Papa's Post: This Cross is Mine*

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A CROSS is being made for me;
The whole world over it is known
That he who bears the Primacy
Of Peter must carry it alone.

My own Commission cannot be
A Simon of Cyrene. It's shown
By their split theology
This crushing weight is all my own.
"But cannot 'collegiality'
Make this chalice pass away?"

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at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

No, a seeming majority
Echoes the world's communique;
"We have no king but science. We
Have no god but reason! Give
Us this forbidden fruit. Free
Us from the law that we may live!"

"As man sees fit? What treachery!"

Yes, the same old Serpent weaves
The same old lies on the same old tree---
Temptation of the Modern Eves.

"A worried world is at a loss,
You abdicate? What shall we do?"

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Have faith; how can I shirk this cross?
Renewal, yes; treachery, NO!

"Can you hear them?"
                             "What is faith!
Crucify him! 'No' is his word!"

I hear them; but, while I still breathe,
I am the Vicar of the Lord
         Not man's will, my God, but Thine!
         Let me embrace this cross, it's mine.

*Poem for the cover photo of Pope Paul VI,

The Rainbow, August 1968