POPE COMPLETES RECONFIGURATION OF ST. MARY MAJOR BASILICA
A comment by Robert Royal about Pope Francis’ just-released autobiography, “Life. My Story within History,” notes that, “About the end of his own papacy, Francis leaves us in no doubt. If his health were to make his continuing untenable: “I would not have myself named pope emeritus but simply bishop of Rome emeritus, and I would move to the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore to serve as confessor and give communion to the sick. But this is, I repeat, a distant possibility, because I truly do not have any cause serious enough to make me think of resigning. . . .Thanks be to God, I enjoy good health, and as I have said, there are many projects to bring to fruition, God willing.”
A number of papal documents about Francis’ beloved St. Mary Major basilica, home to the Marian icon Salus populi romani, were released today and it looks like the Holy Father, should he retire there some day, will have the basilica he desires.
According to an early report today in Italian, Vatican news said, “with a chirograph, Francis approves the new Statute and the new Regulations for the Chapter of the Liberian Basilica and gives the Lithuanian Archbishop Makrickas all the faculties for the application of the new legislation. The Pontiff “frees” the canons from every economic and administrative task and always entrusts Makrickas with legal representation, acts of ordinary and extraordinary administration, and various other tasks until the establishment of a new Board of Directors.
With a new coadjutor archpriest, the Lithuanian archbishop Rolandas Makrickas; the canons are freed “from all economic and administrative duties” to dedicate themselves only to the spiritual and pastoral accompaniment of the faithful; a new Statute and a new Regulation of the Chapter which provide, among other things, the establishment of a Board of Directors and the creation of new figures such as the Delegate for Administration and the Delegate for Pastoral Care, as the first collaborator of the Archpriest for the activity of the Canons and the Basilica.
Thus, notes the Vatican story, Pope Francis completes the reconfiguration of Santa Maria Maggiore, the Basilica he visited more than a hundred times and to which he is linked by a strong affection, so much so that he has expressed the desire to be buried there one day.
The current archpriest, named by Francis to the basilica in 2016, is Polish Cardinal Stanislaw Rylko.
St. Mary Major website: Chapter (basilicasantamariamaggiore.va)
Here’s another link: Pope changes statutes of St. Mary Major, focuses canons on spiritual duties – Vatican News
Joan's Rome 