As folks guessed, I’ve been counting up the number of days Benedict XVI has been pope until they pass 33, the number that John Paul I served.
The reason is that I’ve been concerned about how traumatic it would be for the Church if Benedict XVI had an ultra-short reign.
After the cardinals elected such a wonderful pope, I really, really hope that he gets to shepherd the Church for a long time, though since he is 78, one must be realistic about how long "a long time" is for a person of his maturity.
The new pope himself, apparently, made reference in the conclave to the fact that his reign would be short, and I read in his interview book The Salt of the Earth where he referred to his health having been poor years ago when he first came to work at the Vatican (if I recall correctly).
Then when Benedict skipped the beatification ceremony of a couple of folks, it made me extra nervous, though he didn’t seem to be sick. It may simply be that he wants to devote his time to pressing things (like his first encyclical, for example) without delaying things like beatifications. (I presume he’ll still personally celebrate canonizations, though not necessarily.)
While Pope Benedict has passed an important milestone–the 33 day mark–he still could (God forbid) die in an abnormally short amount of time, and that would also put the Church through a huge convulsion, perhaps ven making the cardinals question whether they had elected the right kind of candidate. (Hopefully they’d focus on Cardinal Ratzinger’s age rather than his orthodoxy as where they went wrong.)
But let’s hope that Benedict XVI still will have a lot of time to shepherd the Church, to consolidate the gains of his predecessor, and to make his own unique contributions.
God bless Benedict XVI!
HERE’ZA SUMMARY WITH ANALYSIS OF HIS FIRST MONTH IN OFFICE.
AMEN.
Everybody, pray for the Pope’s health.
And, B16… take care of yourself. Save your strength for that heresy-crushing kung-fu grip!
As humans can assess these things, I think a conclave any time soon would be, well, a mess. There is no clear front-runner, no clear power broker, and not even a clear operational understanding of what “secrecy” means in a conclave. Ad multos annos, B16.
I think it was Mark Shea (on his blog) that cheered:
“You’re XVI,
you’re beautiful,
and you’re mine.”
I think the fact that he allowed a cardinal to celebrate a beatification Mass didn’t have so much to do with his age as it did with a return to an older tradition. Apparently popes celebrated such Masses on a regular basis starting only in 1971 with, by the way, the beatification Mass of St. Maximilian Kolbe.
Sean: That, and the beatification of Mother Marianne Cope had been planned far in advance (back when it was expected to be a JPII beatification) and the new pope could not fit it into a suddenly hectic schedule of new responsibilities. Rather than forcing Mother Cope’s sisters to reschedule everything and absorb personal loss, Pope Benedict asked a cardinal to take his place.
Well, his older brother Georg Ratzinger is still alive at 81, and I understand that both parents made it into their nineties. So Benedict could be with us for quite a while yet.
I think I read that Benedict XVI plans to celbrate no beatifications, which is the way it had been for a long time. It makes more sense, since a beatification is a purely local affair and is not infallible.
It’s interesting to remember the MSM reports back a few short weeks ago that portrayed this man as calculating, unlovable, and for all intents and purposes “out-of-touch” with the needs of his flock. Regardless of what some may say about the beaurocracy in Rome, I am convinced that the Holy Spirit is doing great things through our Holy Father.
What a blessing our Pope is to us pilgrims as we wander in this valley of tears!
Watching the funeral of Pope John Paul II, my heartstrings pulled hard: “Visit his grave, visit his grave….” Seeing the election of Benedict finalized the decision. I’m joining a pilgrimage to Rome, November 7 to 13. We hope to get in on a papal audience. I’m am also particularly eager to visit the grave of Pope John Paul II. If anyone’s interested, look it up on reginatour.com
viva la papa!
It is ‘la’, right? We had a big discussion about this; ‘la’ being feminine and ‘papa’ clearly denoting someone masculine, but it’s la anyway I think, unless anyone cares to correct me?
At any rate, long live him. (howzat for grammar?)
Actually, “Viva la papa” means “Long live the potato” in Spanish.
“Love live the pope” would be “Viva el papa.”
Couldn’t tell you about Italian . . .
“Viva il papa” is the Italian.
There’s no such thing as “la papa” in Italian.
Jimmy’s got it right. In Spanish “el papa” is “the pope,” but “la papa” is “the potato.”
However in Italian “papa” can mean only “pope.” The singular masculine form of “the” in Italian is “il.”
The feminine singular for “the” in Italian is “la.”
If you say “la papa” in Italian, it is as ridiculous as saying “HER testicle” or “HIS ovary.”
Ok, I knew it was ‘ridiculous’ but sometimes languages are ridiculous with no clear explanation of how something got to be a particular gender, so I couldn’t be sure based on the argument that is sounds ridiculous in english. After all, how feminine is a potato?
You’re right, h354, languages are ridiculous in that grammatical gender sometimes is the way it is just because that’s the way it’s always been.
The “Romance” (“Roman-” or “Latin-based”) languages–Italian, Spanish, French, etc.–assign grammatical gender, either masculine or feminine, to nouns. The interesting thing is that Latin itself makes use also of neuter gender, but Italian, Spanish and French do not. So a Latin word that is neuter may be the root for a word that is masculine in one Romance language, but feminine in another. For instance, the Latin “sanguis” (blood) is neuter. From that word, the French eventually settled on “le sang” (masculine), the Spanish on “la sangre” (feminine), and the Italian on “il sangue” (masculine).
So, though I’m a male, my blood is masculine in French and Italian, feminine in Spanish, and neuter in Latin. It’s all bloody ridiculous to us English-speakers.
German also assigns gender — English is actually the odd-ball language here.
Going back to the subject of praying for B16. Those of you who are seriously thinking of “going beyond the call of duty”, I invite you to be part of a powerhouse of laity whose primary mission is to support the Holy Father through prayer, penance and preaching. If you are so inclined to stepping up to the plate, please feel free to visit the blogsite of St. Peter’s Helpers and read our mission. Thanks!