November part II: the Cardinal's visit

So, close your eyes and let's travel back in time to Lima in late November. The day Katie and I got back from our retreat, Monsegñor Juan Luis Cipriani, Cardinal of Lima, came to celebrate Mass at our church in Tupac!

The Cardinal is the head of the Catholic church in at least Lima, if not the whole country. I'd never seen a Cardinal before. I learned that he travels with a whole possey of seminarians, carries a big shepherd's crook to symbolize his role as pastor of the people, and wears two hats--the big fancy one that you see above, and underneath, a small red one that looks like the type some Jewish men wear. He takes the big one off during most of the Mass. During the Eucharistic prayers, he takes off the little one too--and one of the seminarians has a little silver plate to hold the hat on until it's time to put it on again. Clearly the visit of this dignitary is a very special event.

The week prior to the visit, the Vicar of Lima came to prepare us for it. As far as I can tell, the Vicar is the Cardinal's "mini-me." He goes wherever the Cardinal is planning to come and tries to eliminate all local flavor as well as feminine influence from the celebration of the Mass. No female altar servers were to be allowed when the Cardinal came, and none of this getting up during the kiss of Peace to greet people across the aisle or across the church--complete chaos! Just a little handshake to the right and left is quite sufficient! The Vicar's homily was about how we don't want to go to hell and therefore have to resist our temptations to dirty sinful things. The undertone of repressed desperation in his voice turned his passionate energy into something a little weird and scary. (at least to me.)

So I was all ready for the Cardinal to be even MORE so-ridiculous-it'd-be-funny-if-it-wasn't-scary, especially since I've heard that the Cardinal is very conservative and has censored or opposed Gustavo Gutierrez's liberation theology here in Lima in various ways. But like so many other times in this country, reality turned out different than I expected. Cardinal Cipriani's public speaking style is the opposite of his Vicar's. He has a soft voice and a soft manner, and he spoke very encouragingly about all the beautiful things our Church has to offer by way of the sacraments. I don't remember now what exactly he said, but he struck me as a very intelligent, spiritually balanced, peaceful man. When the Vicar talked about where this chair has to go and why that song can't be played and how there will only be male altar servers, I found myself angrily demanding of him in my head--What words of life do you have for me, Vicar? What WORDS OF LIFE are you brining to us here in our church?? Words of Life were what attracted people to Jesus, after all. Jesus IS the Word of God who comes so that we might have life in abundance. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that my pre-judgement of the Cardinal was quite the opposite of the truth of the man: conservative or no, his words were gentle, insightful, welcoming and inclusive... decidedly "of life."

The people were funny, they were totally star-struck by the Cardinal, kind of like a crowd of celebrity fans in Hollywood. His Eminence took it all in stride and was very humble and personable in his interactions with us. After the Mass he came (with all his seminarians!) for some light refreshments in the sisters' house, where supposedly only religious brothers and sisters were supposed to be, but Katie and I were allowed to stay seeing as it was our house too. And the Cardinal talked with everyone in Spanish or English as necessary, including a great conversation with me and Sister BJ about American college basketball! (he's traveled all over the US.) As he was leaving, the choir and the lectors, who had hung around outside waiting, got to take their picture with His Eminence. All in all it was a great night.