Archbishop prays for cardinals choosing new Pope

The election of a new Pope is important for the entire human family, the Catholic Primate of Ireland said today.

Dr Sean Brady, Archbishop of Armagh, urged “all people of goodwill” to pray for the 115 cardinals gathering in the Vatican’s Sistine Chapel for the conclave to elect the successor to Pope John Paul II.

“The election of a new Pope is an important event for the whole human family,” Archbishop Brady said.

He added: “People from a wide variety of backgrounds have told me that they will be praying for the cardinals during the conclave.

“Their prayers and expressions of support are just some of the many signs of a growing respect between people of all beliefs which gives me great hope for the future.”

Archbishop Brady is to celebrate Mass at St Patrick’s Cathedral in Armagh to acknowledge the first evening of the conclave .

“We have been blessed at the beginning of the third millennium with a deeper sense of our common humanity, with a shared sense of responsibility for a more just and peaceful world,” he said.

“The man who is elected Pope in the coming days will play a critical part in progressing that search, in engaging with people of all faiths and in constructive dialogue about the joy and hopes, the challenges and the fears of the world, at the beginning of a new millennium.”

The Catholic Primate said that the man chosen to become the next Pope would need a wide range of human and spiritual gifts.

Archbishop Brady thanked the wide variety of people who passed their sympathies on to the Church after the death of Pope John Paul II.

He called upon Catholics across the country to spend time in prayer today as the conclave gathered and for the rest of the week for the cardinals tasked with electing the next Pope.

“They have gathered in prayer in the Sistine Chapel, like the Apostles in the upper room,” he said. “We ask the Holy Spirit to guide and inspire their actions, as we pray, in the words of the Mass, for a shepherd who will be an example of goodness and hope to the world.”

For the first day of the conclave, just 16 days after the death of the Pope, the cardinals were to gather for a Mass in the basilica of St Peter.

The 115 cardinal electors were then to begin their first day of voting on the successor in the conclave, one of the oldest electoral processes in the world, in the Vatican’s Sistine Chapel.