When I was in High School I once tried out for a job at another High School’s radio station. It turned out that the try out was actually for an announcer for the cities High School football teams. I walked in unaware of this and they sat me down in front of a screen showing a football game and to narrate the action. At the time I knew little about football and I tried to improvise and to do my best. It was pretty embarrassing trying to provide commentary on something you knew next to nothing about.
Now you might ask about why I mentioned this episode? I immediately though about this humbling experience after reading the Time magazine article The Conquest of Rome:
The stealth campaign for Ratzinger began 18 months ago. An inside look at how he won. I would hope that the writer of this story would feel as silly as I did commenting on what I knew nothing about. I at least had the advantage of knowing I was totally out of my depths and was winging it. Most religious coverage unfortunatelly does not see this simple fact. Anybody who could write about Cardinal Ratzinger campaigning and positioning for Pope just proves their ignorance in trying to cast everything into a politically liberal/conservative dynamic.
10 comments
Blessed are you who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness.
I like how he wrote at the end that Ratzinger was “prepared” with a Papal name…as if someone who has been particularly noted as papabile hasn’t at times pondered what his name would be if elected Pope.
I’d be Zosimus II, personally.
I suspect if you asked Benedict XVI, he’d say there was a stealth campaign. Only it wasn’t Ratzinger conducting it. It was a little white dove. And he’s been conducting it for nearly 2000 years.
If I was pope I’d be Linus II because I’m a fan of open source software. And also because he’s the next one after Peter.
I’m curious as to who was excommunicated for violating the Papal vow of silence with regard to what went on in the Conlave.
I can’t help but laugh when I see this sort of thing. The other day MSN.com had a headline: “Rome Braces for Benedict”, as if it were a hurricane (thought I do like the idea of a whirlwind papacy).
The article becomes especially amusing when considering what B16 said today at his audience with German pilgrims. From Amy Wellborn’s site:
“He also recounted with a sly smile that he had begged God not to make him Pope as successive ballots in the secret conclave showed it was likely that “the guillotine would fall” on him.
“‘God clearly didn’t listen to me,’ he remarked with a sigh.”
That article is so funny, you could have written it. I particularly liked the “closely watched Satations of the Cross.” Kinda like the Iowa caucus.
Truly a laughable article. I like your description Jeff! I found the following particularly amusing given the context. I don’t know if our author is a master of puns or if he just got lucky on this one!
“The momentum, orchestrated by key Curia Cardinals, was such that a last-ditch attempt by liberals to derail it PETERED out after the first round of voting.”
The Generator Blog just covered someone’s Your Own Papal Nam Generator. I am Hormisdas II. ($#UI@ I wanted to be Hadrian VII!)