FATHER FRANK’S LOG: 11th–18th MAY 2025
As I write this week’s log, election fever is in the air. Last night, on the Vatican News website, I gazed at the chimney pot in St Peter’s Square, seagull and all, waiting for smoke of one kind or another, as the cardinal electors met in the Sistine Chapel to elect the successor of St Peter as our new pope. The expectation had been that the first smoke would appear at around 6pm our time, but in fact, as I’m sure you know, there was no smoke until just after 8pm, by which time I was watching the start of the Arsenal v PSG game on TNT Sport. As expected, the smoke was black, but by the time you actually read this, I would imagine there will have been white smoke and we will be praying for our new pontiff.
A few days earlier I received in the post some papers from the preparatory team who are working towards our Passionist Provincial Chapter in June. These papers were an invitation to engage in a straw vote as to who might be our first three choices for our new Provincial. Our current Provincial is nearing the end of his second 4-year term and can’t be elected again, except in extraordinary circumstances, so there should definitely be someone new, or perhaps someone old recycled. The straw vote has no authority, it is simply meant to provide an indication as to what names are in the running, which is pretty much what was happening in the first vote in the Sistine Chapel yesterday. It struck me forcibly that, when you take out the names of those who might be considered too old or too infirm to reasonably elect, we are left with very few choices, such has been the diminishment in our Province in recent years, despite a few ordinations. While this has been happening over a period of time, it now seems to be upon is in a very stark way, and it is difficult to predict the outcome. When the Holy Spirit has completed the task in Rome, that same Spirit will be very much required at the Drumalis Retreat Centre in Larne, where our Chapter will take place from 16-20 June.
There will of course be many important issues to discuss at the Chapter, around mission and ministries, houses and locations, community life, the wider Passionist Family (e.g. Lay Associates, Partners and Companions), care for our aged and infirm brethren, finances, and the like. However, human nature being what it is, election fever will be in the air, usually around the third day of the Chapter when, not only will we elect a new Provincial, but also four consultors to be part of our new Provincial Council, and this team will hopefully guide us through the next four years. A few times I have been elected on to the Provincial Council, but only once did I come close to being elected Provincial. At that Chapter it became a two-horse race and I can’t begin to tell you the relief I felt when, on the fifth ballot, the other person was elected. As it transpired, the Holy Spirit had worked well, and it proved to be exactly the right choice to embrace the challenges of the ensuing years.
I have always been fascinated by the notion of the Room of Tears, that small antechamber within the Sistine Chapel where the newly elected pope changes into his white, papal cassock for the first time. The title of that room expresses so much and, I would imagine, in these difficult challenging times, for the church and for the world, that anyone elected as a pope, a bishop, a Provincial, or to any similar kind of leadership, would resonate with entering a room of tears on assuming office. Anyone who really wants the role might not be the best person to elect. Those who accept humbly are so much in need of our gratitude and prayers.
As ever, protect yourself, your loved ones and others, and protect Christ in your lives.
As I write this week’s log, election fever is in the air. Last night, on the Vatican News website, I gazed at the chimney pot in St Peter’s Square, seagull and all, waiting for smoke of one kind or another, as the cardinal electors met in the Sistine Chapel to elect the successor of St Peter as our new pope. The expectation had been that the first smoke would appear at around 6pm our time, but in fact, as I’m sure you know, there was no smoke until just after 8pm, by which time I was watching the start of the Arsenal v PSG game on TNT Sport. As expected, the smoke was black, but by the time you actually read this, I would imagine there will have been white smoke and we will be praying for our new pontiff.
A few days earlier I received in the post some papers from the preparatory team who are working towards our Passionist Provincial Chapter in June. These papers were an invitation to engage in a straw vote as to who might be our first three choices for our new Provincial. Our current Provincial is nearing the end of his second 4-year term and can’t be elected again, except in extraordinary circumstances, so there should definitely be someone new, or perhaps someone old recycled. The straw vote has no authority, it is simply meant to provide an indication as to what names are in the running, which is pretty much what was happening in the first vote in the Sistine Chapel yesterday. It struck me forcibly that, when you take out the names of those who might be considered too old or too infirm to reasonably elect, we are left with very few choices, such has been the diminishment in our Province in recent years, despite a few ordinations. While this has been happening over a period of time, it now seems to be upon is in a very stark way, and it is difficult to predict the outcome. When the Holy Spirit has completed the task in Rome, that same Spirit will be very much required at the Drumalis Retreat Centre in Larne, where our Chapter will take place from 16-20 June.
There will of course be many important issues to discuss at the Chapter, around mission and ministries, houses and locations, community life, the wider Passionist Family (e.g. Lay Associates, Partners and Companions), care for our aged and infirm brethren, finances, and the like. However, human nature being what it is, election fever will be in the air, usually around the third day of the Chapter when, not only will we elect a new Provincial, but also four consultors to be part of our new Provincial Council, and this team will hopefully guide us through the next four years. A few times I have been elected on to the Provincial Council, but only once did I come close to being elected Provincial. At that Chapter it became a two-horse race and I can’t begin to tell you the relief I felt when, on the fifth ballot, the other person was elected. As it transpired, the Holy Spirit had worked well, and it proved to be exactly the right choice to embrace the challenges of the ensuing years.
I have always been fascinated by the notion of the Room of Tears, that small antechamber within the Sistine Chapel where the newly elected pope changes into his white, papal cassock for the first time. The title of that room expresses so much and, I would imagine, in these difficult challenging times, for the church and for the world, that anyone elected as a pope, a bishop, a Provincial, or to any similar kind of leadership, would resonate with entering a room of tears on assuming office. Anyone who really wants the role might not be the best person to elect. Those who accept humbly are so much in need of our gratitude and prayers.
As ever, protect yourself, your loved ones and others, and protect Christ in your lives.
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