By FR. KEVIN M. CUSICK
I joined thousands of others in Rome on September 4 for the canonization of Mother Teresa of Calcutta.
My application for a press pass was accepted by the Vatican Office for Social Communications by return email on Wednesday prior and I reported to their location on Via della Conciliazione on Saturday, September 3 to pick up my press pass and ID card. Thanks to my editor here for the epistolary support necessary. With these hanging around my neck I would be admitted to the special seating arranged for press, video, and TV personnel on the day of the canonization Mass.
My travel was made possible thanks to my participation as chaplain for a pilgrimage arranged by Proximo Travel whom I thank for the privilege. The members of our group came from all over the United States. Rome was our first stop to be followed by one-day experiences in Assisi, Florence, and Venice.
The day of the event I walked from our hotel near Santa Maria Maggiore and enjoyed the prime time afforded on Sunday each week for visiting some of the plethora of Roman churches.
Among these was Santa Prassede, Chiesa Nuova, spiritual home of St. Philip and his Oratorians, San Andrea della Valle, and the Gesù. I stopped to celebrate Traditional Latin Mass at the Church of Santissima Trinita dei Pellegrini, Most Holy Trinity of the Pilgrims, located quite near Campo dei Fiori and Piazza Farnese. A very kind priest of Verona in Rome for studies assisted my preparation for Mass at the side altar of St. Philip Neri.
The sacristy was the place of meeting for several young Italian families and their children for planning activities with the priests after morning Mass. This was encouraging also for the fact that they had welcomed more than the minimal two children one often sees after years of propaganda that “due è basta” — “two children is enough.” I remember a catechism class near Naples a few years back when I led the children in chanting “Due non è basta” after enlightening them on the negative birthrate which is the result of this seeming effort to merely replace the parents, engendered by bad math and ideological brainwashing.
After offering Holy Mass for the Lord’s Day I was ready to brave the crowds of Piazza San Pietro gathered to witness the conferral of the honor of the altar upon Mother Teresa. Upon crossing the Tiber River, I approached St. Peter’s from the Borgo Santo Spirito, which is on the left of the main avenue of Via della Conciliazione. The crowds there were less dense and gave better hope that I might successfully reach the entry point for the square underneath the Bernini colonnade.
I waited in line to pass through the X-ray security machines, and upon showing my press credentials was shown the way to a circular staircase that rises to the top of the colonnade. I exited on the roof of the left colonnade, named the “braccio di Carlo Magno,” with a splendid view of the crowds of faithful below, while surrounded by journalists and photographers from all over the world.
The faithful filled the square and appeared like a flock of butterflies for the reason that so many fanned themselves for relief from the heat with the printed programs for the canonization Mass. The crowd extended beyond the arms of Bernini’s colonnade, ever extended to welcome the world to Peter’s resting place sheltered under Michelangelo’s dome.
Standing on the braccio among the many journalists, videographers, and photographers from all over the world was a first: I have been admitted to Piazza San Pietro on past occasions with a photography pass and stood close to the Holy Father at the steps of the basilica with other journalists. Some were seeking relief from the still summery late Rome September under the bleacher seats provided. Many stood along the edge of the colonnade roof behind the statues of saints which top it, to watch and listen to the Mass unfolding on the piazza below.
The magnificence of worshiping God together with the father of the whole Church at the head was brought home to me again. The Holy Father’s chair was positioned close to the doors of the basilica housing the tomb of his Predecessor. He led us in worshiping the true God as Popes have done from the beginning in that city, whether in the catacombs or in the grand churches which pilgrims see out in Rome today.
Pope Francis’ homily for the Mass had a most welcome pro-life tenor:
“Mother Teresa, in all aspects of her life, was a generous dispenser of divine mercy, making herself available for everyone through her welcome and defense of human life, those unborn and those abandoned and discarded.”
Her life as a “model of holiness” was the basis for an extended discourse on the importance of volunteers in today’s world in which we must grow in our care for the poorest of the poor.
“There is no alternative to charity: Those who put themselves at the service of others, even when they don’t know it, are those who love God (cf. 1 John 3:16-18; James 2:14-18). The Christian life, however, is not merely extending a hand in times of need. If it is just this, it can be, certainly, a lovely expression of human solidarity which offers immediate benefits, but it is sterile because it lacks roots. The task which the Lord gives us, on the contrary, is the vocation to charity in which each of Christ’s disciples puts his or her entire life at His service, so to grow each day in love….
“Following Jesus is a serious task, and, at the same time, one filled with joy; it takes a certain daring and courage to recognize the divine Master in the poorest of the poor and to give oneself in their service. In order to do so, volunteers, who out of love of Jesus serve the poor and the needy, do not expect any thanks or recompense; rather they renounce all this because they have discovered true love.
“Just as the Lord has come to meet me and has stooped down to my level in my hour of need, so too do I go to meet Him, bending low before those who have lost faith or who live as though God did not exist, before young people without values or ideals, before families in crisis, before the ill and the imprisoned, before refugees and immigrants, before either weak and defenseless in body and spirit, before the elderly who are on their own.
“Wherever someone is reaching out, asking for a helping hand in order to get up, this is where our presence — and the presence of the Church which sustains and offers hope — must be.”
St. Mother Teresa, pray for us!
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