20 April 2018

Habemus Papam!

Looking back to those happy days when Pope Benedict was elected, I recall two video clips which I would like to see again. This is how I remember them. Any links?

(1) Margaret Hebblethwaite, small red-haired widow of  an ex-Jesuit whose 'papal biographies' were far from reliable, was caught on camera at the moment the white smoke went up, in shrill panic. She knew that, for an election to have been made so soon, "It must be Ratzinger".

(2) The same lady, later on, trying to button-hole Cormack Murphy O'Connor and being shouldered aside. Poor Cormack looked as though he had his own grief-management problems ...

4 comments:

Andreas Meszaros said...

Tua pace, forte et hoc meminisse juvat:

In biographia Joannis Papae XXIII a Petro Hebblethwaite conscripta asseritur auctorem Constitutionis Apostolicae Veterum Sapientia fuisse em. Card. J. Pizzardo, ipsum vero Summum Pontificem postea contra hoc documentum insurgentibus respondisse: "Hoc documentum (Veterum Sapientia) potestis oblivioni tradere; nihil est."

Ad hanc fabulam respondens P. Suitbertus a S. Joanne a Cruce, O. C. D. scripsit:

Egomet ipse praesens adfui sat proxime stans prope altare S. Petri in Basilica Vaticana cum ipse Joannes Pp. XXIII hoc documentum Veterum Sapientia publici juris fecit. Et res ita accidit: Tota Basilica Vaticana ingenti multitudine fidelium repleta, Summus Pontifex ingressus est et sermonem habuit praeclarum quo momentum et valorem hujus documenti (Veterum Sapientia) sat fuse et abundanter audientibus explicavit et inter cetera hoc quoque dixit:

“Ne postea dici possit hunc Summum Pontificem jam aetate provectum non bene intellexisse quali documento nomen suum subscribendo apposuisset, sed tantummodo subscripsisse, quia alii hoc documentum illi ad subscribendum dederunt, Ego vobis dico me scire quid nunc subscribam et me quod in documento scriptum est re vera velle, et propterea hoc documentum coram omnibus vobis in hoc altari Sancti Petri sollemniter subscribam.”

Et coram omnibus nobis, me - ut dixi - sat proxime adstante, documentum subscripsit.
Hoc est historice certum, quia ante tot testes publice factum est.

P. Suitbertus a S. Joanne a Cruce, O. C. D.

John Nolan said...

The morning after Benedict's election, BBC R4 assembled a panel of liberal Catholics (the Beeb doesn't recognize any other sort). The dismay was palpable. One ex-nun (Lavinia Byrne?) was verging on the hysterical. 'He has to show he's prepared to listen to us!' she shrilled.

Me? I laughed like a drain. It was a memorable occasion. A pity it all unravelled less than eight years later.

El Codo said...

Friends:stop doing a Lavinia Byrne. It will pass. "The flower fadeth and the grass withereth, but the word of the Lord endureth for ever".

John said...

Will it pass? I hope so. But how many souls will be lost in the meantime? Half a millennium on there are more Protestant denominations than ever. There are still Nestorians around. Not everything passes so easily.