Extra Omnes, "Everyone Out" - But not really

L'Osservatore Romano photograph

If you did not have the opportunity to observe the final public moments of the Cardinal Electors beginning the conclave, you should watch the brief video of the Master of Papal Liturgical Ceremonies, Monsignor Guido Marini announcing the time for all those who are not participating in the conclave to exit the Sistine Chapel followed by his dramatic closing of the doors.  You can watch the video below.  

The latin phrase declaring the closing of the chapel, is "Extra Omnes." Which is basically translated, "Everyone Out."  Watching the video one gets a vivid image of the cardinals being locked in and the rest of us locked out.  But is that really the case, is the rest of the Church separated from these 115 electors?  Are they truly locked away to make such an important decision for the Church and the world?  I am going to suggest that the opposite is true.

I am currently on a retreat with other priests from my diocese and the diocese of Brooklyn as well as one priest from the Archdiocese of New York.  (Incidentally, he really wants his Cardinal to come home!) Today the other priests and I watched the cardinals walk in procession into the Sistine Chapel and just moments before Msgr. Marini closed the door, we went into a chapel here to celebrate Mass.  It struck me as we celebrated Mass together how closely linked we were to the events on the other side of the ocean.  These 115 Cardinals are my brother priests.  They were ordained to do the very same thing I was ordained to do.  They have been called to live their priesthood in service to Church as cardinals, but they are simply priests called by God to celebrate the sacraments and lead His people to eternal salvation.  In thinking this way I felt great empathy for them and the task that lay before them.  I offered Mass for them and with them and did not feel locked out.  Instead I felt united with them through the sacred liturgy and the fraternity of priesthood.

Beyond me and my brother priests, I have a profound sense of the whole Church's unity with the cardinal-electors.  One only need observe the throngs filling the piazza of St. Peter's to understand he the whole Church is literally gathering for this moment.  All of the thoughts, opinions, hopes and dreams for the new pope have been overwhelming.  How could these 115 men listen to it all, process it all and truly hear where God was calling them?  The only way that they can, is to do what they are doing now, closed in, listening to the guidance of the Holy Spirit without distraction, receiving the fruit our prayers, unadulterated by media or politics.  They are not closed off but close to the Church as they undergo this sacred task.

This week I heard an interview with the Archbishop Emeritus of Washington D.C., Cardinal Theodore McCarrick.  He described his experience of the 2005 conclave as a liturgy, a continuous experience of prayer, not a political convention or a secret boardroom experience.  How true then it is that this conclave is not an experience of "everyone out" but like all liturgy everyone is in, united by Christ through sacrament and prayer.  When the doors of our Churches close to begin Mass, we are not closed off from the world, but closed in, free from that which distracts us so we may truly be united with Christ and His Church.

When Blessed Pope John Paul II, spoke his inaugural words to the Church, he told us to not be afraid but to open wide the doors for Christ.   In the remaining days of this conclave, may our hearts, souls and prayers be in that sacred liturgy so that the doors will soon open and a new Shepherd may be sent out to all the world.

If clip does not work go here http://youtu.be/dzFxQJkNdgY