Bishop Thomas John Paprocki celebrated Mass for the newly elected Pope Francis, at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, at 12:05 p.m., on Thursday, March 14. Some 250 people attended the service, including students from Cathedral School.
Father Peter Harman, Cathedral pastor, and Father Zachary Edgar, parochial vicar, were concelebrants; Deacons were Larry Smith and Patrick O'Toole; and Father Daren Zehnle was master of ceremonies.
Bishop Paprocki said the day's Gospel focus on St. John the Baptist "fittingly sheds its own light on the mission of the Holy Father, regardless of who he may be. The supreme pastor of the church shares in the mission of the Baptist to 'prepare the way of the Lord' by lighting the path on which he will come (Luke 3:4)."
The appeal of Pope Francis when he appeared on the central loggia of the Basilica of St. Peter the day before in Rome, asking for people "to pray to the Lord that he will bless me," and the episcopal motto he chose when he was appointed auxiliary bishop of Buenos Aires, "miserando atque eligendo," (lowly and yet chosen) tell a lot about the new pope, Bishop Paprocki said.
"We saw in his expression yesterday how sincerely he knows himself to be lowly and yet chosen for such an exalted office of service as that of the papacy. It is for this reason that we have come to the altar of the Lord, to pray that Pope Francis will be fortified with good health, a humble courage, and a missionary zeal to faithfully fulfill his ministry of teaching, sanctifying, and governing the Universal Church."
The challenges the Holy Father faces are many, the bishop said. "Pope Francis' great task of rebuilding the church will be to gather us all together in the Lord, to keep us in him, and to lead us in the ways of holiness so that the love of God may be always found in us (cf. John 5:42). Together the pope and people will need to look to the example of the little poor man of Assisi to learn how to live each day the words St. Francis spoke before his death: 'Let us begin, brothers, to serve the Lord our God, for up to now we have hardly progressed.'"