David Gibson: 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.

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 Catholicism. As a post-Vatican II Catholic, I probably wouldn’t have learned enough Latin to know anyway. But I did live and work in Rome for five years, much of it for and around the Vatican, a hegira that ended with my conversion—a miracle in itself, many would say.

Hence the title of this introductory “Benedictions” post, referring to the defense of his own conversion penned by the nineteenth-century Englishman, John Henry Newman. I doubt I’ll be made a cardinal, though Newman’s own elevation may not have been a sure thing in today’s rough-and-tumble church. Newman himself was as orthodox as the Pope, but could also critique the Vatican and the Church for misuses of authority, and power. That, too, is a model I’d like to emulate.

So what can you expect on this blog?

Yet another papal paradox: The Pope who was expected to create such a stir among Catholics after his election has instead found his greatest controversies centering on his relations with Islam. First he met--in secret, until the word leaked out--with...

So the popular Build-a-Bear company is getting in on the papal memorabilia craze, having won rights to market, yes, an official Benedict "Christ Our Hope" teddy bear t-shirt. Here's the catch: The company is only selling the t-shirt in...

Don't let all the talk (much of it mine) of a Gregorian chant-loving, Latin Mass-celebrating, professor-pope turning the April 15-20 visit into a five-day Vespers service. It's impossible to quell the Jamboree atmosphere surrounding any pope's visit to America,...