Msgr Moroney's Blog: Praying for our Beloved Pope Emeritus

10 February 2018

Praying for our Beloved Pope Emeritus

Five years ago this Sunday, our beloved Pope emeritus, Benedict XVI announced his retirement as Supreme Pontiff. This past week, in response to an outpouring of letters from the readers of La Stampa newspaper, he wrote these words. May they remind each of us to pray for him in these final days of his pilgrimage to the house of our Heavenly Father.

I was moved that so many readers of your newspaper would like to know how I am spending this last period of my life. I can only say that with the slow decline of my physical forces, interiorly, I am on a pilgrimage towards Home. It is a great grace for me to be surrounded in this last, sometimes a little tiring, piece of road, by more love and goodness than I could have imagined. In this sense, I also consider the questions of your readers as an accompaniment along this stretch of road. This is why I cannot but be grateful, assuring all of you of my prayers.

Best regards,

Benedict XVI

Monsignor James P. Moroney, a priest of the Diocese of Worcester for forty four years, is Pastor of Saint Cecilia Parish in Leominster. He served for many years as Executive Director of the USCCB Secretariat for Divine Worship in Washington D.C., as Rector of Saint John's Seminary in Boston, and as Pastor of Mary Queen of the Rosary Parish in Spencer and as Rector of Saint Paul's Cathedral in Worcester. Pope Saint John Paul II and Pope Benedict both appointed him as a Consultor to the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments in Rome and as Executive Director of the Vox Clara Committee. He is author of THE MASS EXPLAINED (Catholic Book Publishing) which is being published in its third edition this Spring.