Why you have to listen to the first words of a new pope

The smoke is white … at the loggia of the Saint-Pierre basilica, the Cardinal Protodiacre promises to be and launches the long-awaited sentence: “Habemus Papam!”. A new pope has been elected and he will give his first blessing Urbi and Orbi (to the city and the world) after having pronounced a few words to the address of the millions of people who discover his face. By these few words, the new bishop of Rome gives the first tone of his pontificate which opens.

François, the mark of simplicity

It is an understatement to say that the appearance of François at the Balcony of the Basilica on March 13, 2013 will have surprised, even before he pronounced his first words. He simply presents himself dressed in the white cassock, without the traditional red mozette, this stole carried by the popes to give the blessing. From the outset, simplicity is in order.

And the words of the new elected official are part of the same vein. Presenting himself only as “the bishop (of) Rome”, without ever using the word pope, he asks the crowd to pray for him before even giving the blessing! “I ask you to pray to the Lord so that he bless me: the prayer of the people, asking for the blessing for his bishop. Let us make this prayer in silence of all of you on me, “he said before letting a deep silence settle on Saint-Pierre square. Then, he gives the blessing, before concluding on a simple “good night and good rest!” »»

Benedict XVI, in the footsteps of John Paul II

In 2005, it was the one who was previously prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith who advances to the balcony. Visibly intimidated, he only pronounces a few sentences in an Italian slightly tinged with his German accent. “The cardinals elected me, me, a simple and humble worker of the Lord’s vine,” he said not without emotion. I console myself in the fact that the Lord knows how to work and act with insufficient instruments. »»

He also pays tribute “to the Grand Pope John Paul II”, of which he chaired the funeral mass only a few days earlier. Close collaborator of the Polish Pope for more than two decades, Benoît XVI registered, from the start, his pontificate in the continuity of his predecessor.

John Paul II, humor at loggia

In October 1978, the election of John Paul II was a real surprise for the Romans. For the first time in centuries, their bishop is not from the Italian peninsula! “The cardinals called a new bishop of Rome, they called him from a distant, distant country,” recognizes a smiling Karol Wojtyla. But from the outset, he puts on his new identity and his new language: “I don’t know if I can explain myself in your … in OUR Italian language. »»

Not without humor, he continues: “If I’m wrong, you will correct me!” With these first words, he gives a young man to discover – he is then 58 years old – who will mark the history of the Church and the world for a quarter of a century.

Marie, present from the start

The first speeches of François, Benoît XVI and John Paul II share a characteristic: all three have, each time, mentioned the Virgin Mary in the first words of their pontificate.

“I present myself to all of you, to confess our common faith, our hope, our confidence in the mother of Christ and the Church,” said the Pole in 1978. “The Lord will help us and Marie, his very holy mother, will be by our side,” says his successor in 2005.

As for François, he announces that “tomorrow I want to go pray the Virgin so that she protects Rome as a whole”. He will thus go to the early hours of March 14, 2013 to Sainte-Marie-Majeure, to go and pray in front of the Salus Populi Romani. It was near this icon of the Virgin that he will be buried, twelve years later, on April 26, 2025.