The Mass of the Rings

Good morning, insomniacs. I'm blogging to you, once again, from the roof of the Bernini colonnade that encircles St. Peter's Square. Today, on the Catholic calendar, is the Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord, and just below me Pope Benedict XVI is saying the Mass of the Rings, which is being concelebrated by the 15 new cardinals, including Archbishop O'Malley of Boston.

Today dawned sunny, at last (this is the first day I've had to wear a hat since I've been here), but it is now clouding over again. There are some tens of thousands of people in the piazza, considerably more than yesterday, many of them groups of well-wishers from the dioceses whose bishops became cardinals yesterday. Some are holding congratulatory banners aloft.

Most of the cardinals here are dressed in their familiar red robes, but the new cardinals are in white and gold vestments because they are saying the Mass with the pope. They were seated in two special rows of chairs, just below and on either side of the pope. Right now they are standing around the altar, consecrating the Eucharist, with the pope, in Latin.

A few minutes ago, each new cardinal, one at a time, approached the pope, who was seated in a white throne under a tapestry at the base of the facade of St. Peter's Basilica. As they knelt before him, he gave them each a cardinals' ring, which is supposed to be "the sign of dignity, pastoral care, and the most solid communion with the See of Peter,'' according to the Vatican. At the end, they bowed together toward the pope.