Pope Francis taps Minnesota farm boy to lead Sioux Falls diocese

Cardinal Michael Czerny is the prefect of the Vatican Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development. / Credit: Pablo Esparza/CNA

CNA Newsroom, Feb 10, 2025 / 09:30 am (CNA).
A prominent Vatican cardinal said on Monday that people are being… […]

Altar of the Chair in St. Peter’s Basilica, where Bernini’s gorgeous bronze monument to the Chair of Peter acts as a massive
bronze reliquary for the historic wooden chair. / Credit: Vatican Media

Vatican City, Feb 22, 2025 / 11:00 am (CNA).

Every year on Feb. 22, the Catholic Church celebrates the feast of the Chair of St. Peter, a tradition that dates back more than 1,600 years.

The feast honors not just a physical chair but what it represents: the authority of St. Peter, the first pope, and the unbroken line of his successors.

References to the “Chair of Peter” date back to the early centuries of Christianity. St. Jerome, a biblical scholar of the fourth century, wrote in a letter: “I follow no leader save Christ, so I enter into communion with … the Chair of Peter, for this I know is the rock upon which the Church is built.”

The feast itself has been celebrated on Feb. 22 since at least A.D. 336, according to Monsignor Tiziano Ghirelli, a canon of St. Peter’s Basilica. By the fifth century, its importance had grown, with the imperial family participating in celebrations at the old St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome in 450 and 467.

The word “cathedra” refers to the seat of the bishop, which is why the mother church of a diocese is known as a cathedral. The bishop of Rome, as Peter’s successor, holds a unique role in guiding the Church.

Pope Benedict XVI explained in a 2006 catechesis that the Chair of Peter “is the symbol of the bishop’s authority and in particular, of his ‘magisterium,’ that is, the evangelical teaching which, as a successor of the apostles, he is called to safeguard and to transmit to the Christian community.”

The phrase “ex cathedra” — Latin for “from the chair” — is still used to describe the pope’s most authoritative teachings.

“Celebrating the ‘chair’ of Peter means attributing a strong spiritual significance to it and recognizing it as a privileged sign of the love of God, the eternal Good Shepherd, who wanted to gather his whole Church and lead her on the path of salvation,” Benedict said.

Yes, there is actually a chair relic kept in St. Peter’s Basilica

In addition to the symbolic meaning, there is also a physical relic known as the Chair of St. Peter housed in St. Peter’s Basilica.

The wooden chair, dating back to the ninth century, was displayed for public veneration last fall amid the restoration efforts underway in the basilica.

Prior to that, the chair was last publicly exhibited in 1867, when Pope Pius IX allowed it to be seen for 12 days to mark the 1,800th anniversary of the martyrdom of Peter and Paul. Before that, the chair had not been seen since 1666 when it was first encased inside Gian Lorenzo Bernini’s monumental bronze sculpture under the stained-glass Dove of the Holy Spirit window at the basilica’s apse.

Historical records indicate that the wooden chair was likely a gift from Holy Roman Emperor Charles the Bald to Pope John VIII in 875. It features ivory panels depicting scenes from Greek mythology, including the labors of Hercules.

During the Middle Ages, the popes were solemnly enthroned on the chair. Innocent III used the wooden chair for his consecration on Feb. 22, 1198. 

“Since the 11th century, the feast of Feb. 22 has been celebrated in Rome, and at the Vatican Basilica, with particular emphasis,” Ghirelli explained.

Bernini’s monument

In the 17th century, Pope Alexander VII commissioned Bernini to create an elaborate reliquary to house the chair. Bernini’s design, completed in 1666, features a gilded bronze throne elevated above the ground crowned by a stained-glass window depicting the Holy Spirit as a dove.

The structure is supported by statues of four doctors of the Church — two from the West, St. Augustine and St. Ambrose, and two from the East, St. John Chrysostom and St. Athanasius — symbolizing the unity of the Church through the ages, bringing together the teachings of both the Latin and Greek Church Fathers.

Above the throne, cherubs hold a papal tiara and keys, a reference to the authority given to Peter in the Gospel of Matthew: “You are Peter, and upon this rock, I will build my Church.”

Though the chair relic is once again enclosed within Bernini’s sculpture, visitors to St. Peter’s Basilica continue to pause before this symbol of the special mission of Peter and his successors to pray for the pope and his intentions.

“As we contemplate it with the wonder of faith,” Pope Francis said, “let us remember that this is the chair of love, unity, and mercy, according to Jesus’ command to the Apostle Peter not to lord it over others but to serve them in charity.”

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Pope Francis meets with the United States bishops at St. Matthew’s Cathedral in Washington, D.C., Sept. 23, 2015. / L’Osservatore Romano.

Rome Newsroom, Nov 28, 2022 / 08:01 am (CNA).

Pope Francis has emphasized the difference between bishops’ conferences and bishops in a new interview with America Magazine.

“The bishops’ conference is there to bring together the bishops, to work together, to discuss issues, to make pastoral plans. But each bishop is a pastor,” the pope said in a lengthy interview conducted at his Vatican home on Nov. 22 and published Nov. 28.

“Let us not dissolve the power of the bishop by reducing it to the power of the bishops’ conference.”

The conversation with the Jesuit publication covered a wide range of topics, including the role of bishops, racism, polarization, sexual abuse, the Vatican-China deal, and whether he has any regrets from his time as pope.

In the interview, Pope Francis was told about a 2021 America Magazine survey that found that Catholics in the United States consider the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops to be the least trustworthy out of the groups listed — 20% of U.S. Catholics surveyed found the USCCB to be “very trustworthy.”

Francis was asked: “How can the U.S. Catholic bishops regain the trust of American Catholics?”

“The question is good because it speaks about the bishops,” he responded. “But I think it is misleading to speak of the relationship between Catholics and the bishops’ conference. The bishops’ conference is not the pastor; the pastor is the bishop. So one runs the risk of diminishing the authority of the bishop when you look only to the bishops’ conference.”

“Jesus did not create bishops’ conferences,” he added. “Jesus created bishops, and each bishop is pastor of his people.”

Pope Francis said the emphasis should be on whether a bishop has a good relationship with his people, not on administration.

He gave the example of Bishop Mark Seitz of El Paso, Texas: “I do not know if he is conservative, or if he is progressive, if he is of the right or of the left, but he is a good pastor.”

In the U.S., the pope said, there are ‘some good bishops who are more on the right, some good bishops who are more on the left, but they are more bishops than ideologues; they are more pastors than ideologues. That is the key.”

“The grace of Jesus Christ is in the relationship between the bishop and his people, his diocese,” he said.

A bishops’ conference, instead, is an organization meant to “assist and unite.”

Pope Francis was also asked whether the USCCB should prioritize the fight against abortion over other issues.

To which he said: “this is a problem the bishops’ conference has to resolve within itself.”

The pope pointed out that the activity of a bishops’ conference is on the organizational level, and in history, conferences have at times gotten things wrong.

“In other words, let this be clear: A bishops’ conference has, ordinarily, to give its opinion on faith and traditions, but above all on diocesan administration and so on,” he said, again emphasizing the sacramental nature of the pastoral relationship of a bishop to his diocese and its people.

“And this cannot be delegated to the bishops’ conference,” he added. “The conference helps to organize meetings, and these are very important; but for a bishop, [being] pastor is most important.”

In the interview, Pope Francis also denounced polarization as “not Catholic,” and said the Catholic way of dealing with sin is “not puritanical” but puts saints and sinners together.

He also said in the U.S., where there is a Catholicism particular to that country, something he called “normal,” “you also have some ideological Catholic groups.”

On the topic of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church, Pope Francis was asked about the apparent lack of transparency when it comes to accusations against bishops, compared with the handling of accusations against priests.

The pope called for “equal transparency” going forward, adding that “if there is less transparency, it is a mistake.”

To a question about Black Catholics, Francis said he is “aware of their suffering, that he loves them very much, and that they should resist and not walk away” from the Catholic Church.

“Racism is an intolerable sin against God,” he added. “The Church, the pastors and laypeople must continue fighting to eradicate it and for a more just world.”

Asked if he has any regrets, or if he would change anything he has done in nearly 10 years as pope, Francis said in English, as he laughed, that he would change “all! All!”

“However, I did what the Holy Spirit was telling me I had to do. And when I did not do it, I made a mistake,” he added.

On his seeming constant joyfulness, the pope said he is not “always like that,” except when he is with people.

“I would not say that I am happy because I am healthy, or because I eat well, or because I sleep well, or because I pray a great deal,” he explained. “I am happy because I feel happy, God makes me happy. I don’t have anything to blame on the Lord, not even when bad things happen to me. Nothing.”

He said the Lord has guided him through both good and difficult moments, “but there is always the assurance that one does not walk alone.”

“One has one’s faults,” he said, “also one’s sins; I go to confession every 15 days — I do not know, that is just how I am.”

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