'"Theological Woodstock"

Heh. That's a good one.

He did?! Cool!

Maureen Dowd presents Exhibit A in her evidence against Pope Benedict:

"In 2004, the cardinal who would become Pope Benedict XVI wrote a Vatican document urging women to be submissive partners, resisting any adversarial roles with men and cultivating 'feminine values' like 'listening, welcoming, humility, faithfulness, praise and waiting.'"

Really?! Did he send one to Maureen with an invitation to go to confession?

Where can I get a copy of this?

I like Benedict more and more every day lately.

Update:
No, it turns out he didn't.

"[W]omen should be present in the world of work and in the organization of society, and that women should have access to positions of responsibility which allow them to inspire the policies of nations and to promote innovative solutions to economic and social problems."

[...]

"It is appropriate however to recall that the feminine values mentioned here are above all human values: the human condition of man and woman created in the image of God is one and indivisible."

Poop.

Never mind, I still like him.

I love this job sometimes

The Golden Rose

Visita del Santo Padre Benedetto XVI alle zone terremotate dell'Abruzzo, 28 Aprile 2009

(...)

(È presente la statua della Madonna di Roio, Nostra Signore della Croce, davanti alla quale il Santo Padre depone una rosa d’oro).

The Pope is taking a golden rose to the city of L'Aquila.

A precious and sacred ornament made of pure gold by skilled artificers, which the popes have been accustomed for centuries to bless each year, and occasionally confer upon illustrious churches and sanctuaries as a token of special reverence and devotion, upon Catholic kings or queens, princes or princesses, renowned generals or other distinguished personages, upon governments or cities conspicuous for their Catholic spirit and loyalty to the Holy See, as a mark of esteem and paternal affection.

Benedict has a good Traditional ear.

Go Benny!

This little offering of mine seems to be making the rounds.

Good.

The other day, a friend and I were discussing the incredible shrieks of the leftist harpies attacking Benedict lately. We thought it would be fun to get some "Benny Buttons" and make our friends wear them.

I really can't imagine why anyone is worried about all this. It seems to me like the best possible news. The bad guys hate him. Isn't that how it's supposed to be? Every time I hear about an Angela Merkel calling him up and chastising him for doing his job, I start to grin and giggle with delight.

Bring in the Trads. Bring the Anglos back. Force the poisonous snakes in your own curia to out themselves.

Go Benny Go Benny Go Benny!

Or, as Fr. Blake put it:

Who would have believed it?
Ecumaniacs are now shouting, "Shut that door, keep them out!"

Trendy Liberals scrawl on walls, "Don't lift the excommunications!"

Sandalistas with their dying breath wheeze, "Keep it the same, no change here!"

And wrinkled white bearded hippies gaze into their navels and remember fondly the days of their youth, hating the present day.

The snake has been struck with a stick and rises and hisses.

But for those who are worried:

The Confraternity of the FSSP has suggested a novena for the Pope, starting Feb 14.

Pater Noster x 3, Ave Maria, Gloria Patri...

V. Oremus pro Pontifice nostro Benedicto.

R. Dominus conservet eum, et vivicet eum, et beatum faciat eum in terra, et no tradat um in animam inimicorum eius.

V. Tu es Petrus.

R. Et super hanc petram aedificabo Ecclesiam meam.

Oremus. Omnipotens sempiterne Deus, miserere famulo tuo Pontifici nostro Benedcito: et dirige eum secundum tuam clementiam in viam salutis aeternae: ut, te donante, tibi placita cupiat, et tota virtute perficiat. Per Christum Dominum nostrum.

R. Amen.

Mater Ecclesiae, ora pro nobis. Sancte Petre, ora pro nobis.

He must be doing something right

to get the media this mad at him.

That's my guy...

Pope Questions Interfaith Dialogue

...“an interreligious dialogue in the strict sense of the word is not possible.” In theological terms, added the pope, “a true dialogue is not possible without putting one’s faith in parentheses.”

But Benedict added that “intercultural dialogue which deepens the cultural consequences of basic religious ideas” was important. He called for confronting “in a public forum the cultural consequences of basic religious decisions.”

Popey Goodness

Well, it was certainly a weird day. Didn't manage to get a lot of work done, and ended up marching around all over Rome in my uncomfortable Important Grownup shoes, but did eventually see the Holy Father. We were all herded back and forth on the Via Conciliazione for a while, then we got marched in slow stages in a big herd up the Colonnade, through the metal detectors and up a lot of beautiful marble staircases...and then more beautiful marble staircases...and then a few more beautiful marble staircases [after a while, one began to realise that there is a very good reason to make the stone steps quite short and broad] across a kind of inner piazza that is about five tall stories up, then quite a few more beautiful marble stairs.

Then into this gorgeous room, where we all sat like kids in an assembly waiting for the principal. We shuffled, and squirmed a bit. There were a few moments where a real hush fell and there was nothing but the sound of clicking and whirring cameras while everyone took pictures of the frescos...and each other...and more frescoes...

Quite a few Impressive Clergymen scampered about, soutanes and red cinctures flapping. There were a few very smartly dressed gentlemen in what looked like plum coloured frock coats...

then the big doors opened, and the Pope walked quite briskly into the room. The sound of three hundred people standing up is quite loud and by the time it had subsided, he was seated in the white plush chair, in front of the big gold marble keys.

And I was in the same room as the Vicar of Christ.

It was weird.

He heard someone give a talk, then he gave one himself, then the important people (alas, not self) got to go up for a little ring-kissing, then he blessed us all in Latin, and strolled out again.

The whole occasion, however, managed to take up most of the day, from ten thirty am to nearly two thirty.

And at the moment we sat down, and I started trying to take pictures of the frescoes myself, my camera chose that most inauspicious moment to die. And it was the same moment that I remembered that I had left my mantilla in the sacristy of S. Trinita the night before and would have to meet the Pope bare-headed. Sooooo embarrassing. Fortunately, the crowd was too big, so only the people up front got to greet. So it wasn't quite the faux pas of a lifetime.

I hope a get another chance.

Thanks to Anthony who was sitting beside me, for the pics, of which there will be more later. Got to do the work now that I couldn't do today.

Viva Papa

Just found a terrific Benedict website. It's in Italian, but hey, there's always Google Translator if you're desperate and the photo gallery is really good.

Petrus


I particularly like the Kissing Babies page.

This one just begs for a caption contest:


The Catholic Mind-Meld

Viva Papa

Some will remember three years ago, that on the day of and for quite a little bit after, I went on a big ol' Ratzi festival.

At that time, I remember suggesting that one could do worse than bend the elbow to the man who was now sitting on Peter's throne.

You can call it various things, "Panzer Pabst", "The Rottweiler", the Hardliner" or "Ratzi's Revenge".

Take a pint of Bavarian beer and a shotglass of Benedictine Liqueur. Sink the shotglass into the beer.

Yell, "Viva Papa" really loud, and chug it back.



[Sorry I didn't do any Ratzi stuff on the day. I was terribly busy. I was sanding my bathroom floor and getting the very attractive brown clods of dust out of my lungs afterward.
...
And that's five minutes in the box for sharing too much...]

Me too

`

I heard on the radio white smoke was seen.

I turned on the television, I expected a South American. When the name was announced I couldn't help but shout for joy, I don't think I had ever wept for joy before. I rang one or two friends, then rang the church bells, put a large papal flag out the presbytery window, sang the Te Deum. Then I went out and bought champagne, as much as I could carry.

I had arranged to say Mass, if a new Pope was elected at 7pm after the election, so for the thirty or so people who turned up I offered thge Holy Sacrifice, sang "God bless our Pope", and we drank champagne afterwards.

Afterwards I couldn't stop praying, "thank you, Lord", I still say that.

...well, not the saying Mass part, and not the drinking champagne part, but certainly the weeping and yelping for joy part.

I had been working on a story while keeping the site for the live webcam that was trained on the Sistine Chapel chimney on my computer. I was in the middle of some editorial discussion with JHW and he broke off and typed into Messenger, "WHITE SMOKE!!!"

I jumped up and grabbed the dinner bell and ran around the house yelling "white smoke! white smoke!" and everyone congregated up in the TV room where the Vaticanistas kept us waiting for another 20 minutes (50 hours) or so. When Cardinal Whatsisface said the name "Josephum" we spent five seconds running through all the Cardinals we could think of named Joseph and could only come up with one.

When the other name was announced...

well...

let's just say there was much recjoicing.

I grinned so hard for so long, the back of my head hurt.

I had actually just been reading that week the Peter Sewell book on him so I was assigned to write the personal biography. JHW had to do the theological thing, which was much less fun. I got to do all the "plays piano, likes cats, deserted from the German army" stuff.

"...A bit like hearing Maria Callas sing 'Yes, We Have No Bananas'."

Diogenes on the Holy Father's visit to some country I don't live in:

"The speech itself was a hybrid, as such things tend to be, composed partly of the Talking Points the U.S. bishops must have communicated to the papal nuncio ahead of time...",

We can be pretty sure that it wasn't the bishops who wrote about "the eternal life which God promises in the age to come," and we can be positive it wasn't Benedict that coined the phrase "a safe environment that gives greater protection to young people"; the same is true of the expression "your efforts to heal and protect are bearing great fruit." In fact it hurts a little to hear the bishops' buzzwords -- as a kind of product-placement -- coming from the mouth of the theologically fastidious Benedict. To pilfer a line from Mark Steyn, it's "a bit like hearing Maria Callas sing 'Yes, We Have No Bananas'."

Appropos of nothing really,

My kind of Pope.

Hey, d'ye think he might be getting ready to suppress the Jesuits?

One warning and a short wait for compliance (that everyone knows will not be forthcoming) and then...

The Pope stressed this reaffirmation several times, pointing to specific areas where the Jesuits are known to have caused scandal.

In the letter, the Pope stated: "so as to offer the entire Society of Jesus a clear orientation which might be a support for generous and faithful apostolic dedication, it could prove extremely useful that the General Congregation reaffirm, in the spirit of Saint Ignatius, its own total adhesion to Catholic doctrine, in particular on those neuralgic points which today are strongly attacked by secular culture, as for example the relationship between Christ and religions; some aspects of the theology of liberation; and various points of sexual morality, especially as regards the indissolubility of marriage and the pastoral care of homosexual persons."

As usual,

Ratzi says it better:

"Political correctness seeks to establish the domain of a single way of thinking and speaking. Its relativism creates the illusion that it has reached greater heights than the loftiest philosophical achievements of the past. It prescribes itself as the only way to think and speak - if, that is, one wishes to stay in fashion. Being faithful to traditional values and the knowledge that upholds them is labeled inntolerance, and relativism becomes the required norm. I think it is vital that we oppose this imposition of a new pseudo-enlightenment, which threatens freedom of thought as well as freedom of religion. In Sweden, a preacher who had presented the Biblical teachings on the question of homosexuality received a prison sentence. This is just one sign of the gains that have been made by relativism as a kind of new 'denomination' that places restrictions on religious convictions and seeks to subordinate all religions to the super-dogma of relativism."

-Joseph Ratzinger, Without Roots: The West, Relativism, Christianity,
Islam, p. 128.