John Paul had a name that easily lent itself to chants suchas "John Paul Two - We Love You!" It's much harder with Benedict XVI.
But I think I have one &mdash "Sweet Sixteen". Ok, so there is some risk of sound effeminate, but I think it works.
Current Events: April 2005 Archives
Benedict prayed not to become pope during conclave
This should refute those dimwits who thought he "campaigned" for Pope (in particular by giving that no-holds-barred homily to the Cardinals). Some have argued that that might have been an attempt to evade the papacy by alienating moderates.
Pat Buchanan on dissidents' reaction to Pope Benedict.
When Benedict was asked whether the Vatican wouold operate better in Germany, he responded, "What a disaster! The church would be too organized. The saints were people of creativity, not bureaucratic functionaries."
There was a sad, even pathetic (in the authentic sense, I'm not sniping) quote in a New York Times article about the pope:
"As soon as I heard the name, I had a letdown, sinking feeling that this man is not going to be good for the church," said Eileen, a 53-year-old Catholic from Boston. She said she was afraid to give her last name because she was active in her parish and did not want to cause any problems for her priest, or jeopardize her daughter's imminent church wedding.
It sounds as if she thinks the papal mafia will execute strict retribution on her for saying negative things about the pope. Can you imagine that she thinks her priest and her daughter may get in trouble for her comments? What kind of image does she have of the hierarchy? How sadly misinformed! How full of fear she is! Simply amazing.
On the good side of things was this quote:
A few steps away, the Rev. M. Price Oswalt, a priest who serves two parishes in Oklahoma City, was exultant about the cardinals' choice."He'll correct the lackadaisical attitudes that have been able to creep into the lives of Catholics," he said. "He's going to have a German mentality of leadership: either get on the train or get off the track. He will not put up with rebellious children."
I've heard this from others — that Benedict would rather see a much smaller church that is more faithful than a larger one that's perfidious. While I am always one in favor of mercy and longsuffering, I do think that those who do not agree with much of what the church teaches and either have carefully studied it or steadfastly refuse to be bothered to study it should leave the church. I remember when I first became aware that positions I held were incompatible with what Catholics were required to believe. I knew I needed to study up on those issues and either modify my beliefs and stay, or formally leave the church. Thanks be to God, I studied my way back into the church. Heck, that could be the solution to the vocations crisis: Drive out the dross, leaving much smaller parishes.
VATICAN CITY (AP) Pope Benedict XVI confirmed Cardinal Angelo Sodano in the Vatican’s No. 2 post Thursday and kept all other top officials, avoiding any immediate shakeup in the late John Paul II’s administration.
Here is the homily of the new Holy Father, delivered to the cardinals this
morning (4/20) at his first Mass after becoming Pope:
Continue reading Pope's First Homily.
The media is reporting a number of assertions that Cardinal Ratzinger made that may come back to haunt Benedict XVI in his ecumenical and interfaith efforts.
He made comments opposing European Union membership for Turkey because they have a seperate culture from Christian Europe (well, at least a seperate heritage).
He described Hindu meditative practices as 'auto-erotic' and has stated that the Hindu doctrine of karma is 'morally cruel'. (Seems to me both karma and purgatory involve suffering inflicted on account of sins committed, so I'm not sure why one is cruel and one is a matter of faith.)
He also said some things about other churches in Dominus Iesus that, while true, will pose some ecumenical difficulty.
The man who was probably the most published cardinal may have to atone for rash statements. You can be guaranteed that everything he wrote will be carefully scrutinized by the world at large!
"The new pope knows that his task is to make the light of Christ shine before men and women of world — not his own light, but that of Christ."
—Pope Benedict, at his first papal Mass
I find myself studying the juxtaposition of the first photo of Benedict and his name to try to reprogram my mind so I no longer think of his face as "Cardinal Ratzinger" but "pope-ify" him in my mind. It's hard to do as I was fairly familar with him as Cardinal Ratzinger. So I'm doing my best to erase that association and think of him as Pope Benedict XVI.
"There was similar elation at Benedictine College, where a student in professor Ted Sri's theology class raised his hand and reported receiving a text message from a friend about the new pope. At that, class was dismissed; students gathered outside, waving Vatican flags."
Apparently there is a fan site for the former Cardinal Ratzinger, www.ratzingerfanclub.com. Not surprisingly you get a "temporarily unavailable" error (capacity problems is one cause cited) when you go there.
I have to laugh. Imagine these folks a month ago. Ratzinger was a rather obscure Vatican functionary known only to the really devout and theologically-minded, and they decided to start a fan club for him. Then he becomes Pope! Whamo! Instant notoreity! And instant webserver capacity problems ... and fulfillment problems ... yes, it is duly amusing.
After an interminable two hour delay, they updated the Vatican website with the info on Benedict XVI, including his Urbi et Orbi (brief though it was). That was impressive.
This does seem to be a humble man, which is good, 'cuz he'll need it.
I suppose I should be elated that an institution that thinks in terms of centuries took only two hours to update their website! It will likely take a while before they announce the ballot results and the new Pope on the website itself. :-)
Maybe I can provoke someone to comment by discussing Cardinal Law.
I think people are making a big deal over nothing. Something happened to fall within the scope of his responsibilities and he carried them out. It was not an honor, it doesn't endorse what he did. He said a Mass in his church. Big freakin' deal.
Someone wrote me a question on a website about Cardinal Law. Here is part of the exchange:
Interesting site. I may find answers to questions here, like, why is Cardinal Law still so rooted in the church, as to be voting for a new Pope, when he was the center of such a great sex scandal? How do I explain him to my non Catholic friends?
Being a cardinal (and hence being able to vote for the pope) is a privilege that virtually cannot be revoked. There is no provision to "unappoint" a bishop a cardinal. It would be like stripping a former president of his privileges. It just isn't done.
One question that is useful to ask is whether Cardinal Law was just a negligent manager or whether he was malicious in what he did. In other words, was he evil or just weak? The church makes a huge distinction between those who are intentionally evil and those who are merely weak or incompetenent. However strongly you feel about Cardinal Law, he is not an evil person. He does not deserve to be totally stripped of his priesthood and cast out into the streets without a pension, which is about the only way he could be stripped of his right to elect the pope. Remember, the Pope didn't even want to accept his resignation and only did so at Cardinal Law's insistence. Without a pope to make a decision concerning him, there is no way that Cardinal Law could be stripped of any rights.
There are already miracles being reported involving John Paul's intercession.
I've always found it wholly fascinating that the Catholic Church is the only religion I know of that makes an incontroveritible supernatural event like a miracle a prerequisite for a routine process. Think of all of the modern-day saints, and they all required two strictly-verified miracles to reach their sainthood. I just think that's very cool. We not only believe in miracles, we not only expect them, but we require them! So there, you atheist doubters.
Someone asked Fr. George Rutler what he thought about the media's lament, "If only the pope granted more rights to homosexuals ... if only the pope supported birth control ... if only the pope approved ordination of women." His reply was, if only he had done that, no one would be covering his funeral!
Fr. Francis Mary on EWTN says that even Al Jazeera, the Arabic/Muslim satellite channel, broadcast the funeral! Wow!
He also claimed that two billion people watched the funeral on television (I mean in general, not on Al Jazeera!). If true, that's amazing.
I am watching the funeral and the announcer reports that there are signs in the audience asking that the Holy Father be canonized now. God bless 'em!
Cardinal Ratzinger in his audience did not refer to him as John Paul the Great. I expect they are leaving that for the next pope to declare.
Reading a summary of the funeral, I noted a part that says "Leaders of the Eastern rite Catholic churches based in the Middle East move to the coffin to pray and incense it and then return to their places." This would likely be Melkite, though it could be Maronite or a combination of both (I go to a Melkite church). I am glad to see the Eastern rites involved in the funeral.
I'm trying to decide whether to get up for the funeral. I am very much inclined to do so, though I'd have to watch it on my laptop over IP (and hope it's on EWTN).
They are talking about his funeral being the biggest funeral in history.
Fr. Rob Johansen has information on a woman in Georgia, Mae Margourik, who is being starved and dehydrated to death by her granddaughter, despite her express wishes (in writing!) that she not be deprived of food and water!
The culture of death becomes bolder with each new success...
Here is an icon of John Paul I've ordered. Yeah weird icons for every dead activist for any liberal cause but I give them credit for doing Pope John Paul given how he'd probably frown upon much of their work.
I suppose I'm not doing much to sell this icon grin but hey, they have a good thing that no one else has that's highly desirable. Hold yer nose and go for it!
"Rome can't take any more."
&mdash Guido Bertolaso, the special commissioner appointed by the Italian government to take charge of arrangements during the period between the pope's death and the election of his successor.
It is said that one million people have descended. The population of Rome is 2,640,000, which means the population has temporarily surged by almost 50%.
I wonder what other single events have drawn more than 1 million people to one place. (Not sure if I'd count the Olympics, which is really multiple events in the same vicinity, but that might be an interesting comparison nonetheless.)
UPDATE:
I saw an article saying that two million Poles alone are converging on Rome for the funeral. Another article said that four million have visited Rome since his death.
I wonder how many megabytes all the Holy Father's writings would take up if they were in text or HTML format.
Here is a list of people I've heard of so far who either want to attend or plan to attend the Pope's funeral:
Ted Kennedy (!)
John Kerry
Senator Dodd from CT
Condoleezza Rice
Charles, Prince of Wales
George W. Bush
George H. W. Bush
Bill Clinton
President of Syria
President of Iran
Ali Agca, who shot the pope (permission denied)
(I may update this post as I discover interesting people)
Quote from Archbishop Piero Marini, referring to the new custom introduced by John Paul of ringing bells in addition to white smoke when the pope is elected: "This time we plan to ring the bells to make the election of the pope clearer. This way even journalists will know."
I love his judgment of Papal Infallibility as "novel" and attribution of it to Pius IX's paranoia. Obviously not a student of Christian history.
I hope we have an ultra-conservative pope that makes him pine for John Paul II, who, truth be told, was rather liberal (I don't mean that in a derogatory sense, I mean it in an authentic sense).
Poor Mr. Cahill. He must have OD'd on all the affection being poured out in the media on John Paul the Great. I have news for you sir: He's greater than you'll ever be. And he's got a lot brighter future.
Apparently they did not embalm the Pope before laying him out in state. I find this curious. I hear he lies in state 20 hours a day, for what, five days? And no apparent refrigeration. I really wonder what they have in mind. Perhaps they want to prove that his body is incorrupt. I fully believe his body will be incorrupt but even bodies classified as incorrupt can look pretty ugly. I figure it is best to embalm him and prevent any danger, and make sure he looks his best. And embalming doesn't prevent you from determining that someone is incorrupt, although admittedly it's fairly incontrovertible if, after not being embalmed, someone turns up incorrupt. I guess we'll see what happens.
This brings up a related question: Relics. How do they plan to obtain relics? You know we've got to have some. I heard someone say once that when St. Thomas Aquinas died, they "boiled him down for relics". Sounds pretty gross to me, sounds like you're making soup. (Of course, the whole concept of relics is somewhat gross, I admit ...) I guess the best deal would probably be to cut off his legs and use those for relics.
'...In his last hours, the pontiff lay in bed in a tangle of medical tubes and probes. Dziwisz did not leave his side and held the pope's hand, which he occasionally caressed slowly. ...pope raised his right hand as if to offer a blessing to those reciting the rosary in the square. "Once the faithfuls' prayer ended the pope made a huge effort and pronounced the word 'Amen,'". "An instant later he died."'
This is a very touching account of his final hours.
I'm watching EWTN and the bishop of Springfield, Most Rev. Timothy McDonnell, made the comment that John Paul has been seen by more people than any other person in the history of the world. What a distinction!
Ironically, I received my John Paul II Congressional Medal from the U.S. Mint the day he died. This is the 3" one; I got a bunch of 1 1/2" ones, which are a fourth the size but a tenth of the price, to give as gifts. What a fitting way to honor this wonderful pope.
Go here for background information on the medal.
How difficult it will be for the next pope to be preceded by this providential, peripatetic polyglot Pope! Who speaks as many languages as John Paul? Who has the political astuteness? The ideal combination of a gentle manner with the firmness of a shepherd. A man who defeated Communism. The greatest Pope since God-knows-when. Man, if I were a Cardinal I'd be shaking in my boots (unless I were an American cardinal). I'm tempted to say that the next pope will be a letdown but that would be somewhat unfair to that pope. In any case I feel bad for the incoming pope and all the challenges and expectations he's going to face. John Paul the Great, pray for him!
This is definitely going to be somewhat weird to me since I am one of those young'uns (relatively speaking) who has, effectively, never known any other pope. I was eight years old when he was elected. And it wasn't until much later that I really practiced my faith. It's strange to think that there will be another Pope. The uncertainty is a bit unsettling. But I trust in God.
An excellent summary of what happens next with the whole election process.
I think we have come to the end of the life of John Paul the Great (soon to be St. John Paul the Great). I just read a news article that confirmed my contention, and that is, that by refusing to be hospitalized in such a grave condition, the Pope is indicating that he is ready to die.
Here is a telling quote from the AP: ``The chances of an elderly person in this condition with septic shock surviving 24 to 48 hours are slim - about 10-20 percent, but that would be in an intensive care unit with very aggressive treatment,'' said Dr. Gianni Angelini, a professor of cardiac surgery at Bristol University in England.
The language the Vatican has been using has been very — not sure how to put this &mdash grave and weighty. He's described as "lucid" and "serene", terms you'd typically use of someone who is dying.
Well, he's had a long and full pontificate. I will be sad at his passing, but I accept the timing &mdash it is time. Talk about a portrait of a peaceful death.
Wouldn't it be appropriate if he died on Mercy Sunday?
Long live Pope John Paul the Great!
