Interregnum Questions

A reader writes:

Don’t take this the wrong way, I am very sad at the passing of John Paul II. He was a great, great man and leader.

I was just wondering how we are to refer to the prayers for the Pope in the liturgy and for indulgences. Will the church still include, "for our pope John Paul, our bishop N", or will it be generic? Also, when obtaining a plenary indulgence, you must pray for the Holy Father’s intentions. Since JPII is most likely in heaven, do we pray for his intentions? Since he probably is one of the church’s biggest advocates (along with all the former Popes) in heaven.

Just wondering. I have never gone through this before (at least at the age of reason), and was wondering since we will be without a Pope for a couple weeks. Let’s all pray for his successor. He will have HUGE shoes to fill, but I imagine the Holy Spirit will help him out there…

Indeed.

Regarding the two questions you ask, the Sacramentary does not provide a specific option for what to do in an interregnum (period between the reign of two popes). There may be an obscure directive on the books somewhere, but I suspect most priests don’t know it. As a result, I imagine that most priests will either omit the prayer for the pope in Masses in the interregnum or decide on their own backward- or forward-pointing modification.

As far as indulgences, it is not clear to me that plenary indulgences (except the indulgence for the dying) are available in the interregnum since the gaining of one requires prayer for the pope’s intentions. With "the pope" being a null set at the moment, it seems that the matter is ambiguous. It might be that this requirement is in abeyance until there is a new pope, that praying of the the intentions of the former or the coming pope might suffice, or that it is simply not possible to fulfill this condition until the new pontificate. I don’t know of any settled answer on this matter.

Wish I could be of more help.

Author: Jimmy Akin

Jimmy was born in Texas, grew up nominally Protestant, but at age 20 experienced a profound conversion to Christ. Planning on becoming a Protestant seminary professor, he started an intensive study of the Bible. But the more he immersed himself in Scripture the more he found to support the Catholic faith, and in 1992 he entered the Catholic Church. His conversion story, "A Triumph and a Tragedy," is published in Surprised by Truth. Besides being an author, Jimmy is the Senior Apologist at Catholic Answers, a contributing editor to Catholic Answers Magazine, and a weekly guest on "Catholic Answers Live."

13 thoughts on “Interregnum Questions”

  1. IIRC, back in the 1978 (at the start of my senior year in high school, I can recall it vividly) when we went through this twice over three months, the references were simply omitted.

  2. Your comments raise another ambiguity that goes beyond the interregnum.
    What does it mean to pray for the “intention” of the Holy Father? Each year the Holy Father publishes a list of a specific general intention and a mission intention for each month. The next pope will certainly not revoke this list, but will simply await 2006 to make his own list. I have always assumed that when we prayed for the “intention of the Holy Father”, we were praying for whatever cause was on the list for that month.
    Or does “intention” mean to pray for the Holy Father himself?
    If it is the former, then we should be able to continue to seek indulgences during the interregnum (unless it extends beyond 2005.)

  3. Did it not used to be the case that (most?) indulgences were suspended during an interregnum? A friend mentioned this to me and it rang a bell from o so long ago.
    The Divine Mercy devotion, however, only relies in part on a plenary indulgence granted by the Pontiff; there are promises that are not dependant upon that indulgence. This has been noted over at EWTN.
    Btw, the USCCB has assembled liturgical materials for the interregnum here:
    http://www.nccbuscc.org/liturgy/index.shtml

  4. Btw, on CNN just now, the editor of Inside the Vatican just reported that he had an extended conversation with Cdl. Hussar en route to Rome, during which Hussar indicated that the college of cardinals has a deep concern about electing someone who is capable of uniting the church (especially the eastern churches) in a synodal manner, and that the cardinals apparently are openly discussing the idea of electing a bishop who is not among their number, thus opening up the candidacies of a few thousand.

  5. Btw, on CNN just now, the editor of Inside the Vatican just reported that he had an extended conversation with Cdl. Hussar en route to Rome, during which Hussar indicated that the college of cardinals has a deep concern about electing someone who is capable of uniting the church (especially the eastern churches) in a synodal manner, and that the cardinals apparently are openly discussing the idea of electing a bishop who is not among their number, thus opening up the candidacies of a few thousand.

    Huh. Are they allowed to be talking about stuff like this at this time, even amongst themselves, let alone on CNN??? Somehow I had the idea not.

  7. BTW, what do the priests of the Diocese of Rome usually pray at the “te igitur”? I guess they don’t say “our Pope John Paul and our Bishop John Paul”?

  8. “IIRC, back in the 1978 (at the start of my senior year in high school, I can recall it vividly) when we went through this twice over three months, the references were simply omitted.”
    That’s what we did at Mass today. Then after Mass we had additional prayers for the repose of his soul, and we tolled our church’s bells 27 times for each year of his reign, and then left the church in silence.

  9. Steven
    The Cdl did not appear on CNN; this was a report of a conversation with the Cardinal. The tenor of the discussion does not appear untoward; this is not violating the confidentiality of the conclave, nor pre-death politicking about a specific candidate. Conversation about general impressions of issues and attitudes of the cardinals has long been perfectly OK. And it there is no hint of disrespect towards the last pontificate, so I can’t even see this as anything unseemly. Our Church is not *that* rigorist.

  11. As far as indulgences, it is not clear to me that plenary indulgences (except the indulgence for the dying) are available in the interregnum since the gaining of one requires prayer for the pope’s intentions. With “the pope” being a null set at the moment, it seems that the matter is ambiguous. It might be that this requirement is in abeyance until there is a new pope, that praying of the the intentions of the former or the coming pope might suffice, or that it is simply not possible to fulfill this condition until the new pontificate. I don’t know of any settled answer on this matter.
    What does it mean to pray for the Pope’s intentions? Under the old rules for indulgences, there was a certain set of intentions that were designated as the Pope’s intentions (for example, “the trimuph of the Holy Church” — this may not be a true example but it will serve). These were the “intentions of the Pope.” Now it seems that the Pope’s intentions change from month to month. Are these the intentions for which we are to pray in order to receive a plenary indulgence? Or is there still some static “set” of indulgences for which we pray?

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