Over a billion Catholics worldwide and a million in the Archdiocese of Atlanta ushered in the beginning of Lent — the most important part of the year for the Catholic Church — while its leader remained hospitalized in precarious health.
In the absence of the joyful hymn that typically signifies the end of mass, Wednesday’s mass concluded in a somber reflection as hundreds of parishioners exited the Cathedral of Christ the King with black smudges of ash in the sign of the cross on their forehead.
“We are dust, from dust we were created, and to dust we shall return,” Pope Francis wrote in his Ash Wednesday homily, read by Cardinal Angelo De Donatis at the Basilica of Santa Sabina in Rome while he remained in the hospital.
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
Francis, who has chronic lung disease, was admitted to Rome’s Gemelli hospital on Feb. 14 following an infection of the respiratory tract that was discovered as pneumonia in both lungs. The 88-year-old pontiff has since suffered from multiple episodes of bronchospasm and acute respiratory insufficiency, requiring extra ventilation to help improve oxygen levels.
“For the ongoing recovery and health of our Holy Father Pope Francis, we pray to the Lord,” a member of the clergy read out to the parishioners packed into the pews of the Buckhead cathedral.
“Lord, hear our prayer,” they responded in unison.
Francis thanked supporters in an audio message recorded Thursday from the hospital and broadcast in St. Peter’s Square, the first time the public has heard the pope’s voice since his hospitalization three weeks ago.
“I thank you from the bottom of my heart for your prayers for my health from the square; I accompany you from here,” he said in his native Spanish in rasped breaths. “May God bless you and the Virgin protect you. Thank you.”
Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of Lent, 40 days spent in repentance until the resurrection of Jesus on Easter. The ashes are a reminder of human mortality, fragility and death, Francis wrote in his homily Wednesday.
“In many ways, we try to banish death from our societies, so dependent on appearances, and even remove it from our language,” he wrote. “Death, however, imposes itself as a reality with which we have to reckon, a sign of the precariousness and brevity of our lives.”
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
Rev. Monsignor Francis G. McNamee of the Cathedral of Christ the King said Francis is urging people to embrace death and see it as a natural part of life.
“(The pope) reminds us that death is not something that is always negative and that we must prepare ourselves and must be ready to stand before God,” McNamee said. “He does not fear death.”
He added that Francis' message is also one of hope — hope of Easter and Jesus' resurrection but also hope of a fairer world.
“Throughout the Holy Father’s pontification, his message has always been of hope, whether it’s to immigrants, war-torn areas of our world, opening our doors and borders,” McNamee said. “In the climate we are in now, it’s challenging, but I think Francis is there to awaken one’s conscience and say this is something we’ve ignored.”
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
Many saw Francis' election to pope in 2013 as a breath of fresh air, opening the windows of the church to more progressive views. He is known as a pope of humility, championing the poor and marginalized by washing the feet of prisoners and the disabled, including non-Christians; appointing women to several leadership roles in the Vatican; and unveiling a monument to migration and displaced people in St. Peter’s Square.
Harper Bush, 40, said she considered Francis an ambitious pope who challenged the church’s long-standing, traditional views.
“(I think) he has a lot of things he wants to set in motion,” she said, calling his hospitalization “a sad moment.”
Bush, who is a longtime parishioner of Christ the King, recalled watching the papal succession broadcast with her college roommate, who was also Catholic, when Pope John Paul II died in 2005.
“Since it was our first time seeing (a papal succession), it was exciting for us,” she said. “We were up at like 3 a.m., not getting any sleep, trying to figure out, ‘is there white smoke yet?’”
After a pope dies or steps down, cardinals vote through a secret ballot for a new pope. Black smoke rising from the Vatican chimney after a vote means the cardinals have not reached a two-thirds majority yet. White smoke means a new pope has been elected.
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
Since being elected pope, Francis has had at least three other hospitalizations. The pope had colon surgery in 2021 and was operated on again two years later for a hernia. That same year, Francis spent three days at Gemelli because of a respiratory infection.
He also struggled with his health as a young man, having part of one lung removed in his early 20s when he suffered from a severe respiratory infection in his native home of Argentina in 1957.
“Since the pope had part of his lung removed in his early adulthood, he has less healthy lung tissue than someone who did not have that surgery,” said pulmonologist Colin Swenson, an associate professor at Emory University School of Medicine who has not treated the pope but could speak to the condition. “The pneumonia can damage the lungs, and when part of the lungs has been removed, the remaining lung must work harder.”
The Vatican said in its most recent statement Thursday that Francis remained stable without new respiratory crises.
“Let us foster the hope that beyond our frailties there is a Father waiting for us with open arms at the end of our earthly pilgrimage,” Francis wrote.
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