Urbi et Orbi, March 2020: An Extraordinary Blessing

A truly unique event just concluded. From St. Peter's Basilica, to an empty St. Peter's Square, Pope Francis just gave an extraordinary (and here I use the word both in the liturgical sense of "outside the normally prescribed times" and in the typical sense of "awe-inspiring") "Urbi et Orbi" blessing. These blessings "for the City [of Rome] and for the World" traditionally only happen on only the rarest and most solemn of occasions. Currently, they are given at:

a.      Easter (last time was about a year ago; next time will be in about 3 weeks)

b.     Christmas (last time was 3 months ago; next time will be 9 months from now)

c.      The first blessing of the newly-elected Pope as Successor of Peter and Vicar of Christ (In the last 60 years: March 2013, April 2005, October 1978, August 1978, June 1961)

I’d never seen one before; the Easter and Christmas blessings usually take place in the midmorning from St. Peter’s in Rome, usually between 9 and 10:30 AM local time. Adjusted for my time zone, that’s sometime between 3 and 4:30 AM for the Christmas blessing or between 4 and 5:30AM for the Easter blessing. The first blessing after the conclave varies, but almost certainly occurs in the ballpark of 6:00 AM or 12:00 noon Eastern time, depending on if the conclave finishes after the morning/noon (Rome time) votes or the evening (Rome time) votes.  March 13, 2013 was a Wednesday, so at that time, I was in 6th grade, probably at lunch. I didn't learn of the end of the conclave until around 5:00 Eastern Time, about 5 hours after it ended that day. 

Before 1870 (when Italy unified), the blessing was also given on these other dates: Holy Thursday (the Thursday immediately before Easter), the Feast of Saints Peter and Paul (June 29), at the Papal Coronation (when the new Pope received for the first time the three-tiered Papal Tiara sometime after his election), not used since the 1960s), the Solemnity of the Ascension (40 days after Easter, 7 weeks after Holy Thursday), and when a new pope was elected as Bishop of Rome, and on the Solemnity of the Assumption of Mary (August 15).  Since 1870, however, the blessing had only been given at the three previously-mentioned times: Christmas, Easter, and the election of a new Pope.

As far as I can tell, before the blessing that just concluded, never before had an Urbi et Orbi blessing—which can only be given by the Pope because only he is the Successor of Peter, but which can technically be given at any time—been given outside of those traditional times or without a crowd gathered to receive the blessing.

This evening, the hour-long period of adoration and benediction began with a reading from the Gospel according to Luke (specifically Luke 8), after which the Pope gave a brief homily on the passage from Luke's gospel wherein the evangelist recounts Jesus' calming of the storm from the boat. Following this, the Pope spent time in prayer before an image of the Virgin Mary and the Infant Jesus, and then venerated a miraculous 16^th century crucifix. The church where the crucifix is housed was almost completely destroyed in a fire in 1519, but the crucifix survived the fire unscathed. In 1522, only 3 years later, Rome was hit by a terrible plague, and the friars in charge of the church decided to process through the streets of the city with the crucifix despite local authorities protesting the inevitable gathering of people that would follow the procession through the city as being a bad idea from a public health perspective, not unlike the civil leaders of today who try as much as possible to implement social distancing and limit bringing people into close contact with one another. When the procession in 1519 was concluded, however, the plague miraculously left the city and everyone was restored to health. Tonight’s veneration of the same crucifix served the same purpose: to implore to God that the city of Rome, the country of Italy, and the entire world be spared from the Coronavirus; for the alleviation of the suffering of all those who currently have the virus or are caring for someone who has it; and for the souls of everyone who died because of the virus.

Then, the Pope went back into the Basilica and a monstrance was brought out, and the Pope and the few other members of the clergy who were there spent some time in prayer before Christ made present in the consecrated Host—the Body of Christ—made present there in the monstrance. The typical Rite of Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament was followed, after which there was a time of silence, exactly as one would see in an ordinary church, if these times did not call for the churches to close to protect the people. After several minutes of silence for individual prayer, the Litany of the Sacred Heart and the Divine Praises were said. The chanting of the Tantum Ergo signaled that our time in Adoration, even if virtually, was about to come to an end, and that a Eucharistic Benediction (using the monstrance which contains the Body of Christ to deliver a blessing) would soon follow. Again, if these were ordinary circumstances, benediction with and reposition of the Blessed Sacrament would be totally normal things to be seen in any parish throughout the world. 

This, however, was no ordinary benediction. As Pope Francis prepared to receive the monstrance and to head to the door of St. Peter’s to deliver the Eucharistic Benediction to the City and the World, there were almost no people in the Square which, at Christmas, Easter, and the election of a new Pope, the traditional times for this blessing, would normally be filled with tens or hundreds of thousands of people who would receive the blessing in person. As I said at the outset, I don’t know of any instances of this blessing being given to an empty St. Peter’s Square or outside of the traditional times; this evening in Rome, something happened for the first time in the 2000-plus year history of the Church. Instead of blessing the thousands of faithful gathering in the Square and in the surrounding areas, the Pope blessed an empty Square with no one anywhere to be seen except for a few police cruisers blocking the entrances to the Square to enforce the lockdown containment measures put in place a few weeks ago by the Italian government. (The Vatican is a separate country from Italy, but it is fully adopting and complying with all the lockdown measures implemented by the Italian government.) Looking out at a world that is in pain from not knowing what will happen tomorrow; a world that wants answers, prayers, comfort; and a world longing and praying for a cure, Pope Francis gave the Eucharistic Benediction to all of us in the City of Rome and around the world. The bells of St. Peter's Basilica tolled to announce to the City and the World that the Blessing was being imparted upon us. 

In recent decades, TV, radio, and the Internet have become reliable and widespread means of communication. As such, the Vatican made some provisions so that anyone who watches or listens to the blessing, live, from the radio, the TV, the Internet, or any other means of communication can receive the blessing (and all the graces attached to it) in the same manner as anyone would if the public health situation were better and people were allowed into the Square.

 

In the image above, Pope Francis delivers the Eucharistic Benediction Urbi et Orbi, to the City of Rome and to the World. 

Normally, there are some requirements that must be fulfilled in order to receive the Urbi et Orbi and the graces it manifests:

1.     The person receiving the blessing must be present, either physically or by means of communication, or even by desire (someone who made effort to try to be present by media or in person but who could not be).

2.     `The person must resolve to avoid sin.

3.     The person must receive Communion within 3 weeks, and must Confess their sins before then.

4.     The person must pray for the intentions (prayer requests) of the Pope.

In these times of a public health crisis, the requirements in 3 were amended—the person must receive Communion when it is safe to do so again, and, before then, once it is safe again, they must go to Confession. Receiving the blessing having satisfied the conditions grants someone a plenary indulgence: it removes from their souls all the temporal consequences of any and all sins committed before the blessing was received. The historical significance of this blessing today is clear; when history books look back on this pontificate, the Urbi et Orbi blessing of March 2020 will certainly be labelled one of its defining moments. 

The Urbi et Orbi blessing is clearly an extraordinary event, and that Pope Francis chose to impart it on us today shows just how serious the Coronavirus is. Therefore, let us all join in prayer that the doctors and other medical professionals may, as quickly possible, find a cure for this virus. 

A few weeks ago, before the announcement of the extraordinary blessing, I edited and translated a perpetual novena for the intercession of St. Luke, patron saint of doctors and their patients, to God, for the resolution of the crisis. I invite all of you reading this, in the United States and around the world, to pray along with me. I have written versions in English, Italian, and Portuguese, but if your language is not listed, feel free to use the translation feature on the right side of the web page to translate the text of the novena into your language.

You can find the novena here, in English
Here, you’ll find the translation to Portuguese
Here, you’ll find the translation to Italian

St. Luke, pray for us!

Happy (maybe?) Birthday, Bach! (Or maybe it's in 10 days?)

Someone who has had a tremendous musical influence on me for as long as I can remember would have turned 335 today (or he will turn 335 in 10 days, depending on who you ask because of complications when countries switch from the Julian and Gregorian calendars). He was born to a family of musicians (and would later produce 20 musician children—more on that later) in what is now the state of Thuringia in Germany. He would go on to write almost 1100 numbered compositions, and in doing so, would cement himself as one of Western music’s greatest geniuses. I am of course referring to Johann Sebastian Bach.
              Bach’s life was quite an enigma. As I understand it, he wasn’t a very good student, and he constantly interrupted his teachers. He was born into a family of faithful Lutheran musicians, but, because by 1695 (when he was 10) he was an orphan, rather than become a ward of the state, Bach was sent to live with his eldest brother, the town organist in a small community twenty-odd miles way. There, the younger Bach’s mischief in school continued, and he had a difficult relationship with his brother who was, simultaneously, his foster parent, music teacher, breadwinner, and (because of the aforementioned mischief in school) supplemental tutor. He struggled against his brother considerably, but the work he put in under the tutelage of his older brother and others obviously paid off by the time Bach was an adult.
              His adult life clearly divides itself into four parts, which I’ll refer to by the city in which that part of his life was spent: Mulhausen, Weimar, Koethen, and Leipzig.  Mulhausen was a difficult period for the young Bach for several reasons. First, he was young, and, like any young artist, getting a solid footing in the start of a career can be quite difficult. I’m only calling this the “Mulhausen” period, from 1703 to 1708, but, really, those five years should be called the “Weimar-Mulhausen-Arnstadt” period. He didn’t stay in any place very long, and the most consequential event of this first five years of his career was his courtship and marriage (in Mulhausen) to Maria Barbara Bach, his second cousin, in 1707. Thirteen years later, she died in childbirth after delivering seven children; tragically, four of these children died in infancy. Bach’s time during this first stint in Weimar in particular was marked by tension between him and the local ecclesiastical-civil authorities, so he left quickly.
              Following the Mulhausen period, the Bachs moved to Weimar a second time, this time for a more fruitful 9 years. In those nine years, he composed many cantatas, being in charge of providing, copying, and rehearsing music for most Sundays and feast days; (probably) the Six Sonatas and Partitas for Violin—which I’m working on, so expect more content about them in the future. This time in Weimar provided Bach valuable time to explore four-part-harmony, a genre which would become paramount in later times.
              After leaving Weimar, Bach went to Koethen, where he stayed from 1717 to 1723. Three things mark this period as exceptionally unique. First, the death of his wife in 1720; then, a little less than a year and a half later, his marriage to Anna Magdalena, a local singer sixteen years his junior who would bear him an additional thirteen children (and raise the seven stepchildren she gained from Johann Sebastian’s previous marriage). Two children Carl Phillipp (whose mother was Maria) and Johann Christian (whose mother was Anna Magdalena) would become important composers of the Classical era in their own right. The third point of uniqueness concerns the court of Koethen, which was not faithfully Lutheran but in fact faithfully Calvinist. Therefore, we have no cantatas whatsoever from this six-year period, since Calvinist liturgical practice was very minimalist and did not allow for the decoration of churches or the musical elements of worship common in Lutheranism. Instead, what we see from this period is a great amount of tremendously virtuosic instrumental work, most famously the Six Suites for Cello Without Basso Continuo, BWV 1007-1012. (Search for “that cello song” on YouTube and you’ll immediately recognize the first of 36 movements in that collection.) The suites are written in a graded system, twice over: within each suite, later movements are more difficult than earlier ones, and each suite is more difficult than the previous one. Recent scholarship suggests that at least the first suite of the six might not have been the work of Johann Sebastian Bach but of Anna Magdalena Bach. Throughout their marriage, Anna Magdalena would produce copies of each of her husband’s works, part by part, for each musician. The handwriting in at least the first suite looks different from all the rest, an , especially the prelude of that suite is incredibly simple—too simple to be the work of a seasoned veteran like Johann Sebastian, and more likely to be the work of a student working under the master, like Anna Magdalena, who was taught keyboard skills and counterpoint-writing by her husband, who also taught their children. Therefore, some scholars argue that the first suite—if not all six—are not the work of Anna Magdalena, not Johann Sebastian. Regardless, these six suites together form the Mount Everest which few cellists summit successfully (by performing and/or recording all six, especially in one concert or album). Just like it would be unwise to approach Mozart with any other mindset than “Even though [composition x] is purely instrumental, it’s fundamentally operatic,” the same can be said of Bach’s instrumental works: “Even though this looks like it only has one line, it actually has several, and isn’t written for [insert instrument here], but rather for the organ, and it was done so in a deliberately polyphonic style.” Keep this in mind, and you will capture the true essence of instrumental Bach from this period and from all the others.

          The final period began with his acceptance of the position of Kapellmeister at Leipzig—making him responsible for providing music to each of the city’s four Lutheran churches, as had been the case in earlier Lutheran postings, for Sundays and feasts. This period began in 1727 and lasted until his untimely death in 1750. Though he was responsible for four churches, he is most closely associated with the St. Thomas Church, where he would be buried after an infection he contracted thanks to unsanitary practices by his optic surgeon performing a cataract removal in 1750. Two years later, the same surgeon performed another failed cataract operation that permanently destroyed what little was left of Handel’s eyesight, blinding him forever until his death (for other reasons) in 1759. Perhaps the greatest work to come out of this period was not of Lutheran origin, but of Catholic origin. In the Mass, there are some things that, week to week, don’t change; we call these parts the “Ordinary”—the Kyrie (“Lord have mercy…”); the Gloria in excelsis Deo (“Glory to God in the highest…”); the Credo in unum Deo (the Nicene or Apostle’s Creed- “I believe in one God, the Father Almighty…”); the Sanctus (“Holy, Holy, Holy Lord God of Hosts…”); and the Agnus Dei (“Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world, have mercy on us…”). Bach had written most of these components in the 1720s and 1730s, especially when potentially looking for a job in Dresden (which he ended up not taking); but while the work of 1748-50 was mostly compiling the various parts of the ordinary from other Masses he’d written over the years, some original work was done to finish the whole setting. Astute listeners will notice similarities between cantatas and portions of the B minor Mass—absolutely correct observations given that the Mass is mostly a compendium of previously written material not joined into one composition until 1748-49 but written which had been written deca. For instance, the “Gratias Agimus Tibi” in the Gloria and the “Dona Nobis Pacem” in the Agnus Dei both use the melody (verbatim) from the chorale in the cantata BWV 29, Wir danken dir, Gott, wir danken dir.

          Besides the hundreds of examples of sacred music we have from this period, we also have one hugely influential piece of secular music: his last catalogued work, BWV 1080, the Art of the Fugue, a kind of treatise-workbook-magnum opus mashup that, over almost two hours and twenty-two different fugues. The last of those, Fugue XIX (yes, the 19th fugue, but it is in fact Fugue 1, Fugue 2, 3, 4, 5, ..., 16a, 16b, 17a, 17b, 18a, 18b, 19, thus “19” is really the 22nd), employs a particular motive called the BACH motive. To understand why it is called this (suprisingly, it has nothing to do with the composer’s name), one must understand how German speakers call their note names. In English, we have A, B, C, D, E, F, and G; all of those notes can be sharpened or flattened as necessary. In German, however, they have, A, B, C, D, E, F, G, and H. The note we normally call “B” in English is the note German speakers refer to as “H”—thus the manuscript of the Mass in B minor (English naming) is actually the manuscript of the Mass in H minor (German naming) according to the composer. The note we English speakers call “B-flat” is what German speakers call B. German speakers add “is” or “es” to note names (other than H, which instead of becoming His exceptionally becomes B) to make them sharp or flat, respectively. So, “Fis” is “F#” and “Es” is “E flat,” and so on. With that sidenote out of the way, it is now possible to understand what the BACH motif actually is: the notes named in German B, A, C, and H, respectively (to an English speaker: B, A, C, B flat), played melodically. Fugue XIX makes extensive use of this, but it ends abruptly after an iteration of the motif. In the hand of one of the composer’s sons, it is written “After writing the B-A-C-H motif, the composer died suddenly,” or something to that effect. Unfinished, The Art of the Fugue is already one of the great authoritative texts extant in the Western musical canon about how to teach counterpoint, and I often wonder how much more great work Bach could have done for our musical tradition had he been able to finish the volume, and what that work would have looked like.

It is said that Bach deliberately wrote so many intricacies into his music so that only God would ever understand its full potential. I’ve been listening to Bach for close to 20 years daily and playing his music for about half the time. I’ve gained so much knowledge in that time, and yet I know that all I possess is only the tip of the iceberg, and not even an entire lifetime is long enough to explore all the beautiful intricacies in the music made by humans for the divine.

"You Are a Priest Forever in the Line of Melchizedek"

I've written this in about a week, but that in no way is an indicator of my skill; I'm not one of the greats who wrote the overture to one of his operas the morning of the premiere, or another, who wrote one of the great oratorios in six weeks. No, I’m just a "simple worker in the vineyard of the Lord," to use the words of an intellectual hero of mine. I am in fact referring to Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, the man who made Fr. Gregory Hartmayer a bishop when, in 2011, he was appointed to Savannah. More than eight years later, through Pope Benedict XVI’s successor in the Petrine Office, Bishop Hartmayer has been appointed to come back to the Archdiocese he served in for 16 years as a priest, now to lead it as our next Archbishop, due to be installed as such in May.

As a member of the faithful here in Atlanta who loves music and is particularly interested in the very rich musical tradition our Church has created (most of Western music notation, secular or religious, is due to the Church, for example), I decided to write a simple gift to you, Archbishop-designate Hartmayer, to welcome you back to Atlanta, on the occasion of your installation here as our seventh Archbishop in the coming weeks. As soon as I knew we had a new archbishop, I knew I wanted to create something musical for you, and what better text to set for the arrival of a new archbishop to his see than Psalm 110, which speaks of the eternal Priesthood through which you serve the Lord, and which, chances are, you've heard at many ordinations, including your own. You have been ordained to the fullness of that priesthood by virtue of being raised to the rank of bishop, and by virtue of that fact, you now possess the immense gift of being able to confer the graces you have on other worthy men as their shepherd.

Archbishop Hartmayer, this is an incredibly simple setting of a Psalm, one of the easiest things to write, so it's not much, but it was made in love-- love for you as our newest chief shepherd and love for the Church which we both serve in different capacities: you, as a bishop, and me, as a lay college student. As you are installed as our Archbishop in the coming weeks and welcomed back to Atlanta a day after your 45th anniversary of being ordained to the Sacred Priesthood of Christ, this gift celebrates both joyous occasions.

As you prepare to return to Atlanta now as our chief shepherd with a mission of teaching us, governing us, and sanctifying us, the local Church, know that we are praying for you! St. Pius X, pray for us! St. John the Baptist, pray for us! Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception, pray for us! St. Gregory, pray for us! St. John, pray for us! St. Francis, pray for us!

To view my setting of Psalm 110, click here.

Una novena perpetua per tutti afflitti con il COVID-19

Nel nome del Padre, del Figlio e dello Spirito Santo.

Gesù Cristo, hai viaggiato attraverso città e paesi "guarendo tutte le malattie". Al suo comando, i malati furono guariti. Venite in nostro aiuto ora nel mezzo della diffusione globale del coronavirus, in modo che possiamo sperimentare il suo amore curativo.

Guarisci quelli che sono malati con il Coronavirus. Possano recuperare la loro forza e salute attraverso cure mediche di qualità.

Guariscici dalla nostra paura che impedisce alle persone di lavorare insieme e ai vicini di aiutarsi a vicenda.

Guariscici dal nostro orgoglio, che può farci rivendicare l'invulnerabilità a una malattia che non conosce o rispetta i confini geopolitici.

Gesù Cristo, guaritore di tutti, resta con noi in questo momento di incertezza e tristezza.

Sii con quelli che sono morti per il virus. Signore, dai loro il riposo eterno. E possa la luce perpetua illuminarti. Riposa in pace. Amen.

Stare con le famiglie di coloro che sono malati o che sono morti. Mentre si preoccupano e soffrono, difendili dalla malattia e dalla disperazione. Possano loro conoscere la tua pace.

Essere con medici, infermieri, ricercatori e tutti i professionisti medici che cercano di guarire e aiutare le persone colpite e che sono a rischio nel processo. Possano loro conoscere la tua protezione e pace.

Sii con i sovrani di tutte le nazioni. Dai loro la compassione di agire con carità e una sincera preoccupazione per il benessere delle persone che servono.

Offri loro la saggezza di investire in soluzioni a lungo termine che aiuteranno a preparare o prevenire futuri focolai di malattie come questa. Possano loro conoscere la tua pace mentre lavorano insieme per raggiungerla sulla Terra.

Sia qui nel nostro paese che all'estero, intorno a molte persone che soffrono di questa malattia o solo alcune: Gesù Cristo, rimani con noi mentre perseveriamo e lamentiamo, persistiamo e ci prepariamo. Al posto della nostra ansia, dacci la tua pace.

Gesù Cristo, guariscici!

Padre nostro che sei nei cieli, sia santificato il tuo nome; venga il tuo regno, sia fatta la tua volontà, come in cielo così in terra. Dacci oggi il nostro pane quotidiano, rimetti a noi i nostri debiti, come noi li rimettiamo ai nostri debitori e non ci indurre in tentazione, ma liberaci dal male.

San Michele Arcangelo, difendici nella lotta; sii nostro aiuto contro la cattiveria e le insidie del demonio. Che Dio eserciti il suo dominio su di lui, supplichevoli ti preghiamo: tu, che sei il Principe della milizia celeste, con la forza divina rinchiudi nell'inferno Satana e gli altri spiriti maligni che girano il mondo per portare le anime alla dannazione.

Ave Maria, piena di grazia, il Signore è con te. Tu sei benedetta fra le donne e benedetto è il frutto del tuo seno, Gesù. Santa Maria, Madre di Dio, prega per noi peccatori, adesso e nell'ora della nostra morte. Amen.

Uma novena perpétua para as pessoas afetadas pelo COVID-19

Em nome do Pai, e do Filho, e do Espírito Santo.

Jesus Cristo, você viajou por cidades e vilas “curando todas as doenças e enfermidades”. Ao seu comando, os doentes foram curados. Venha em nosso auxílio agora no meio da disseminação global do coronavírus, para que possamos experimentar seu amor curativo.

Cure aqueles que estão doentes com o Coronavírus. Que eles possam recuperar sua força e saúde através de cuidados médicos de qualidade.

Cure-nos do nosso medo que impede as pessoas de trabalharem juntas e os vizinhos de ajudarem-se uns aos outros.

Cure-nos do nosso orgulho, que pode nos fazer reivindicar invulnerabilidade a uma doença que não conhece nem respeita fronteiras geopolíticas.

Jesus Cristo, curador de todos, fique ao nosso lado neste tempo de incerteza e tristeza.

Esteja com aqueles que morreram por causa do vírus. Dai-lhes Senhor o descanso eterno. E que a luz perpétua os ilumine. Descansem em paz. Amém.

Esteja com as famílias daqueles que estão doentes ou que morreram. Enquanto se preocupam e sofrem, defenda-os da doença e do desespero. Que eles possam conhecer sua paz.

Esteja com os médicos, enfermeiros, pesquisadores e todos os profissionais médicos que procuram curar e ajudar as pessoas afetadas e que se colocam em risco no processo. Que eles conheçam sua proteção e paz.

Esteja com os governantes de todas as nações. Dê a eles a compaixão de agir com caridade e verdadeira preocupação com o bem-estar das pessoas a quem elas servem. 

Dê a eles a sabedoria para investir em soluções de longo prazo que ajudarão a se preparar ou evitar futuros surtos de doenças como esta. Que eles conheçam sua paz enquanto trabalham juntos para alcançá-la na Terra.

Seja aqui mesmo no nosso país ou no exterior, ao redor de muitas pessoas que sofrem desta doença ou apenas algumas: Jesus Cristo, fique conosco enquanto perseveramos e lamentamos, persistimos e nos preparamos. No lugar de nossa ansiedade, nos dê sua paz.

Jesus Cristo, cure-nos!

Pai Nosso que estais nos Céus, santificado seja o vosso Nome, venha a nós o vosso Reino, seja feita a vossa vontade assim na terra como no Céu. O pão nosso de cada dia nos dai hoje, perdoai-nos as nossas ofensas assim como nós perdoamos a quem nos tem ofendido, e não nos deixeis cair em tentação, mas livrai-nos do Mal.

São Miguel Arcanjo, defendei-nos no combate, sede nosso refúgio contra a maldade e as ciladas do demônio. Ordene-lhe Deus, instantemente o pedimos, e vós príncipe da milícia celeste, pelo Divino Poder, precipitai ao inferno a satanás e a todos os espíritos malignos, que andam pelo mundo para perder as almas.

Ave Maria, cheia de graça, o Senhor é convosco, bendita sois vós entre as mulheres e bendito é o fruto do vosso ventre, Jesus. Santa Maria, Mãe de Deus, rogai por nós pecadores, agora e na hora da nossa morte.

Amém.

A perpetual novena for those affected by COVID-19

Recently, when I was scrolling through Twitter, someone wanted to know if there were any organized prayer campaigns for those affected by the Coronavirus. I don't know of any, but starting one certainly is a wonderful idea. Since then I have been wanting to start something of the sort (or join it if it already exists-- to no avail as of this post). Since I couldn't find a prayer campaign to join, I have started my own.

Today, the following text was published in my parish's GroupMe. With the additions I have made to it, I plan to use this as the text of a perpetual novena (indefinitely repeating 9-day cycle of prayer: day 1, day 2, ..., day 8, day 9, day 1, ...., indefinitely repeating) for all those affected by COVID-19: patients, family, friends, researchers, and medical professionals. I invite all of you reading this post to join in the perpetual novena with me (the text will be below), and to share this so that

a.) more people can join this campaign of prayer for the sick those who care for them; and
b.) the sick those who care for them will know that they are not alone in this fight, and that we will be praying with and for them in this very difficult time.

I'm not sure there's much else I can do to help in the response to the outbreak,  but at the very least, I assure everyone of my prayers.

Text of the Perpetual Novena for the Intercession of St. Luke to Contain the COVID-19 outbreak

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

Jesus Christ, you traveled through towns and villages “curing every disease and illness.” At your command, the sick were made well. Come to our aid now in the midst of the global spread of the coronavirus, that we may experience your healing love.

Heal those who are sick with the virus. May they regain their strength and health through quality medical care. Heal us from our fear which prevents nations from working together and neighbors from helping one another. Heal us from our pride which can make us claim invulnerability to a disease that knows no borders.

Jesus Christ, healer of all, stay by our side in this time of uncertainty and sorrow.

Be with those who have died from the virus. Eternal rest, grant unto them O Lord and let perpetual light shine upon them. May they rest in peace. May their souls and the souls of all the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace.

Be with the families of those who are sick or have died. As they worry and grieve, defend them from illness and despair. May they know your peace. Be with the doctors, nurses, researchers and all medical professionals who seek to heal and help those affected and who put themselves at risk in the process. May they know your protection and peace.

Be with the leaders of all nations. Give them the foresight to act with charity and 

true concern for the well-being of the people they are meant to serve. Give them the wisdom to invest in long-term solutions that will help prepare for or prevent future outbreaks. May they know your peace as they work together to achieve it on earth.

Whether we are home or abroad, surrounded by many people suffering from this illness or only a few, Jesus Christ, stay with us as we endure and mourn, persist and prepare. In place of our anxiety, give us your peace.

Jesus Christ, heal us.

Our Father, Who art in Heaven, hallowed be Thy name; Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven. Give us this day our daily bread; and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

St. Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle, be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil. May God rebuke him we humbly pray; and do thou, O Prince of the Heavenly host, by the power of God, cast into hell Satan and all the evil spirits who prowl about the world seeking the ruin of souls.

Hail Mary, full of Grace, the Lord is with you. Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death.

Amen.

Today is a day of great joy! We have a new Archbishop!

What happened 
Today is a day of great joy! We the people of Atlanta once again know we will have an archbishop! Thursday morning, at 10:00 Rome Time (4:00 Atlanta time), Pope Francis announced the name of our next Archbishop after an 11-month period without one, during which there was a long and complex process to choose the next Archbishop. The search is over, and the results of the search for the next Archbishop became public on Thursday! Welcome back to Atlanta, Archbishop-Designate Hartmayer! 

We don’t quite technically have an Archbishop yet (and I’ll explain why later in this post), but news has come from the Holy Father, through his representative in the United States, our Nuncio, Archbishop Christophe Pierre, that Archbishop-designate Hartmayer, until now bishop of Savannah, will be installed here in Atlanta as Atlanta’s eighth bishop (and seventh archbishop) on Wednesday, May 6th, 2020! As Archbishop-designate Hartmayer prepares to return to Atlanta and as the day of his installation here comes ever closer, let us pray for our Archbishop-elect, that he may be as good and loving a shepherd to us as he has been to the people in his previous diocese, Savannah, for 8 years, and that he may be warmly welcomed back to Atlanta. Archbishop-designate Hartmayer previously served as pastor in two parishes here for 16 years prior to his appointment to Savannah.

The announcement was the answer to the prayer of almost a million and a half of the faithful of North and Central Georgia. I checked daily if the Holy Father had appointed us a new archbishop, and, when I would see that, no, we didn’t have one, I would pray for the future archbishop and for those in charge of selecting him. When I checked on Thursday, I assumed that, as was the case for the last 11 months, I would be wrong once again and we would not have a new archbishop announced that day. But alas, I was wrong, and this was a great example of one of the cases when it's so good to have been wrong!

In fact, right now, if I Google “does Atlanta,” Google immediately suggests “does Atlanta have a new archbishop.” I guess if you Google something every day for 11 months like I did, Google will have a pretty good idea of what searches to suggest. This actually isn’t a new blog post. I wrote this blog post months ago, when I assumed that this vacancy would take about as long as “normal” to fill: that is, about 8 months from vacancy to installation. As it turns out, from initial vacancy to installation, Atlanta will have been vacant for 13 months (April 2019 to May 2020)—much longer than any vacancy in any see in recent times that I know of.

What makes someone an Archbishop?
Like any bishop, in order to have “ordinary authority” to teach, govern, and sanctify the people of an archdiocese, an archbishop must have a letter from the Pope himself naming him the bishop of some see; in the case of an archdiocese, that sees’ ordinary is of the special rank called the “archbishop.” If anyone were to claim to be the (arch)bishop of an (arch)diocese but could not produce the letter that is signed and sealed by the Pope naming them as such, lacks the ordinary authority and is therefore not the legitimate (arch)bishop of the area. Further, any (arch)bishop appointed to a different see, or any priest appointed to a see who is not yet a bishop does not yet posses that authority until installation, but they will as soon as the installation is complete—more on how that works later.

Archbishops, in most cases are “metropolitan archbishops.” There are technical reasons in Canon Law explaining when that doesn't happen, but I won't go into them here. We in Atlanta have been in a metropolitan see since Atlanta became an Archdiocese back in the early 1960s, so, once installed, Archbishop Hartmayer will become a metropolitan archbishop. Before we became an archdiocese, we were a diocese for a few years, and for more than a century prior to that, from the 1850s to the 1950s, we were not our own diocese but rather a part of the Diocese of Savannah, which, for that century, covered the whole State of Georgia. Being made an Archdiocese in 1962 means we have since then been the metropolitan see of a province, thus the metropolitan archbishop is the head of the whole province. The province of Atlanta includes 3 states, within which there are five dioceses. In Georgia, we have the Archdiocese of Atlanta and the Diocese of Savannah. In North Carolina, we have the Diocese of Raleigh and the Diocese of Charlotte. In South Carolina, we have the Diocese of Charleston, which covers the whole state. In total, about 26 million people live in the province, of which just over 2 million are Catholic. 

The archbishop has full discretion to teach govern, and sanctify as the ordinary only in his archdiocese (each of the other dioceses has its own ordinary bishop), but he is a valued advisor to and close collaborator with all of the bishops in his province, even though he has no authority over the goings-on in those other dioceses under normal circumstances (that is, without the intervention and explicit direction of the Pope). To facilitate that collaboration within the province, all the bishops and the archbishop of a province meet usually at least once a year to give each other a report on how things have been. If there’s a particularly solemn liturgical event (a groundbreaking of a new church, an ordination, the dedication of a cathedral or other church, the consecration of a new bishop, or some other event of the sort), the archbishop of the province almost certainly will be involved, and may even be tasked with leading it. 

   

Installing a new Archbishop seems really complicated. What’s going to happen?

Back to Atlanta, what will happen in order to actually install Archbishop-designate Hartmayer in a few weeks during the Mass of Installation will be fairly complicated, so here's a crash course of what to expect at St. Peter Chanel in Roswell on Wednesday May 6.  If you can't make it to St. Peter Chanel that day because of work, school, or another obligation, don't worry, since momentous occasions like this one will surely be streamed live on the Internet (and then archived on the live-stream site, or perhaps on YouTube or Vimeo). We know the date and place of the installation as of this post, but we do not yet know the time. 

Here’s how things will happen on May 6 when the installation occurs:

1.       A lot (and by “a lot” I mean “ several hundreds”—maybe enough to fill almost half of the pews in St. Peter Chanel) of priests, deacons, and other bishops will file into the cathedral in procession, with the new Archbishop-elect at the back. The priests and deacons will mainly come from Atlanta and Savannah; bishops will been invited from all over the country, for sure, and maybe even from all over the world. 

2.       Mass will begin as it always does, once the procession ends, with the Sign of the Cross, and then with a greeting to summarize what will happen during the Installation Mass will follow. 

3.       No bishop can be ordained or installed anywhere without the permission of the Pope, in writing, always in the form of this letter. The original letter is in Latin, on parchment, signed and sealed by the Pope. The nuncio, who has the letter, will be called upon to read it.

4.       The Vatican’s Ambassador (called an Apostolic Nuncio), Archbishop Christophe Pierre, will read an English translation (and possibly also in Spanish and other languages) of said letter that contains the mandate to install the new archbishop.

5.       The letter will then be presented to the Archbishop-designate, who checks that the letter is legitimate by examining the wax seal, the personal seal of the Pope, found on the letter.

6.       He then takes it to the College of Consultors, a group of priests from Atlanta who helped early on in the selection process, and which he will now be the head of, for their inspection of that same seal for the same purpose of verifying the letter's authenticity.

7.       After that, he walks around the cathedral holding the letter high so that all can see it, and in once they do so, give the assent to the installation of their new Archbishop.

8.       Since he is already a bishop, he won’t need another ordination—in fact, that can’t happen; once someone is ordained a priest, they are ordained forever, and likewise when they are ordained a bishop (and thus when the man possesses the fullness of the priesthood, since only bishops can ordain). If we were dealing with a vacant diocese (or if we were receiving a new auxiliary bishop) to be headed by a bishop not yet ordained, the priest in question would be ordained a bishop at this point.

9.       The new Archbishop, his appointment having been assented to by his clergy and laity, is given a crozier. The crozier is the thing that he carries that looks like a shepherd’s staff--  in fact, that’s exactly what it is, and reminds both him and his people that he is a shepherd who guides a flock, who would be willing to lay down his life for his sheep (us) if it were necessary to protect them.

10.   Having been given the crozier, he is then escorted to a special chair in St. Peter Chanel. In this case, it won’t be the cathedra (since Christ the King’s cathedra's  back is literally built into the wall, there will be a special chair for Archbishop Hartmayer to sit on, but it won’t be the cathedra, technically). The archbishop’s special chair in his cathedral upon which only he may sit is called a “cathedra” –from the same root as the the source of the word “cathedral,” the Latin word for "chair" —and it is a symbol of the teaching authority of the bishop or archbishop. Every diocese or archdiocese has at least one church with one of these chairs, the cathedral, and only the bishop or archbishop with ordinary authority can sit on that chair. No one who is not the ordinary bishop or ordinary Archbishop (Archbishop Hartmayer, once installed) can sit on the cathedra. So, since May, when our see became officially vacant, no one has sat on the cathedra. 

11.   At the moment he sits down on the chair in St. Peter Chanel, he officially becomes the eighth bishop and seventh archbishop of Atlanta, even though he will not technically have taken possession of his cathedra, and therefore, of his cathedra, but in doing so at St Peter Chanel, he will immediately assume ordinary authority to teach, sanctify, and govern in Atlanta. As they did when he processed with his mandate, the people once again will typically warmly welcome the new archbishop, now officially having taken possession of his see, with a round of applause.

From here, Mass will continue as normal, from the Gloria onward. Taking possession of the Cathedral and the cathedra therein will occur in a separate liturgical celebration a few days later.

12.   Sometime after June 29 this year, Archbishop Pierre will come back to Atlanta to present Archbishop Hartmayer with the pallium. The pallium is a woolen scarf-like garment worn only by metropolitan archbishops like Archbishop Hartmayer that symbolizes the yoke (the thing boxen wear out in the fields to pull carts and stuff). This garment, made from the wool of lambs blessed on the feast of St. Agnes in January is a reminder to the Archbishop and his people that the position of Archbishop is one foremost of service to his people, and that as a shepherd. However, not wearing the pallium between his installation and whenever he receives the pallium does not diminish either his rights or his obligations as an archbishop.  

Once again, welcome back to Atlanta, Archbishop-designate Hartmayer! We are praying for you!