Novena of the Week: A Prayer for the Pope

The prayer I have chosen as the Novena of the Week this week may look familiar, because I featured it as the Novena of the Week back in April, in honor of Pope Benedict's 82nd birthday and the fourth anniversary of his election. This week, I have chosen A Prayer for the Pope for two (related) reasons: first, to celebrate the release today of Pope Benedict's third encyclical, Caritas in veritate. Papal encyclicals are often the subject of great debate, and that is all the more true of social encyclicals such as this one. Having looked over the text quickly this morning, I can see passages that are going to upset both "progressives" who hoped that the Holy Father would denounce capitalism (and not simply its excesses) and those "conservatives" who, for all intents and purposes, are actually economic materialists. In the wake of the encyclical's release, therefore, Pope Benedict could certainly use our prayers.

The second reason is that A Prayer for the Pope was written by Pope Leo XIII, whose Rerum novarum was the first of the great modern social encyclicals, in which tradition Caritas in veritate stands. In praying for our current Holy Father, we should keep in mind all those who have gone before, and thank God for providing us with faithful shepherds.