CHATTER, THE ENGLISH VERSION OF KREATIVBEREICH

Oh Nan! You must be in seventh Heaven already. I was going to say I wish we could be in Rome together, but on second thoughts, we would go quite KRATZI and be carted away!!!! Blow Papa a kiss and tell him I'll soon be there....and to wait for me Oops!

Those cartoons by Papa-Ya are really superb! And the details are magnificent. Did you see....the eyelashes over the coverlet? Oooohhhhh

Night, night, girls! Sweet dreams, Nan!
Sogni d'oro carissime sorelle!
Mary x

Benefan... no, I will not be taking my lap top with me I gotta have sometime for sleep Wouldn't want to look tired , dazed , or confused now would I? But I have a digital camera and plan to take extra Lithium batteries with me. I also plan to keep a journal of my travels. Don't worry, I can be very creative

Lutheranguest... I'll wave... Since my hotel is so close I would like to spend at least a couple of evenings in the square just reading or... thinking.

Mary... LOL Yes, I am on Cloud 9 And sweet dreams to you too

Beatrice in the French section yesterday shared some notes Sylvie e-mailed her after watching the last general audience on TV, because she thinks it is worth more than any news agency report or comments by Vaticanistas on the general audiences ( if they even deign to report on it as they should!)
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The general audience has just ended on Telepace.!! Su-blime! It is now 10:45 p.m., the broadcast started at 8:30.
I have made a list of the best moments.

On my TV, the sound on Telepace is much better than on KTO, which must deliberately bring down the volume (RAGE!)
- Inside St. Peter’s, it was great because the acoustics are good, and the setting, hummm… The camera was better placed and one could see HIS responses to the cheers…
- At the Paul VI auditorium, one does not need a…how do you call it…someone to warm up the audience? To set the stage?

The “temperature” of the audience was more than "burning," having been fanned by the wait:
- There were young people, yes, but the average age appeared to be about 50. I saw a grandfather type in a cap making expansive signs to HIM, quite joyously – no one will say it was some young excitable girl in disguise!
- Many pilgrims were senior citizens. Drat! This won’t please the Vaticanistas: Now they won’t be able to say it’s young people returning from WYD who are swelling the Pope’s audiences!
HIS popularity isn’t diminishing – this is not funny!

And there is his dear little face [“frimousse” – analogous to Ratzigirl’s ‘faccia facciosa’ label for Papa’s candid faces], calm but with that expressive look – and a “religious” silence in the hall when he speaks.





- HE may have been a bit tired, but he was super-happy. I could observe him quite well. The lighting was less punishing and harsh and I could see his features better today. His eyes were laughing and mischievous as usual – that didn’t help to stop the screaming!…He observed his traditional pause after saying the words “John Paul II” to allow the fans to let off steam.
- The “presenters” amused me a lot – they were at a loss whether to continue their spiel or whether an uproar would follow each announcement.
- Everyone was amusing! Most in the crowd smiled whenever they looked at him, who must be amused in turn. There was a lost of singing, a concert of harmonicas, shoutsof “Viva!”
- At St. Peter’s, GG smiled whenever someone screamed something; he seems almost to open up a bit – he talks to peole along the way, he banters with James (?)…
- I didn’t see babies being passed on this time.
- But thanks to Telepace, I was able to see the procession of people (who approached the Pope) towards the end, including the handicapped. He stood up to greet a boy who seemed agitated and who was in the arms of a woman…
- I also saw a superb painting of Christ, framed, which was given to him by a priest – from afar, it looked classic and very beautiful…
- Such audiences must be comforting to him. I don’t know anyone who would be bored by being applauded – but that’s a weak term, an adoring ovation is more like it.
- It is even written on streamers. One in Slovenian was translated to “Papa B-XVI, we love you”; one in Spanish, one in Italian and the streamers did not say “We love you. Peter’s successor” or “We love you, Pope” but “We love you, Benedict” by name.

It would be quite an experience to be in Rome with all of you, Sorelle. We’d sure go KRATZI (a new word in the “Ratzi nomenclature”) and end up Persona non grata in Vaticano!

By the way, I read in the French section that our resident artist on two forums (RFC and PRF), Danielle Vergne, who also runs the pulcherbenedictus site for creative images of B16, will be at the next general audience (2/22), after which she will have a chance to present the drawing she did of the "gloved Christ" to the Pope - and I'm sure the drawings she has made of him as well! So between her and NanMn, we will have two sure additions to our "Visit with Papa" files! Can't wait!!!


AND OMIGOSH! TIME FLIES!
TOMORROW, OUR BELOVED BENEDICT WILL HAVE BEEN ON ST. PETER'S CHAIR FOR TEN FULL MONTHS!!!! BREAK OUT THE CHAMPAGNE AND SAY EXTRA PRAYERS FOR HIM. (By the way, I have been saying an extra rosary daily in a Novena of rosaries preparatory to February 22, Feast of Peter's Chair. This was suggested in one of the Catholic blogs - I should have passed it on here.

[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 18/02/2006 20.39]

NUNS HAVING FUN

Oh, my Lord!


@Sylvie: "HE may have been a bit tired,"

benefan: Papa did look tired at his audience. They are letting him work too hard. Where are all his secretaries and personal assistants? They need to be looking after him better. I think some of us are just going to have to take over.


DANIELLE AT THE AUDIENCE

I hope Danielle gets to give Papa her lovely drawings. She is going to be so excited. I hope she will be able to recall all the details for us.


10 MONTHS OF PAPA

Praise the Lord!!! May he live 100 years!!! Extraordinarily healthy years at that.


ANOTHER PAPAL BOOK

I notice that Papa's prayers and meditations on the Way of the Cross that he celebrated in place of JPII last year have been printed up in a lovely little hardcover book interspersed with some religious paintings. Our local Catholic book store, which ran out just before I got there, is charging $20 for the book. I had to order some. It looks like a very nice present for Lent.

AGAIN, THE PRADA POPE STUFF--THIS TIME IN THE NEW YORK TIMES
(Including a line about the blue track suit)

Today, in Rocco Palma's blog, Whispers in the Loggia, Rocco links to an article with photos of Papa in the New York Times. The article repeats all the fashion comments/rumors/speculation we have seen printed all over the place about Papa's shoes, sunglasses, colorful garments, the horrible camauro (with photo), and, yes, even the blue track suit. Rocco, of course, is quoted extensively as the source for many of these "facts". It would be nice if people paid as much attention to what Papa says as to what brand of sunglasses or shoes they think he is wearing.

As I stopped buying and reading the New York Times about 3 years ago, I had to wait until I stepped out this morning to plunk down $3.50 and see exactly what the article said.

And while I can understand that Rocco at "Whispers in the Loggia" is understandably thrilled to high heavens to be featured as the only source for Mr. Fisher's article, I wish he would have asked to look at Mr. Fisher's draft before it was published, or to educate Mr. Fisher with the more basic facts about Church vestments. As usual, a Times article cries to high heavens for fisking!

Consider the egregious statement - After Fisher has been describing the pallium, which is labelled "ancient but bright" (BRIGHT? what is bright about a white stole with six little red crosses?) and concludes the paragraph by saying- "The pope has since obtained a wardrobe of similar and brightly colored vestments, like this brilliant green one he wore at a public mass at St. Peter's last October."

Actually, Mr. Fisher should be more responsible himself! As the Rome (or Vatican) correspondent for what claims to be "the world's greatest newspaper" (tell that to the Frankfuter Allgemeine Zeitung or the Financial Times, which have both consistently beaten this odious pretender in recent annual peer polls!), he should know that Church vestments and their colors are not a personal fancy but have liturgical significance! He makes it sound as if Benedict indulges in his caprice before a Mass and says, "Hmmm...I think green might be a great color to wear today!" Fisher's very treatment of the subject also implies that he treats the pallium as just another fashion accessory!

Indeed, an article that is entitled "In the House of Benedict, a tradition of chic" says it all - how the Pope and liturgy (of which vestments are a part) are trivialized by mass media, including supposedly venerable press establishments who should know to guard against the cheap thrills which usually characterize tabloid stories. (But a paper that goes to town on repetitive photographs of Abu Ghraib does habitually indulge in cheap thrills these days).

On headgear: Rocco Palmo is quoted as saying that Benedict has chosen to wear a taller-than-usual miter, and describes the miter with the seashells. On the contrary, Benedict has chosen to wear the shorter miters, something we have remarked often, and the miter Rocco refers to, which Benedict wore at his inauguration went with the chasuble he wore that day - both of them previously worn by John Paul II!

The pectoral cross: The article says John Paul II "only wore a simple unadorned cross that was a gift to him from the people of Poland." Not having a ready stack of JPII photos to refer to, I am not sure that he did not wear the Papal pectoral crosses (i.e., belonging to the Vatican, rather than personal items of the Pope) on important occasions, as Popes are expected to, and as Benedict does.

For instance, B16 wore the pectoral cross with the emeralds when he first appeared on the loggia - surely that cross was laid out in the Chamber of Tears beforehand for whoever would be elected Pope, and it's not as if at that most solemn moment of his life, Joseph Ratzinger told Marini, "You know what? Take out the pectoral cross with the emeralds - I think it would be appropriate for me to wear today." (He wore the cross again at the Feast of the Immaculate Conception).

Also, if the people of Germany (or even just of Bavaria, or Munich, for that matter) had given Joseph Ratzinger a cross, do you think he would not be wearing it proudly as well? We just read how he sent to Pentling (for use in an exhibit) the pectoral cross he wore as Cardinal which was given to him by a Greek Orthodox Patriarch and had been worn by the Patriarch's own father who was a Greek priest.

I would be most grateful to anyone who has more information on the "personal" pectoral crosses that Papa has worn and wears. (We have read, for instance, that the cardinal's ring he wore was a gift from his brother).

Finally the shades! Rocco gives the right explanation, more or less, for why the Pope needs to wear shades, i.e., to protect his eyes because he needs to do a lot of reading. He is also 78 going on 79, and he has a brother three years older who is now virtually blind.

But then comes the now-customary tagline about Serengeti and "a penchant for Gucci" - despite the fact that the Pope's longtime oculist in Rome already said the shades worn by Papa during that ride under the sun to the Quirinale last June were Italian non-designer glasses bought by the Cardinal who walked in after seeing it in his shop window. (We have a story somewhere that Papa owns four pairs of dark glasses, starting with the Zeiss pair he first bought as a seminary student.)

Oh, and for the tracksuit-minded, Fisher says Rocco invokes "multiple anonymous sources" for the statement that "Benedict relaxes in private in a blue tracksuit. "

Incidentally, Fisher takes note in the article of Rocco representing "a newish species - the insider Vatican blogger".
If MSM were more alert, they should also look in on the forums, and if Mr. Fisher had looked in our forum, he might have been tempted to use Papa B Fan's tracksuit picture in his spread! (But then, we would have contributed to the "trivializing" -
it's OK that we chatter about our fancies in a forum; it's something else when it goes into a feature article of a leading newspaper's Week In Review section).

[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 19/02/2006 20.56]

Hi, Nan, with great “Choy” I’ve read about your trip to rome. That’s wonderful and exciting and all our thoughts will be with you, if your trip starts.

Now you have a lot of things to prepare and I’ll help and start a checklist of all the definitely necessary things:


Nan’s roman checklist :

One white Beret
One Baby
Onehundredthousand kisses to Papa from your sisters
Red roses for our white rose
Binoculars
Digital Recording equipment, as much as you can carry
Laptop for daily news to your sisters
......
......

Nan, I’m a funny girl, you know.
In reality, during the audience or the mass I recommend:
let your eyes only rest on Papa and let your ears only listen to his sweet voice and his words. If you want, cry as loud as you can (maybe not during the mass ), blow a lot of kisses to him (maybe not during the mass ), but don’t waste time with fiddling around your digital equipment or anything else. I think it is impossible, to watch Papa and take pics of him at the same time. Every minute counts and your impressions will be unforgettable.

FANTASTIC ADVICE, SIMONE!

don't forget the baby ! very very important for the kiss ...........

TERESA, I had a feeling the Times article was going to annoy you. You should write a letter to the editor and straighten them and their poor confused readers out. I think Papa needs to be defended on a few things in that article so people won't think he is some shallow hypocrite trying to live like a monarch. Before doing so, however, check out Rocco's blog again. He has recently posted the entire written piece he submitted to the Times which they took chunks of for their article. All I can say is that the final Times article could have been worse if they had used additional quotes from Rocco. I really wish Rocco would check out his details more before he writes things for public viewing and also I wish he'd be more cautious how he phrases his comments since many people will assume everything he says is absolutely accurate and serious, including his attempts at humor.
_____________________

SIMONE, your list for Nan is great but you forgot one really important item: strudel. That might work better than anything to get Papa "eating out of Nan's hand" so to speak.

I have read somewhere on forum, that pope read newspapers every morning...and The New York Times are among them...can you imagine his feelings when he read this stupid tabloid article about himself?...poor Papa

Not to belabor the point, but I did go over what Rocco prepared for Ian Fisher, and I see now that he was the source of one of the points I took issue with.

Here is what he wrote after describing the significance of the pallium:
"To complement the “Petrine pallium,” as its new-old form is now called, Benedict has been outfitted with a new set of particularly refined mass vestments intended to highlight the woolen garment and not distract attention from the papal face. Each, in bold colors, is interwoven with a muted pattern of Christian symbols. When the pope debuted an iconoclastic lime-green version at a St. Peter’s Basilica liturgy back in early October, to say that the Vatican’s legendary chattering classes were “shocked” – in the best possible way, of course – would be an understatement."
Because Fisher then conflated his statements about the pallium to comment about Benedict's choice of "bold colors."

Let me comment on the above statements, which are very misleading, to say the least:
a) To say Benedict was "outfitted with new vestments:" appears to imply that this was being done for a Pope for the first time. Every Pope has to be outfitted with vestments - that is why they have special exhibits on papal vestments.
b) What is bold about liturgical colors? Considering even that in the past 10 months, the liturgical color most often worn by B16 appeared to be white or gold. The others were red, green and purple, in appropriate shades - not as if they were in neon or electric hues!
c) What is iconoclastic about green? [By the way, Rocco, that shade isn't lime at all!]
d) Who was shocked about the green vestments except Rocco?
He cites the "Vatican's chattering classes" - the same who in 2000 called the cope John Paul II wore to open the Holy Door "Joseph's technicolor dreamcoat"? [Oooh, I can see that frivolous comment re-surfacing some time soon if Joseph Ratzinger ever wore anything flashier than satin or brocade!]

I agree, Benefan, that Rocco should be more careful about what he writes. Because a blog is supposed to be personal, he does not always observe the responsible journalists's compulsion to be precise and exact about what one reports. He is usually well-meaning, but his ego-tripping sometimes does trip him up.

And I really dislike the label "His Fluffiness" which he is trying to impose on Papa. It is totally inappropriate for the Pope, any Pope (almost like calling him "His Flakiness") and flatly wrong in both the literal and figurative senses.

[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 20/02/2006 4.28]

THANKS, MAKLARA! You saved me the trouble. I didn't have access to a scanner today.

Thanks for the great advise everyone!!! My intention was to do as Simone so wisely advised... during Mass just concentrate on Papa... at the audience when he is speaking - concentrate on Papa in order to absorb everything, every detail. There will be time enough to write it all down.
Ohhhh Sylvie... yes a baby would have been nice but unless someone there is willing to give up her baby or toddler to a total stranger (yeh-right!!!) I'm afraid I'll have to forget about the baby... I wonder if I could adopt 1 for the day : : : Hey, you can't blame me for trying to be creative

MORE SUGGESTIONS FOR NAN


@Nan: "I'm afraid I'll have to forget about the baby... I wonder if I could adopt 1 for the day..."

Okay, Nan, how about a very lifelike doll? If you wrap it up in something with a little hood, Papa won't realize till he gets right up to it that it's a fraud but then it will be too late. He will be close enough for you to

Then again, there's strudel.

Ok. I'm sure I'll be doing a lot of walking... note to self - must find bakery and order an apple strudel...

HAIRCUT TIME???

The photos from yesterday and today aren't too close so it is hard to see but it looks like Papa got one of those close cuts again. Can anyone confirm? If so, time for another email complaint to the Vatican. Maybe Nan could take a letter from us to Papa suggesting he send the barber on a mission somewhere on the other side of the globe.