Cardinal Pietro Parolin during the celebration of Mass (Reuters)
Strange Jubilee, this of teenagers. A group of American boys following the start of via della Conciliazione prepared the banners with the face of Carlo Acutiswho had to be canonized this Sunday, and his fervent devotion to the Eucharist. After the almost four hundred thousand faithful – between Square San Pietro and the journey to Santa Maria Maggiore – of the day of the funeral of Pope Francis, Today the almost two hundred thousand boys arrive in St. Peter’s Square seem almost few.
It was supposed to be a big party, between songs, dances, shows, a kermesse at the Circus Maximus (then canceled as a sign of mourning). He became a chorral tribute to Pope Francis who today, perhaps, would have come out to greet “his” guys on the churchyardor perhaps, who knows, even on the papmobile as he did a week ago, at Easter.
A century seems to have passed, only seven days have passed. Everything has changed. The Pope is no longer there, the cardinals prepare for the conclave, Televisions and cameramen all over the world are scattered in every corner for direct non-stops with The dome in favor of the camera. The world, not only the Church, looks to this square that with the spring sun today seems even more beautiful than usual.
“There is loss,” admits the cardinal Pietro Parolin In the Mass celebrated on the Sagrato, the second of the novedials in suffrage of Bergoglio, which will go on until next Sunday.
At 12 the sound of the bells announces noon. The window on the third floor of the Apostolic Palace, from where the Pope appeared for Angelus, remains closed. For over a month it had been no longer overlooking the long hospitalization to Gemelli and convalescence at Casa Santa Marta. But this time it is different. Someone looks at the watch and look up upwards. One of the photographers set up on the arm of Charlemagne, the terrace opposite, points the goal right towards the window. “We hoped to meet him in one way, we did it in another,” he says, in the square, a Spanish girl who recalls the companions not to disperse to get out of the colonnade.
Strange Jubilee, between choirs and a little subdued songs. The pilgrimage of the boys to the Santa di San Pietro Porta scheduled in recent days has been moved to San Giovanni in Laterano or Santa Maria Maggiore to allow the preparation of the funeral.
A group of teenagers from Emilia Romagna Canta In Riccione of the journalists. The groups of Treviso have a stick as a sign with a yellow cardboard hand on top. The Bavarian flag for a group of German boys.
The bells of San Pietro, after the mourning of Saturday on Saturday, at the beginning and at the end of the funeral, play to announce the beginning of the mass. After the red of the funeral, now white predominates, the color of Easter time. The cardinals and the archbishops who concelebrate. Last Parolin, which presides.
To the left of the altar, where on Saturday there were the powerful of the earth, now there are Teenagers with their colored shirts: yellow and green.
“The initial image that the Gospel offers us on this Sunday can also represent well the mood of all of us, of the Church and the whole world”, says Parolin at the beginning of the homily, “the shepherd that the Lord has given to his people, Pope Francis, has finished his earthly life and has left us. The pain for its departure, the sense of sadness that assails us, the disturbance that we feel in the heart, the feeling of loss: We are experiencing all this, like the apostles grieved for the death of Jesus ». A first, shy applause is triggered.
Hovers on San Pietro A rarefied atmosphere, as of suspension. The boys are of little interest to the Totopapa, the conclave, the rumors and, also, the poisons. They are the “Bergoglio generation” They were born shortly before Francesco became Pope and lived the first experiences of faith with him. “We struck us his humility, it was a great emotion to see him the other day in St. Peter,” says Matteo. They are the boys of Tiktok and Reels on social media e Pope Francis with his ironic jokes, his disruptive gestures, his effect phrases, on social media “split”, As a boy who continues to post photos on Instagram says.
«Easter joy, which supports us in the hour of test and sadness, today is something that can almost touch in this square; You can see it especially in your faces, dear boys and teenagers who have come from all over the world to celebrate the Jubilee », continues Parolin. Applause is now stronger. «Come from many parts: From all the dioceses of Italy, from Europe, from the United States to Latin America, from Africa to Asia, from the Arab Emirates … The whole world is really present with you! », he adds.
They wave the flags. «In the face of the many challenges that you are called to face – I remember, for example, that of technology and artificial intelligence that characterizes our era in particular – Never forget to feed your life with the true hope that has the face of Jesus Christ»Says Parolin.
Square San Pietro is packed, but a few kilometers further, outside the basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore the queues of the faithful began at dawn to greet Pope Francis and pray on his grave: simple, in the bare earth, the cross and the name written in Latin: Franciscus. It is another particularity, or oddity, of this Jubilee halfway between St. Peter and the Marian Basilica. Hundreds of thousands of boys are here to pay homage to the pope.
“Our affection for him, who is manifesting himself in these hours, must not remain a simple emotion of the moment”, warns Parolin, “His inheritance we must welcome it and make it become life lived, opening up to the mercy of God and also becoming merciful to each other ».
Every time Parolin evokes Pope Francis, the applause starts. “We are called,” he says in a stronger voice, “to the commitment to live our relationships no longer according to the criteria of the calculation or blinded by selfishness, but opening ourselves to dialogue with the other, welcoming those we meet along the way and forgiving his weaknesses and errors. Only mercy heals and creates a new world, turning off the fires of distrust, hatred and violence: this is the great teaching of Pope Francis».
To the Eucharistic prayer you no longer pray for “your servant and our Pope Francis”, as the liturgy foresees. On San Pietro, a few clouds for a moment. Then the sky comes back and clear.
The mass ends with the blessing of Parolin and the song of the Regina Caeli. The boys, with Indian row, begin to go out quickly. “Let’s not disperse,” he shouts an educator.
