Ad multos annos (pleaseohplease!)

Hey, remember "Ratzenfreude"? Defined as "The expression of joy about others's dismay about the election of Pope Benedict XVI."


It has been a couple of days since his birthday, and I forgot to put a note up about it.

But today, for the rest of the world, is a somewhat more significant anniversary.

Six years ago today, we were all sitting clustered around the TV up in the top of the house in Toronto, waiting to hear the name.

Down in the square, a bunch of people who were destined to become some close friends of mine were waiting with equal anticipation.

Then, "WHITE SMOKE!!"

and the name?

"Josephum...."

...and the crowd went wild. Our neighbour Taylor, accustomed to thinking of the uber-Catholics next door as a fairly quiet lot (at least before 8 pm), must have thought we'd gone mad... cheering and yelling and laughing...

This post from this blog's previous incarnation, of April 26, 2005 amuses me now as it did then:

I suggested that we will shortly be in a crisis situation in which people are going to stop being afraid of him altogether! We have to move on to phase II and just plainly start making stuff up. I suggested that we put it about that he likes cats because he needs something to feed to his rottweiler, thus in one go, dispelling the cuddly cat-lover image and reminding people of the rottweiler connection. Too much of this huggy "God's German Shepherd business..."

Warren didn't send this one out the whole Dogans list, so I felt obliged to share his contribution to the papal chants.

"Perhaps it would be better to refer to His Holiness as "Benito XVI", instead of the "Benedetto" the Vatican insists on using. We might also encourage trads in the loop to shout "Benito, Benito!" whenever he comes in view.

And, to go into cheerleading routines, uttering such approving slogans as,

'Mussolini, what a weenie! Benito, Benito, sweet sixteen!'

Here is the interesting bit from an article by Peggy Noonan that I've remembered since then:

The new pope speaks to the inner adult in all of us...Did you see them running to St. Peter's Square as the bells began to toll?

They came running in from the offices and streets of Rome, running in their business suits, in jeans with backpacks over their shoulders. The networks kept showing it in their wide shots as they filled time between the ringing of the bells and the balcony scene.
Why did they gather? Why did they have to hear?

The faith is dead in Europe, everyone knows that. So why did they come?

why did so many weep as the new pope came out? Why did they chant "Benedict, Benedict" as he stood at the balcony? Why were they jubilant?

Another one of mine from the day after, April 20, 2005:

Woke up to listen to the CBC moaning about what a bad sign it is that his first homily was given entirely in Lain. I did a victory dance and started the day with a big smile, exactly the way I ended the day yesterday.

As for the CBC, I am surprised it took them until 10 am to get hold of Joanna Manning. "It's the end of the line for people like me..."

Te Deum Laudamus!!!

I know that in fact, he is nothing like the martinet they have built him up to be. We had, after all, 24 years of him in the CDF and not one excommunication for heresy, nothing but gentle little slaps on the wrist for the ones who really refused to stop denying the Divinity of Christ and on and on. But I think that even the perception of 'rigid conservatism' is going to work wonders.

The commies and feminists immediately started braying they would give up their 40 year fight. I hardly dare to hope that after their revolution and their oppressive 4 decade long occupation that we would so easily have achieved liberation from their regime in one moment. But if the reputation of being the big bad bogey man that they themselves have created is enough to have them running scared into the hills, who am I to criticize. Demoralization is an important weapon in war, even if the propaganda is patently false. It helps immensely if the propaganda has been promoted by the enemy. I'll take it. If it looks like it will scare them away and help Catholics get their Church back, I will be happy to perpetuate the myth of the PanzerKardinal...

[...]


My only worry is that they are going to remember that all their fears about him are ones they themselves invented and try to muscle back in before we have changed the locks.

Share your own memories below.



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