All-night prayer vigil for conclave held on Denver campus

Denver, Colo., Apr 18, 2005 / 22:00 pm

Throughout Sunday night and into Monday, a group of students and religious gathered on the Auraria Campus in downtown Denver to pray for the 115 cardinals who would soon convene to elect the 265^th leader of the Catholic Church.

Susanna Nieto, a campus minister with the Auraria Campus Catholic Club, which serves three universities in the immediate area, said that, “The Vigil is being offered for the Election of the New Pope and to increase our love to the Church.”

A number of students and others flowed in and out of St. Elizabeth of Hungary Church throughout the night where perpetual adoration was available and the group prayed for each cardinal by name every hour.

“During the night”, Nieto told CNA,  “we’ve had people from the area who came to pray and during this morning we had students coming before and after class. We had people who stayed the whole night praying.” 

“This is an Ecclesial experience”, she said, “that is going to be a very important part in the history of the world and in the life of each person and in a special way, the youth and young adults who just knew one Pope during their whole life.”

The Auraria Campus Catholic Club and the Christian Life Movement, an international religious community founded in Peru, sponsored the night, which led up to the cardinal’s Monday entrance into the conclave.

Today, following a second puff of black smoke this morning, signaling no decision having been reached, the world still watches and prays in anticipation of the Church’s new shepherd.