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BENEDICT XVI: NEWS, PAPAL TEXTS, PHOTOS AND COMMENTARY

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15/10/2010 19:11
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Better than Teflon, Someone up there watches over B16 and the Church!


The Teflon Pope:
He has consistently turned
troubles into triumphs

by Alessandra Nucci

14 October 2010


Ever since he was elected in April 2005, the media have been expecting Pope Benedict XVI to be tripped up and rejected by the masses that flocked to John Paul II, his outgoing, charismatic predecessor. But it hasn't happened.

Indeed, possibly as a legacy of John Paul's outreach to the entire world, in the first few years of his papacy Benedict drew even larger crowds than Karol Woytjla did. The crowds have subsided a bit, but again and again, Pope Benedict has advanced, gliding unharmed through hoops of fire, around traps and past ambushes.

From the Convention of the Church in Italy, held at Verona in 2005, which the media had ominously suggested might burst the bubble of existing divisions within the Church, to the controversy over the speech at Regensburg, which ended up in meetings and inter-religious dialogue of the highest level, Joseph Ratzinger has consistently turned troubles into triumphs.

His trips to North America, Australia, France and most recently the United Kingdom, were all preceded by months of serious challenges and even provocation. Atheist campaigners even called for his arrest upon his arrival in Britain. But every dispute, every trip, has ended with the acclaim of the people, of the authorities and - most miraculously - of the media.

Even the priestly sex scandal turned into a boomerang, when it was revealed that it had been none other than Cardinal Ratzinger who had insisted on rigorously cleaning house once the abuses had come to light, under his watch at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Ironically, the fact that it had been he who had prevailed over more lenient policies, might never have come to light had not part of the press insisted on pinning the blame on him.

One entertaining example of the uncanny reversals of booby traps was seen in March 2009 on Channel Three of RAI, the Italian state-run television. In her regular Sunday afternoon show "In Half An Hour" (a bit like BBC World's Hardtalk), anchorwoman Lucia Annunziata, formerly President of RAI itself, interviewed US Jesuit Fr Thomas J. Reese. She introduced him as a priest who had resigned as Editor-in-chief of America magazine when Cardinal Ratzinger was elected pope.

Annunziata, who had recently interviewed rebel theologian Hans Kung, introduced her guest as "hugely important”, “high calibre” and “immensely prestigious". She clearly expected Fr Reese to tip the bucket on the Pope.

But her plan backfired. Not only did Fr Reese not attack the Pope, but he matter-of-factly validated every one of his doctrinal positions. His criticisms were limited to reflecting that the Holy Father should surround himself with people who are more expert with the media.

Flustered, Annunziata broached one issue after another in an increasingly pleading tone: "Surely on this matter you must differ with the Pope?” and “You must be willing to at least admit that not everyone approves of the Pope these days?" Reese smilingly parried every lunge.

Finally she played her trump card: "What about the little girl in Brazil who was raped by her stepfather? Do you support even the decision to excommunicate the family who took her to an abortion clinic?"

But Reese laughed pleasantly and pointed out: "I'm not an enemy of the Pope. I think he's right on all of the issues you mentioned." And then the mortal blow: "I like the Pope!"

Thus a potentially disastrous interview turned into unexpected publicity for the Pope, thanks to the ability of an honest priest, when the time came, to set aside past differences and stand shoulder to shoulder with him -- on prime time TV.

[Well, blow me down! Thank you, Fr. Reese. I only hope this better side might prevail more often, over the more familiar knee-jerk reflex of the liberal Catholic dissident which is Fr. Reese's stock in trade with the Anglophone MSM!]

The attacks won't stop, of course. But in the five and a half years of Benedict's Papacy, they have all led to an increase in the prestige of the Catholic Church.

In a final irony, the man derided as "God's rottweiler", a stern and distant intellectual, connects with the people, drawing crowds from every age, background, and walk of life.

Take the traditional summer appearances in Castel Gandolfo. Quite often Pope Benedict returns to Rome for the Wednesday audiences, because the square could not hold all of the people who sought to be there.

Far from marking its demise, under Joseph Ratzinger’s watch the Catholic Church has been recovering its reputation and, along with it, the ability to spread its message.

Whoever would have thought that this quintessential intellectual, 83 going on 84, would rewrite the public relations textbooks?



Alessandra Nucci is an Italian writer and freelance journalist. In 2007 she won the Golden Florin in the essay sector of the Premio Firenze [Florence Award] for her book on gender feminism as an instrument of class warfare, La donna a una dimensione [One-Dimensional Woman], published by Marietti 1820.




The following story is written by someone who was obviously exposed to the Benedict phenomenon for the first time. Was she not in Sydney in 2008? Of ir she lives in Rome (here name sounds Italian), has she never watched any of the papal events on TV? Anyway, thanks to her for giving an account of the GA that is what, as an editor and reporter, I would expect to have about the event. Even if it takes place almost every Wedneday of the year, it is still unlike any similar event in the world.


Papal for the people:
Benedict receives the faithful

by Paola Totaro in Rome

October 15, 2010


The star arrived dressed in white, driven in a white, open-top convertible to a white marquee furnished with an elegant white armchair. Assisted meticulously by a handsome private secretary who adjusted a sleeve here and an-out-of-place pleat there, he waved and smiled to thunderous cheers as screens broadcast images and music to the 8,000 strong throng waiting below.

Young children with whistles, older fans armed with flags and multi-coloured scarves, brass bands, a group in Lederhosen and Alpine hats and even a circus boy doing gravity-defying tricks on a BMX bike: Welcome to the Vatican, still one of the greatest shows on Earth.

For decades, Popes have received the faithful in St Peter's Square, offering a weekly general audience to bless pilgrims, foreign clergy and nuns, visiting tourists and flocks of fresh faced newlyweds who, rain, hail or shine don their wedding finery for a second round appearance in the hope of a papal blessing. Entry is free but these days, says the website, "booking is essential".

It is a tradition that Pope Benedict XVI, perhaps the least extrovert of the modern pontiffs, has retained and nurtured. organizing his addresses around themes and most recently, focusing on the lives and spiritual journeys of female saints of medieval times to deliver a message.

This week, it was a solemn missive delivered through the life and story of Blessed Angela of Foligno who was born into a wealthy Italian family in 1248 and lived a normal, if "superficial" life as both privileged wife and mother. A series of mystical visions later in life led her to become a Third Order Franciscan and a journey into poverty and penitence.

The Pontiff's message may have been a serious one but the mood of the crowds could not have been less somber. Just as ‘Mary mania' has swept Australia, Rome too has been inundated by canonization fever as the city prepares five other new saints – two Italians, a Pole, a Canadian and a Spaniard - to join the constellation of Catholic greats on Sunday.

In the Piazza San Pietro, coloured scarves and hats of the countries of soon-to-be saints have been worn with the pride and fervour of a final football match.

National flags have been planted in strategic spots and streamers and balloons attached to safety fencing and chairs. The Spanish contingent probably won the cheering competition in volume but the dominating presence in Rome this week, marked by three colours - the green and gold of visiting Aussie pilgrims and the bright teal scarves worn by Mary MacKillop's proud Josephites - was Australia.

(The Canadians and the Aussies – Anglo Saxon colonies both – have forged a special bond too as the maple flag's new saint-to-be, Andre Bessette, was a Quebecois brother who also happened to found a Josephite Order in Montreal. [No, not a Josephite order, but the world's most important and largest shrine to St. Joseph.]

But unlike Sister Mary MacKillop, who has now been credited with two miraculous cures, Brother Andre' was said to have ministered to many who claimed to have been cured by him – though he insisted he had no special powers.)

Cardinal Pell, holding court in the piazza yesterday, said he had heard that the Pontiff's press secretary, the Jesuit Padre Federico Lombardi, had described Mary Mackillop as "the star of the proceedings": "I hope that that is the case" he smiled.

The Pope's address during the weekly audience is of course delivered in several languages – the most detailed in Italian – although the most animated emerged in his native German.

But it was afterwards, as the names of visiting parishes and dioceses were called out one-by-one by priests assisting the Pontiff that a competition broke out to see who could unleash the loudest song, cheer or response.

In the roll call were a group of Catholic pilots, visiting Franciscan nuns, scores of Irish pilgrims, parishioners from Dunblane, a primary school in Dublin, the Parramatta Diocese, a Philippine aid group, myriad Spaniard parishes, a huge contingent from Cologne, Polish pilgrims and even a well known circus family from Latina in Southern Italy. The whooping was deafening, the outbreak of song uninhibited and triumphant, the atmosphere feverish with excitement born of regional or national pride.

Pope Benedict, normally serious and quiet, watched and smiled as his Private Secretary, George Gaenswein, replaced his notes and translations, adjusted microphones and robes in the wind.

At the end, when the young man from the circus took to his bike and pedaled precariously up the stairs to the marquee – then bounced back downwards on one wheel on the ancient stone bolsters of St Peters' – there was no mistaking that the Pope held his breath like the rest of his flock – and grinned and waved with relief when the show ended safely.

Catholicism, at times it seems, can be fun too.

[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 15/10/2010 19:24]
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