ALWAYS AND EVER OUR MOST BELOVED BENEDICTUS XVI
See preceding page for earlier entries today,8/2/17.
From the Facebook pages of the Fondazione Vaticana Joseph Ratzinger-Benedetto XVI,some recent photos of the Emeritus Pope – the first we have seen in July. The latest before these were the photos taken by 'Inside the Vatican' editor Robert Moynihan on June 26.
July 31, 2017
Monday evening, at the Vatican Gardens, Benedict XVI met with Giancarlo and Alessia Giuliani of Catholic Press Photo. Giancarlo founded CPP 45 years ago, and Alessia, whose photo byline must be familiar to most readers who follow Catholic news regularly, has been his chief photographer in the past two decades. Alessia presented the Emeritus with a special book containing the most beautiful photos of his Pontificate from the CPP files, whereas Giuliano gave him snapshots he took at various events, from the Consistory of 1977, at which Joseph Cardinal became a cardinal to a trip he undertook to the Holy Land. Benedict XVI fans will also remember that CPP had some of the most gorgeous 'formal' portrait photos of Cardinal Ratzinger.
GG has been quite remiss lately with using the comb on the Emeritus's hair after he takes off the baseball cap or beret he wears on these afternoon walks...
July 27, 2017
The Emeritus met with two Vaticanistas – Deborah Castellano Lubov of Zenit news agency, and Paolo Fucili who has covered the Vatican since 1999 for TV 2000, the television channel of the Italian bishops' conference. Last year, he came out with a slim volume on the 'Prayer for Peace' inter-religious meetings held in Assisi since the first one convoked by John Paul II in 1986 to the last one attended by Pope Francis in 2016.
(The Foundation gave no information other than the names of the two journalists and the day of their visit, so I had to look up who they are.)
P.S. I cannot sign off on this post without registering my objection all over to the Fondazione's decision to incorporate a picture of the Emeritus with his successor into the logo of the Foundation
which is also the cover of the Fondazione's official brochure. (I therefore refuse to use it on the Fonzadione's Facebook banner which does use it.) The Fondazione was founded with Joseph Ratzinger's personal funds from his book royalties years before Bergoglio became pope, a man who has nothing whatsoever to do with the Fondazione or its objectives. Nor does the Fondazione owe anything to the Vatican.
But just because the Bergoglio Vatican for whatever reason has since decided to appropriate the Fondazione as a 'Vatican agency' should not put it in thrall to the Vatican. However, that is exactly what is conveyed by the slavish decision to use the logo it now does - it's a virtual cattlebrand on Benedict XVI to remind him that he is no more than a prisoner of the Vatican now, the 'enclosure of St. Peter' where he has chosen to spend his final years. The price of obedience to a narcissistic totalitarian pope.
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 03/08/2017 02:40]