March 2008 Archives

Several readers, including the sharp-eyed Thomas Peters and his posse over at American Papist, noticed that one of the questions in our survey--the one on possible roles for women--did not allow for an alternative to the role of "priest" ("priestess"?) or "deaconess." Not kosher, really. So we have added a couple possibilities, including a "none of the above." Apologies for the glitch--such is the nature of these things. Feel free to take the survey again by clicking here, or just pass the word on. As always, feedback is welcome. Many thanks.

Interest groups are cranking up campaigns to take advantage of the publicity attending Benedict's visit, and among them is one of the more novel approaches I've seen: According to a CNS story, Physicians and Nurses Against Tobacco, a U.S.-based group, is launching an on-line petition asking the pontiff to make the 108-acre Vatican the world's first tobacco-free state.

New York eateries are one thing. Even Dublin has banned smoking in pubs. But the Vatican? Seems next to impossible. Not only do Italians smoke like chimneys, but Vatican employees--lay and clerical--seem especially addicted to nicotine.

Yet Benedict is a decidedly abstemious fellow, so who knows. The Vatican did ban smoking inside all buildings in 2002, well after my time there. But that led to a rather dodgy situation during the 2005 conclave, when the cardinal from Portugal, Jose da Cruz Policarpo, was spotted sneaking out of the supposedly secure residence at night to light up a cigar. No one complained then, or the next evening when white puffs (gray, actually) came wafting out of the Sistine Chapel smokestack announcing Joseph Ratzinger's election...It was better than the first ballot, when the cardinals tried to burn the ballots but wound up filling the precious frescoed chapel with smoke when the stove backed up. Povero Michelangelo.

Incense, candles, conclaves--could there really be a Catholic Church without smoke? Even the beloved "Good Pope" John XXIII (photo below) liked to enjoy a drag once in a while, it seems. Still, there could certainly be a Vatican without smoking. Sign on here.

For those of you who may not know already, if you really want to start a knock down, drag out, mud-slinging dust-up among Catholics, start a debate about LITURGY. Nothing draws attention or raises hackles as quickly, and nothing is as central to Benedict's pontificate--or the upcoming papal visit--as the way Mass (and other liturgical services) is celebrated. So it's interesting to see some of the choices for "performers" at the various services. New York certainly grabbed the spotlight by enlisting the first "American Idol," Kelly Clarkson, to sing the "Ave Maria" to His Holiness at a youth service at St. Joseph's Seminary in Yonkers. (Harry Connick and Jose Feliciano will be performing before the Yankee Stadium mass the next day.) Now Washington has answered back--in a more classical key--by signing on the opera megastars Placido Domingo and Denyce Graves to sing at the Mass at National Stadium on April 17.

Is this shaping up as a DC vs. NYC thing? Perhaps not. Domingo also sang the "Panis Angelicus" at a papal mass in New York, back in 1995 in Central Park for John Paul II. (Great settling. Let's hope the weather will be better for Placido--and the Pope--this time.)

It may shape up as a traditionalist vs. modernist thing, however, as liturgists and pew-sitters with strong opinions on such topics are already weighing in (and inveighing) across the blogosphere.

By Francis X. Rocca
Religion News Service

VATICAN CITY -- For more than two decades, Pope Benedict XVI served as one of the closest and most influential subordinates to his predecessor, John Paul II, a relationship built on common priorities, affection and mutual respect. Only weeks after John Paul's death in 2005, Benedict opened the process that might eventually make John Paul a saint.

Yet for all his admiration for the man who came before him, Benedict has displayed his own markedly different style of leading and communicating. One Vatican observer says the two pontiffs represent two distinct personality types.

"ohn Paul had all the traits of an extrovert," including gregariousness and a flair for spectacle and symbolic gestures, said the Rev. Keith F. Pecklers, an American who teaches at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome. Whereas the private, deliberative and self-restrained Benedict is, according to Pecklers, "very much of an introvert."

John Paul reveled in the presence of other people, celebrating open-air Masses before hundreds of thousands. He tried to physically touch as many as possible among the devoted crowds. Starting with early morning Mass and going all the way through dinner in the papal apartment, John Paul spent a typical day surrounded by dozens of personal guests.

The contrast was striking at the start of Benedict's reign, nearly three years ago, when the new pope appeared uncomfortable with the public at his weekly audiences, hesitating to offer his hand even to children. While he has grown noticeably more relaxed, Pecklers says, the pope still prefers to meet others one-on-one or in small groups.

Benedict is literally less outgoing than his predecessor when it comes to international travel. No one expected him to match the globe-trotting of John Paul, who was 20 years younger when he became pope and visited 104 countries outside Italy during his reign.

But even after his journey to the U.S., Benedict will have taken only eight papal trips abroad in three years -- three fewer than John Paul took at the same age, even as he suffered from advanced Parkinson's disease and other ailments.

Though Benedict sometimes offers Mass in large open spaces -- he will celebrate two during his April trip to the U.S., at Nationals Park in Washington and New York's Yankee Stadium -- he generally prefers the traditional venue of a church, saying super-sized crowds pose risks for the "dignity that is always necessary for the Eucharist."

In his approach to the liturgy, the pope shows a conservatism and regard for tradition characteristic of many introverts. He has encouraged the celebration of Mass in Latin and the singing of medieval Gregorian chant, and has expressed reservations about adapting Catholic worship to blend with the customs of non-Western cultures.

John Paul, by contrast, often presided over liturgies with displays of dancing (that in the words of the National Catholic Reporter's John L. Allen Jr. reminded observers of "Broadway production numbers"). At one celebration in Mexico in 2002, Indian women performed an indigenous purification ceremony equivalent to an exorcism on the pope. Such scenes, Pecklers acknowledges, are hard to imagine in Benedict's presence.

In the pulpit, the scholarly Benedict shows his long background as a theology professor and head of the church's highest doctrinal office, as well a cerebral nature that is common among introverts.

"John Paul was less theological and more devotional in his preaching," Pecklers said. Where John Paul's sermons were typically prayerful reflections on Scripture, Benedict frequently offers lessons on the teachings of St. Augustine and other church fathers.

Benedict's inclination toward complex intellectual argument can conflict with communicating with the wider public. If John Paul's most famous words were the simple yet powerful "Be Not Afraid!", Benedict's may be a 14th-century description of the Prophet Muhammad's legacy as "evil and inhuman." Unlike the media-savvy John Paul, Benedict is no master of the sound-bite.

Ironically, Benedict's introversion may have helped earn him a reputation as a clothes horse. He's been dubbed the "Prada Pope" for a pair of red loafers that media reports attributed to the Milan-based fashion house. Though he has donned some designer items presented to him as gifts (Gucci sunglasses, among others), his most attention-grabbing garments include a red velvet cape and two red hats that in some eyes suggested Santa Claus or the Marlboro Man.

The hats and cape were actually pieces of traditional papal regalia shelved by John Paul but revived by his successor, who has also resumed ceremonial use of the papal throne. In dress as in other aspects of his public persona, Benedict's style is to emphasize not his own unique attributes but those of the ancient role that has fallen temporarily to him.



Copyright 2008 Religion News Service. All rights reserved. No part of this transmission may be distributed or reproduced without written permission.

As CNS reports, the Popemobile is on its way! I can't wait till the Magliozzi brothers on "Car Talk" get hold of this one. Popes have almost always used Mercedes (though you'd think the Bavarian Benedict might like a BMW, no?), and this one is a modified version of the Mercedes-Benz ML430 off-road vehicle. Not terribly gas-friendly for this environmentally-sensitive pontiff. But he's not traveling very far in it.

So as the "Car Talk" fellows would say, here's a Puzzler for you: When did popes start using Popemobiles?

Stay tuned for the answer.

BBC photo

Actually, that may be “suo.” Is “blog” masculine? I trust this blog is. Perhaps Reggie Foster, the pope's inimitable Latinist, can help out here. I don’t have enough Latin to know. And it’s not because I am a convert to...

By David Gibson Religion News Service Central to the anticipation surrounding Pope Benedict XVI's April visit to the United States is a widespread curiosity among U.S. Catholics about a pontiff whom they mostly know only through headlines and video clips....

By Francis X. Rocca Religion News Service VATICAN CITY -- Pope Benedict XVI will become the third leader of the Catholic Church to address the United Nations General Assembly in New York, following Pope Paul VI in 1965, and Pope...

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