In the barque of Christ

.. we hear St. Peter speaking, not as flesh and blood reveals, but as God reveals, as with this gem of a Petrine utterance:

"I always knew that the Lord is in the barque, that the barque of the Church is not mine, not ours, but His - and He shall not let her sink. It is He, who steers her: to be sure, he does so also through men of His choosing, for He desired that it be so."

In these days when the episcopal See of St. Peter is vacant, are we in the same boat as the Orthodox, or the Protestants? No, I do not think so. For we expect the resumption of the norm established by the Apostles. We do not take this situation as normal, to have no pope. And even so, we had popes, the most recent one still alive at that, and his pastoring does not disappear with his abdication, nor that of his predecessors. It is a moment of silence when he utters nothing for the meantime. For now, Peter rests. When the time comes, he will rise up again, to teach again with the keys of the kingdom; to strengthen his brother bishops; and feed the flock in the Petrine way.