Cardinal Raniero Cantalamessa, OFM Cap, the preacher of the papal household since 1980, preached on Christ’s words, “I am the bread of life,” in his first Lenten sermon to the Roman Curia.
The overarching theme of Cardinal Cantalamessa’s 2024 Lenten sermons is “But who do you say that I am?” (Matthew 16:15). In each Friday sermon, the prelate will preach on a different “I am” statement made by Christ.
Cardinal Cantalamessa customarily preaches sermons to the Pope and members of the Roman Curia on Fridays during Advent and Lent, as well as the Good Friday homily in St. Peter’s Basilica. On Friday of the First Week of Lent in 2020, however, Father Marko Rupnik substituted for Cantalamessa, even though judges in a canonical proceeding, just two months earlier, had unanimously found Rupnik guilty of absolving an accomplice in a sin against the Sixth Commandment.