Mahony Heads for Rome to Join Fellow Cardinals

As he prepared to fly to Rome to probably attend the funeral of the current pope and help elect a new one, Cardinal Roger M. Mahony of Los Angeles asked for spiritual help to get through the momentous events ahead.

“I ask all the people in Southern California to pray for all the cardinals -- that we listen wisely to God’s voice, the Holy Spirit, and that we choose wisely the next shepherd of the universal church,” Mahony told reporters Friday night at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels.

Mahony had celebrated special Masses at noon and 5 p.m. for the pope before heading to LAX and a night flight to London and then Rome.

As with many of the other cardinals likely to soon be choosing a successor to John Paul II, this would be Mahony’s first participation in such a conclave. He described himself as being “very excited but also nervous.”

Mahony, whose diocese includes an estimated 5 million Roman Catholics in Los Angeles, Ventura and Santa Barbara counties, said the pope had been given a “very special grace” to know that death was near.

“We hear so often about people who are killed instantly ... and have no time to prepare for the greatest moment of our lives -- passing from this life into eternal life,” Mahony said.

In Rome, he and other cardinals from around the world will be asked to set dates for nine funeral Masses, Mahony said. He said the pope’s burial should take place between the fourth and sixth day after his death. For two or three days after that, the cardinals will talk and pray about the state of the church before going into the secret conclave to choose the next pope. Only the Holy Spirit knows how that will unfold, he said, declining to speculate on candidates.

Recalling the pope’s 1987 visit to Los Angeles, the cardinal said the pontiff had a “special place in his heart” for the city because he had experienced its rich diversity as the popemobile drove through different neighborhoods.

The cardinal also said he loved the pope’s down-to-earth side. Mahony said he had found John Paul, while the pope was staying at St. Vibiana’s Cathedral that time, with his secretary in the kitchen, lifting pot lids to taste soup. “That really relays the humanness and genuineness of this man,” he said.