The Conclave - and what we're doing before and after the election

Conclave of cardinals in the Sistine Chapel

On Tuesday afternoon, March 12, 2013, the cardinals will begin their deliberations in the conclave. Each day, the cardinals will vote twice in the morning and twice in the afternoon until they've selected a new Holy Father for our Church.

One of the most important things that we can do is to pray for our cardinals and for our Church. The cardinals will pray the following Mass Prayer tomorrow morning. It is a beautiful prayer that we can all pray.

O God, eternal shepherd,

who govern your flock with unfailing care,

grant in your boundless fatherly love

a Pastor and Successor to Peter for your Church

who will please you by his holiness

and to us show watchful care.

Through Christ our Lord.

Once a successor has been chosen ... the famous white smoke ..., Deacon Dwayne Joubert will be mobilizing our parish youth group. They'll be decorating the church grounds with hundreds of papal colored white and yellow flag pennants. Yellow and white bunting will also decorate all of the doors of the church.

Also, on the day that our new Pope is elected, we will celebrate with a Mass of Thanksgiving at 6 PM at St. Landry Catholic Church. We'll send a blog posting out and update the website when that happens. 

Stoves used to burn ballots and generate white or black smoke.