WHAT TO DO WHEN THERE'S
LITTLE 'NEWS' ABOUT BENEDICT
There is absolutely nothing 'new' that I can find online today about the Holy Father, even in the Italian media, other than reports on his Pentecost homily (mostly partial) - with hardly anyone referring to his Regina caeli mini-homily, much less to his Marian dicourse on Pentecost eve at the Vatican Gardens. [L'Osservatore Romano si carrying all three texts, of course, in its double issue tomorrow since it does not come out on Mondays. So they have nothing 'new' either.]
To those who have not yet read those texts, please take the time to do so - along with the texts from Montecassino.
Obviously, no newspaper or wire service accounts can take the place of the actual texts, and that is why I only post those reports pending translation of the full text. Because Benedict 'news' is primarily
what he says and how he says it. The newsphotos often tell us more about
what he does than standard papal reporting, which seems to eschew reporting details and sidelights that provide 'color' to any event.
And, of course, informed commentary on the Pope's teaching is always a welcome bonus but they are few and far between.
One of my favorite commentators on the Pope, as he was a theologian himself as well as a sometime politician, the redoubtable Gianni Baget Bozzo (he was a lawyer before he decided to become a priest, and in his 60s, ran and won a seat in the European Parliament), died in his sleep at his home in Genoa on May 9 (the second day of the Pope's pilgrimage, so I did not get around to acknowledging it properly). He was 84, but his mind and judgment remained acute to the very end. Cardinal Bagnasco celebrated his funeral Mass on Monday, May 11. Please say a prayer for him.
The most interesting papal news today is about John Paul II, and his 55-year-long regular correspondence with child psychiatrist Wanda Poltawska, now 87, whom he first met in 1950 after she survived a Nazi concentration camp. And how the Vatican wants the doctor to provide all the letters - a'suitcase full of them', she says - instead of just those she chose to release earlier to the late Pope's postulator.
The Vaticanistas' angle is that this will further delay the beatification procedure. Well, not necessarily. The tribunal investigating John Paul's cause for sainthood is dutybound to look at every existing document written by him. It will review the letters as it does the mountain of documents it already has reviewed and will review.
Cindy Wooden of CNS has a brief story picking up from the Italian press but leaves out the two most interesting things I picked up from the stories: 1) That the newly-elected John Paul II found the time to write Wanda a four-page letter soon after he was elected; and 2) that she was one of the cancer patients who was healed after then-Bishiop Wojtyla wrote Padre Pio in 1962 to seek his intercession.
Dr. Poltawska earlier this year published a book in Poland about her unusual friendship with the man about whom she says, "From the first time I met him, I knew he would become a saint....his holiness was evident".
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 03/06/2009 06:41]