(OSV News) – Since Feb. 24, the faithful, led by cardinals and bishops, have prayed the daily rosary in St. Peter's Square for Pope Francis' recovery. “It is the pope who gathers us here,” Cardinal Konrad Krajewski, one of the papal right-hand men, told OSV News.
"In this situation, we're helpless, so prayer is the only solace," he said, adding that it only seems like it's business as usual at the Vatican, "but it's not, because it feels very empty, without a spirit."
The Polish prelate, who heads the Vatican's Dicastery for the Service of Charity, is the pope's point man for distributing alms to the poor and needy – those that Francis put at the center of his papacy. Cardinal Krajewski led the rosary March 2.
He said people rush to pray every night at St. Peter's Square – "the heart of Rome, where everything is accomplished" – because "this is where martyrdom takes place. St. Peter's Square is the cemetery of Christians. But this is also where every election of a pope is announced. So when the pope suffers, it's so very natural that we rush to this very square, where people rushed when John Paul II passed away, when Pope Benedict passed away. So it's the natural thing, it's the pope himself that gathers us here."
Every night for over a week now, thousands of Catholics pray the rosary for Pope Francis' recovery "to look up to the Blessed Mother," the cardinal said.
"The Mother of God stood at the foot of the cross. She participated in the suffering of her son. She was helpless. And we too at the suffering of another person, of the Holy Father, are helpless, because we can do nothing. We can send him well wishes, but the only thing we can really do in terms of action – is to simply come together," Cardinal Krajewski told OSV News.
Recalling the Gospel of Matthew passage "For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them," the cardinal said that Catholics, worried about the Holy Father, feel the presence of God during the rosaries.
"We cannot afford to do anything else, there are no sermons, no speeches, no greetings during those nightly prayers," the pope's almoner said. "Like Mary, we stand under the cross of suffering, because it is the cross of suffering in which the Holy Father participates."
In the rosary "we repeat the angel's greeting, and interestingly enough – when we pray Hail Mary – we pray for ourselves, for us sinners, now and when it will be most difficult, in the hour of death," Cardinal Krajewski said.
Stressing that the rosary is "the best prayer for this time," the cardinal told OSV News: "I'll honestly admit that as I'm in this square, I'm reminded of how much good has been done over these 12 years by Pope Francis. During this prayer, Lord Jesus reminds us of that – and we would like this pontificate to continue.
"But before each decade of the rosary, there is also the Our Father prayer, and it has such an amazing overtone – 'Thy will' – not mine. That is, we give ourselves completely to the Lord Jesus. Let it be as God wills."
He stressed that the prayer, which gathers – by the cardinal's count – at least 5,000 faithful every night, including Jubilee pilgrims, is powerful as it "is beautiful to just stand together with Mary before the great mystery of suffering.
"Nobody tells those people to come. Everyone just runs to that square driven by his or her own necessity. It is literally a river flowing," Cardinal Krajewski said.
"Most of them are young people, which means how much they need a guide today, how much they need the sign of such a man in white, who they know is a man of prayer, they know that his logic is the logic of the Gospel, and who tells them about Jesus," the prelate stressed.
"That's why I think we are starting to miss this pope so much."
Cardinal Krajewski said that while "the city, the state, the Vatican functions normally," it "functions without a spirit. We all feel that someone is missing."
This evening prayer is much needed for the faithful worried about the pope "and as if all these invocations in the rosary were not enough, then the Litany of Loreto is also sung, he said. Among invocations sung "are those that affect us greatly," the cardinal pointed out. He said the invocation "Mother of the Church, Mother of Mercy, Mother of Hope – which reminds us that even though the Blessed Mother suffers terribly, but she still had hope."
Pope Francis taught us that three words describe the "style of God," the Polish cardinal said. "It's closeness, it's tenderness and it's gentleness."
"So every evening, when we gather for prayer, we represent God's style, because we want to be close, close to the suffering person. In this way we show tenderness. We can't just go to Gemelli and enter the Holy Father's room. But by gathering – even at the end of the world – we show our closeness and tenderness. And we do it in the most gentle way possible, because we pray together with Mary, who has experienced all this suffering before."
Pointing out that Pope Francis "has given us so many sermons to remember," the cardinal said what especially stayed with him was this one: "I well remember as priest that I have to smell like the sheep, those in pain, those after divorce, those who love differently," the cardinal said, adding that the ailing pope reminds the world that in such moments "what's left is only to draw near to the Lord God."
Cardinal Krajewski said the evening rosaries will continue "until the pope returns to the Vatican."
He said that while the atmosphere reminds him of the spring of 2005, when the ailing St. John Paul II was reaching his last days, it's different now for him personally. "With John Paul II, I was at his bedside when he was dying, I had an amazing privilege to be in his suite, to be close to him. Whereas now I am among the people. I am one of those who feels helplessness." And that's also a privilege, he stressed.
He said that the sense of beauty, goodness and unity is palpable in St. Peter's Square during the prayers. "It's just complete silence here. You can only hear a steady rhythm of prayer."
He also said people appreciate clear communications from the Vatican on the pope's health status.
"It is known to everyone that this illness is very tiring for him, so tiring that he needs to rest after the night. So while these messages seem laconic, they are very balanced and they are true. Because if the pope didn't need to rest, he wouldn't be in the hospital."
The cardinal said that for him, "it's very, very wise these announcements are not sensational, they are true. I think it's also just very beautiful that the pope is telling us what we don't need to guess, there is no need for any speculation."
Cardinal Krajewski concluded that while journalists are trying to find out what will happen, "the only thing we have is our prayer. And the Lord God is already directing the fate of the Church. We are not alone."
(Paulina Guzik is international editor for OSV News.)
