#romanreactions

Four days have gone by since the Pope's announcement of his resignation and this decision still seems unbelievable. This situation has surpassed all fiction and feels surreal. Four days have gone by and here in Rome, for the faithful Catholics, the days still feel strange. As the well-informed Roman barber that gave me a hair cut today said, the following two weeks will indeed be weird because this is the first time that we find ourselves waiting for the moment in which our Pope will no longer be Pope. Things are so confusing that the Vatican's spokesman continues to answer in press conferences that the Vatican still has not come up with a title for Pope Benedict XVI after 8:00 pm on February 20th. Personally this moment in Church history has filled me up with questions and expectations. I hadn't had so many mixed emotions ever since I first rode a roller coaster at the Astroworld fourteen years ago. I am mainly asking myself two questions that the Roman newspapers have asked since Tuesday: First, "is this thing really happening?" After answering to myself in Italian "yes, it is. Get over it!", the second big question is, "how are the cardinals going to act and react to this epical moment?" Gosh! If I'm still asking these questions I'm more Roman than what I wanted to be! Mamma mia!!! I have a suspicion, though, that similar questions are being asked outside of Rome.

What I need to remember is that the Good Lord in his infinite Mercy would not permit in His Church something that is not supposed to happen, something like bringing the ruin of souls. These days, and always, I must remember that the Holy Spirit is in charge of the Church, it's Him who guides Her, not a bunch of human beings. If this situation is confusing and weird is only because I am spiritually blind and I can't see the magnificent greatness that the Spirit will be able to bring out of this moment. So I pray that I may see. Surely we will all see better in the following weeks and years. The Holy Spirit, after all, always writes straight with the crooked lines that we use... mamma mia, is this thing really happening???