By Ines Novacic
As a Eucharistic Minister, Francesca Illuzzi prepares the consecrated host. | Photo by Ines Novacic.
The Rev. John Massari has thick black eyebrows and a mane of silver hair. He emerges from the door to the back-left of the altar in green embroidered robes, the appropriate color for the period of Ordinary Time, which begins eight days after Christmas according to the Gregorian calendar of the Catholic Church. His footsteps sound hollow on the marble floor, and they interject the opening recital of Mass, delivered by long-time congregation member Francesca Illuzzi.
“Gesu, l’unico maestro di sapienza e liberatore della potenza de male,” Illuzzi, 77, invokes the power and virtue of Jesus as Massari stands to face the congregation of the church of Our Lady of Pompeii. As is custom, the 11 o’clock Sunday Mass is in Italian, and Massari’s booming voice addresses an audience of around 40 Italians and Italian-Americans, in the 120-year old Church on Carmine Street.
Before the consecration of the bread and the wine during Communion, Massari pauses to deliver a key part of the Eucharistic Prayer. He asks God to grant peace to the Church, “together with your servant Benedict XVI, our Pope.”
The Pope’s name is mentioned in each of the four Eucharistic Prayers, one of which is always recited during the second half of Mass—the part known as the Mass of the Faithful.
Although the public does not repeat the name out loud, devout Catholics like Illuzzi say a silent prayer for their Pope after Massari’s tribute, most with heads bowed.
The current canon of the mass is known as the “post-Tridentine” mass, or the Mass of Paul VI, whose liturgy was promulgated in 1969, after the Second Vatican Council. But praying for the Pope is nothing new. It’s almost as old as ritualized mass itself, which began during the first century. Intercessions, or “prayers on behalf of others”, including the Pope, were included in the liturgy from the time of Pope Pius I in the second century.
“You say the name out loud to call attention to the people,” Massari explains after the service is over. In the rectory office, adjacent to the nave of the Church, a picture of the current Holy See, Pope Benedict XVI, hangs. “The Pope is a Catholic figure,” says Massari, “in other words, he is a universal figure.”
Massari says that praying for the Pope is important, because of the important function he serves as the leader of God’s people on earth. “The way you pray for the President of the United States, it makes sense to pray for the Pope because of his responsibility.”
Most practicing Catholics don’t limit praying for the Pope to time at mass. Illuzzi says that she prays for Benedict XVI every day, in private, as she’s done for the other five Popes who’ve led the Church during her lifetime.
“If they nominated him, it means he deserves it. The cardinals, the Holy Spirit inspires them, and I pray for the Pope that the Holy Spirit inspires him to do the right thing for his people,” says Illuzzi, a first-generation Italian immigrant from Bari in Italy. Her fifth floor walk up in the West Village has been her home ever since she came as a newlywed to New York 48 years ago. Religious iconography decorates every room, including a stained glass lamp on her bedside table, which illuminates passport-sized pictures of the loved ones she’s lost. In the living room, a large portrait of the previous Pope, John Paul II is propped on a dresser against the wall.
“Of course I have the Pope’s picture, but not yet the most recent one. I have small postcards of him, people send me them from Italy,” she explains. “Popes are not all the same, but they’re always inspired by the Holy Spirit, to teach the whole Church.”
Illuzzi believes that the Holy Spirit directly instructs the Pope, and that through this instruction the Pope is the best possible leader of the Catholic Church. She says that the episode of the Pentacost, when the Holy Spirit inspired St. Peter and the Apostles, to preach the gospel of Christ’s resurrection marks the beginning of the relationship between the Pope and the Holy Spirit.
For Catholics—whether members of the clergy or the congregation—the short mention of the Pope during mass evidences a long-standing importance given to his title. According to Catholic dogma, Jesus effectively named the Apostle Simon “Peter”, the first Pope. In the gospel of Matthew, Jesus says: “And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church.” This is thought to have happened in Rome, which is why the Papacy is based there, in the Vatican
“I never criticize the Pope,” Illuzzi says, “I hold my opinion to myself. There is always a higher motivo why a Cardinal was made a Pope.”
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