SUNDAY MASS WITH THE POPE AND NEW CARDINALS

A new altar arrangement is being used, Benedictine, but with a lower flung central crucifix and the bishop's candle to the side and the candles angled more to the side. I actually prefer this particular set-up. However, differing angles for the candles were employed by Pope Benedict and even Francis, so this may be just one of many arrangements. It makes me wonder if Vatican Masses were somehow discussed with all the cardinals this week and that there were some complaints about the altar arrangement blocking out the view of the Mass for television and the congregation in front of it. With all the cardinals present for this Mass, maybe this is a compromise shown to them? 

 The Mass is in Latin using the Missa Factor Orbis and the Westminster Cathedral Choir is excellent:


Here is Reuters synopsis of the homily with editorializing:

By Philip Pullella

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Francis urged cardinals, who make up the top echelon of the Roman Catholic Church, on Sunday to shun the intrigue, gossip and cliques typical of a royal court.

Since his election nearly a year ago, Francis has often told his top aides not to live or behave like a privileged class. The eight-year papacy of his predecessor, Benedict, was marked by mishaps and missteps, which were often blamed on a dysfunctional Vatican bureaucracy and intrigue befitting a Renaissance court.

"A cardinal enters the Church of Rome, not a royal court," Francis said in his sermon, welcoming the men into the elite group that help him run the Church in the Vatican and around the world.

"May all of us avoid, and help others to avoid, habits and ways of acting typical of a court: intrigue, gossip, cliques, favoritism and preferences," he said during a solemn ceremony in St. Peter's Basilica

.

It was the second consecutive day that Francis had warned cardinals to shun worldly temptations in the corridors of clerical power, either at home or in the nerve center of the 1.2 billion-member Church.

At the induction ceremony on Saturday, which was attended by ex-pope Benedict, Francis urged the cardinals to avoid rivalries and factions. It was the first time Francis and Benedict, who resigned on February 28, 2013, had been together for a liturgical celebration.

The "Vatileaks" scandal, in which Benedict's butler was arrested for leaking the pope's private papers to the media, alleged corruption in the Holy See, something the Vatican denied.

"Jesus did not come to teach us good manners or to behave as if we were at a social gathering," Francis told them.

UNITED IN SIMPLICITY AND SERVICE

He asked the new cardinals to remain united among themselves and with him as they advise and help him run the Church in the Vatican and beyond in a spirit of simplicity and service.

Since his election last March as the first non-European pope in 1,300 years, Francis has attempted to infuse the Vatican and the Church with his simple style.

Last month, when he announced the names of the new cardinals, he quickly followed up with a letter to each asking that they not see their appointment as a promotion and not to waste money holding celebratory parties.

Francis, who has called for a "poor Church, and for the poor", has set the example himself. He has opted to live in a simple boarding house rather than the Apostolic Palace, and travels in a blue Ford Focus rather than a luxury car.

Cardinals are the pope's closest advisers in the Vatican and around the world. Apart from being Church leaders in their home countries, those who are not based in the Vatican are members of key committees in Rome that decide policies that can affect the lives of all Roman Catholics.

(Reporting By Philip Pullella; Editing by Larry King)