Rome had spent months preparing for the Jubilee of the Roman Catholic Church. He built tunnels, open squares and rubbed with moldy fountains. Now, thousands of pilgrims are flocking around the world for the occasion – a year of penance and forgiveness that takes place every quarter of a century.
The only lacking thing was the pope.
Over the past three weeks, Pope Francis, head of the world’s Catholics, has been in isolation on the 10th floor of the Gemelli hospital, where he is treated for pneumonia and other infections. He missed his regular Wednesday general, where he welcomed visitors and pilgrims, and his Sunday prayer Angelus, and on Wednesday ashes, he entrusted his homily to a cardinal.
A brief audio recording of the Pope giving slightly a blessing in Spanish was all the faithful received on Thursday, when they gathered for a rosary for Francis on Place Saint-Pierre.
“We hoped that we could see him,” said Dinora Ramirez, a pilgrim from Honduras, who prepared to cross the holy door of the Saint-Pierre basilica while tears filled his eyes. “Our hearts hurt me.”
Doctors speak of a “prognosis kept” for the pope. They offered mainly laconic relationships on his state, which alternated between crises and stable moments, leaving room for the theories of the conspiracy thriving on his health and his intentions to resign, and even false relationships of his death.
But the only undisputed reality is the prolonged absence of the Pope.
It is particularly remarkable for a pope who has made a point of being part of the people, frequently venturing into the crowd, kissing the faithful and engaging in impromptu conversations. And it is even more deeply felt than thousands of pilgrims came to Rome hoping to have a glimpse of Francis, and while the Roman Catholics were preparing for Easter celebrations.
Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent, about a dozen cardinals in the red caps of Biretta and the shoulder capes worked in a procession among the olive trees and the umbrella pines along the afternoon hill of Rome, then entered the basilica of Santa Sabina for a mass.
But Francis did not give it. An Italian cardinal, Angelo de Donatis, read the Pope’s words, imposed ashes at the chair heads of the brothers and swayed the enemy while the choir chanted.
“The Pope is not there and you can feel it,” said Mario Maurer, 27, a theology student at mass. He had come to Rome on pilgrimage for the jubilee.
“There is a cardinal who can read the text, and it’s ok,” said Maurer. “But the Pope is a whole different category.”
Standing outside Santa Sabina as he interrupted his visit to the infinite churches of Rome, Mr. Maurer said that the absence of the Pope was palpable not only during mass but also in the city, of which he was the bishop. “It is this void that is here, but also in Rome itself,” he said.
In his sermon, Pope Francis has offered a message in accordance with his long -standing established themes, deploring “the return of ancient identity ideologies that theorize the exclusion of others, the exploitation of earth resources, violence in all its forms and war between peoples”.
For some of the faithful who attended, it was at least a consolation.
“He made us feel his presence through homily, which was in the mind of Pope Francis, on peace, pollution,” said Giuseppina de Palma, 67.
The Vatican manager has not excluded that before the future, Francis could prevent the preparation of texts if he is aware that he will not deliver them, saying that this might not be logical to do so.
For some Catholics, the absence of the Pope at a time when the world order is under exceptional pressure was particularly disorienting.
“I would like him to tell us more about how to do it,” said Luz Viviana Flores Maciel, 21, who is from Mexico. “The world is upside down, and we are like a nation without a leader.”
For three weeks, the Vatican did not share any photos of Francis either.
In the past, before the advent of technology and mass media, the physical appearance of the popes was much less familiar, even if it did nothing to reduce their authority. But now it is very unusual that the world spends there for weeks without seeing images of the church chief (although there has been a wave of counterfeits generated by the circulating on social networks).
To try to feel the presence of Francis, some pilgrims turned to the Gemelli hospital to pray under its windows. Others have chosen not to dwell on his absence.
“Pope Francis would agree that we should focus on the presence of Jesus, rather than on ourselves,” said Jonah Berger, 24, Dutch Catholic who attended the ash mass.
