VATICAN CITY (CNS) ─ The nightly recitation of the rosary for Pope Francis and for all the sick "is a beautiful gesture" of affection and of faith, said Cardinal Leonardo Sandri.
"Anyone can come. Praying together is a sign of ecclesiality, of being church," said the Argentine cardinal, who is the retired prefect of the Dicastery for Eastern Churches.
"Our Lord himself said, 'Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them,'" the cardinal told Catholic News Service March 4, after hundreds of people had gathered to pray the rosary for Pope Francis at 9 p.m. each night for more than a week.
Twenty years ago, the Argentine cardinal, then-substitute for general affairs in the Vatican Secretariat of State, was leading prayers in St. Peter's Square for the ailing Pope John Paul II, who left Rome's Gemelli hospital March 13, 2005, for the last time.
Cardinal Sandri was delegated at the time to lead the recitation of the Angelus prayer at midday on Sundays and to read the texts Pope John Paul had prepared for the occasion while he was hospitalized and once he returned to the Vatican.
The Polish pope died April 2, 2005, as Cardinal Sandri was leading the rosary with tens of thousands of people who started flocking to St. Peter's Square a few days earlier when it was clear Pope John Paul was dying.
At the time, the cardinal said, the Vatican Secretariat of State organized the prayer on the steps of St. Peter's Basilica. Now, with Pope Francis hospitalized, the nightly prayer is being organized by the secretariat and the Vicariate for Vatican City State.
While Pope Francis' doctors have said their prognosis is "guarded," they had told reporters Feb. 21 that he was not in imminent danger of death. They did say, however, that they expected his condition to have ups and downs as he tried to recover from double pneumonia.
The 88-year-old pope has been in the Gemelli hospital since Feb. 14 when bronchitis led to serious breathing difficulties.
In addition to the pneumonia, they said, the pope has two chronic lung conditions -- bronchiectasis and asthmatic bronchitis -- caused by years of respiratory problems and repeated bouts of bronchitis. The pope had undergone surgery in 1957 to remove part of his right lung after suffering a severe respiratory infection.
Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican secretary of state, led the first public rosary for Pope Francis Feb. 24.
He introduced the prayer by telling those gathered, "The Acts of the Apostles recounts that the church prayed intensely while Peter in prison. For 2,000 years the Christian people have prayed for the pope when he was in danger or infirm."
"So, too, in these days when our Holy Father, Francis, has been hospitalized at Gemelli hospital an intense prayer is being raised for him to the Lord by individual faithful and Christian communities around the world," the cardinal said.
Those gathered in St. Peter's Square, he said, entrust the pope to "the powerful intercession of Mary" and pray that "she who is our caring mother would sustain him in this time of illness and trial and help him to recover his health soon."
