Marco Carvalho
Local Catholics gathered at the Cathedral of the Nativity of Our Lady on Tuesday evening for a Mass with the special intention to pray for the conclave. Bishop Stephen Lee Bun-sang emphasized the importance of asking God to enlighten the minds of the Cardinal electors and help them agree on a Pope that may answer the needs of our time. In His Divine Providence, God has bestowed on us Pope Leo XIV as the new shepherd of His Church.
The Conclave has elected Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost as the 267th successor of Saint Peter, after an intense and hope-filled day in the Vatican. The Chicago-born missionary, who spent his career ministering in Peru before taking over the Holy Seeโs Dicastery for Bishops, was elected on Thursday the first pope from the United States of America, choosing the name Leo XIV.
In his first words as the new leader of the Catholic Church, uttered from the balcony of Saint Peterโs Basilica, the pontiff greeted the crowds gathered on Saint Peterโs Square with a blessing of peace: โPeace be with all of youโ. Pope Leo XIV emphasized a message of peace, dialogue and missionary evangelization and pledged to work for a united Church, faithful to Jesus Christ and to the Gospel.
An Augustinian friar, the Chicago native was elected after four rounds of voting by the cardinal-electors who took part in the conclave. Pope Leo was elected in barely two days by more than one hundred Roman Catholic cardinals, gathered in the Sistine Chapel. During the last few days, millions of Catholics worldwide answered the call made by the College of Cardinals and prayed for the gifts of wisdom and discernment. Late last week, the Holy See released a declaration in which the Cardinals that joined the conclave asked the faithful to pray for them. The Diocese of Macau took action on the request. A special Mass for the election of the new Pope was held in the Cathedral of the Nativity of Our Lady on Tuesday evening, with dozens of devotees gathering to ask God to enlighten the minds of the Cardinal electors. Their choice, we now know, fell on Cardinal Robert Prevost, who is seen by his peers as the best choice to lead the Church of Christ and its people.
Presided over by Bishop Stephen Lee Bun-sang, the ‘Missa Pro Eligendo Romano Pontifice‘ – or Mass for the Election of the Pope – took place less than twenty-four hours before the beginning of the papal conclave that led to Pope Leoโs XIV election. In a lengthy homily, the Bishop of Macau urged local Catholics to welcome the new Holy Father with an open heart and asked them to pray for the cardinals who, starting the following day, would take part in the election of the new pontiff, so that they would be able to interpret the Holy Spirit’s guidance and discern God’s will: โGathered here, I ask you to pray especially for the Conclave and for the Cardinals who will elect the new Pope, that they may truly discern God’s willโ, Bishop Stephen Lee requested local Catholics.
In his address, the current Bishop of Macau stressed the importance of prayer, Christian love and ecclesial communion, recalling that the Church is โOne, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic. These attributes, Bishop Lee said, pinpoint the essential characteristics of the Church and its mission. Urging local Catholics to pray for the unity of the Church, the Bishop of Macau also invoked the teachings of Saint Paul and one of the most significant metaphors used by the Apostle in his letters. In his writings, St Paul often compares the Church to a body and, with this comparison, the author of the โEpistle to the Ephesiansโ highlights the conviction that the Church is a compact reality, visible in its unity and at the same time rich in diversity and cohesive in communion and obedience. In his theology of the ecclesial body, Saint Paul not only emphasizes the importance of each member, but also the intimate relationship they have with one another, bound to and obedient to the Head. Obedience to the Pope as Christ’s representative on earth, Bishop Lee Bun-sang stressed in his homily, is both a duty for Catholics and a guarantee of the unity of the Church: “We are all sinners. Throughout the history of the Church we have witnessed countless sins, precisely because we are all sinners. Nevertheless, the Church is Holy because the Church is a gift from God. We are the ones that shape the Church and we are not perfect, but the Body of Christ is perfectโ, the prelate claimed.
Bishop Stephen Lee also recalled that while the Church is the Body of Christ, the Pope, as His representative, is the head. The Bishop of Macau expressed his conviction that God would guide the Cardinal electors and urged Catholics in Macau and around the world to always trust the Holy Spirit: “Saint Peter was chosen by Jesus Christ himself and all the bishops were chosen by Saint Peter and his successors. If we look back on our past, we can trace the entire genealogy of the Church. This genealogy is of a superhuman nature because it is the result of the guidance and the enlightenment of the Holy Spirit,” he added.
Being, as it is, an instrument of the Holy Spirit, the choice of the new Pope is beyond human control and should not be the subject of speculation and betting. Bishop Stephen Lee Bun-sang concludes his sermon by recalling that the Church is not governed by the same rules as the secular world and asked, once again, local Catholics to trust in Godโs guidance: “The Church is not a political party. The Church is not governed by a social ideology. The Church is not simply an organization that answers worldly circumstances or a secular structure. We don’t care who the new Pope might be because we trust in God’s guidanceโ, Bishop Stephen Lee told Macauโs Catholics on Tuesday, hours before the beginning of the conclave.
The Holy Spirit has spoken. Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost has been elected as the 267th pope of the Catholic Church, taking the name Pope Leo XIV. After Francis, Benedict XVI and John Paul II, a new era in the Church of Christ begins.
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