Next Sunday, on the eve of the Conclave that will open on Monday 18 April, all the parishes of Paris will pray for “the cardinals to be open to the action of the Holy Spirit and for all the members of the Church to prepare to welcome the new pope with trust. He will be the one whom God has chosen to lead His Church”. The appeal for prayers on behalf of the Conclave was personally made by the new archbishop of the city, Msgr. André Vingt-Trois, in a message to the diocese, which has promoted two prayers vigils on Sunday 17 April both for this intention and for the other intentions of the Sunday mass. The first will be held until one o’clock at night in the cathedral of Notre-Dame after a mass celebrated by the archbishop, the second in the Basilica of the Sacre Coeur, beginning at 8.30 pm with an adoration that will continue to midnight. “The death of the pope and the celebration of his funeral writes Archbishop Vingt-Trois in his letter to the diocese were moments of intense communion for our Church and for the world. We must keep alive this communion in the faith once the new pontificate begins”.
