular culture. It was a reminder that we are all called to holiness. John Paul, 84, who has difficulty walking and speaking, only read the first paragraph of his address in an effort to conserve his energy.

During my private audience with him, I told the pontiff of the faith hope and love of the good people of my Diocese. I reminded him that we were one of the first dioceses that he erected (1980) and that we would soon be celebrating our 25th anniversary. Known for his love and concern for young people, the Pope was pleased to hear about "Opening Windows" the development program that is remodeling and expanding St. Louis Catholic High. The Pontiff, who throughout his 26-year pontificate has urged Catholics to deepen their personal faith and at the same time enter into genuine dialogue with members of other faiths, commended the Diocese for hosting an interfaith Thanksgiving Prayer Service at Immaculate Conception Cathedral. Members of the Catholics, Protestants, and Jewish and Islamic communities participated in this rite during which they came together to pray each according to his own faith tradition. He asked me to extend his greetings to all the people of Southwest Louisiana. He urged Christians to prepare prayerfully, undistracted by the materialism that surrounds them, for the celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ at Christmas.

Every evening I walked alone in the rain-soaked St. Peter’s Square praying the rosary never ceasing to be amazed by Michelangelo’s massive dome, Maderno’s exquisite façade, and Bernini’s incomparable colonnades floodlit by night. Though Karl Wojtyla, the 264th Successor of Peter is bent down to mother earth by age and infirmities, the lights of the Papal Apartment were always burning late into the night. The man who wears the Shoes of the Fisherman continues to obey the mandate of Christ to Peter, "strengthen your brothers and sisters in their faith." Meanwhile, around the great obelisk in the center of the piazza that once stood in Nero’s circus where Peter was crucified, workers were assembling the wood for the Christmas crèche. This was a stark reminder that Jesus of Nazareth, the Messiah whose birth we herald was a failure in men’s eyes, going from the wood of the manger to the wood of the cross!