Cardinal Tobin: Habemus Papam! We Have a Pope!

My dear sisters and brothers in Christ,

The past several weeks have been a rollercoaster ride of emotions for me personally and for all of us in the Universal Church. This tumultuous ride began with grief over the loss of our beloved Pope Francis. The day that I first saw his body laid out in St. Peter’s Basilica was a tremendous shock. I felt that I had lost my North Star and my sense of direction was lost completely. Then, I remembered our deceased Holy Father’s own words delivered just days earlier on Easter Sunday:

The resurrection of Jesus is indeed the basis of our hope. For in the light of this event, hope is no longer an illusion. Thanks to Christ — crucified and risen from the dead — hope does not disappoint! Spes non confundit! (cf. Rom 5:5). That hope is not an evasion, but a challenge; it does not delude, but empowers us.

Hope became my dominant emotion, not eliminating my sense of grief, but placing it in its proper context. “Thanks to Christ,” Pope Francis reminded us, “hope does not disappoint.” Because of our Redeemer’s death and resurrection, hope is a challenge that we can accept with confidence in the grace of the Holy Spirit.

This confidence allowed me to overcome my fears and to fulfill my sacred responsibility as a Cardinal Elector with a strong conviction that the Holy Spirit is guiding our Church, helping us to discern God’s will for the present and future.

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