“The whole Church is in Conclave. I invite everyone to unanimous prayer since it is the whole Church that participates in the Conclave”, said the bishop of Cordoba, Juan J. Asenjo Pelegrina, who has urged the need to “pray for the Lord to grant us soon a Pope as holy as John Paul II”. According to the bishop of the Andalusian city, “we need to entrust ourselves to God to have a new Pope who may govern his people with wisdom and lead them along the paths of holiness and righteousness”. The bishop has also asked the faithful of his diocese to prepare “their heart to welcome the universal Pastor that the Lord shall be pleased to place at the head of his family” on earth. Bishop Peregrina, former general secretary of the Spanish episcopate, is convinced that “the Lord will support the newly elected pope and grant him the strength not to waver under the burden of his ministry. It is God who gives him to us”. Meanwhile, the diocesan administrator, Rafael Higueras Ãlamo, has urged priests to organize reflections, seminars, colloquia and round tables to present aspects of ecclesiology such as the Universal Church, the primacy of the Roman Pontiff or the procedures for papal election. According to Higueras, “at a time when secularism and secularisation are gaining ground we need to foster a sound and pure love for the Church”.
