Around the blogosphere Catholics are recalling how they heard the news, so I'll get in on the act. Back then I knew almost nothing about the Catholic Church, nor any names in the hierarchy except that of John Paul II who'd just died. But as I read snippets of editorials about this new pope, I saw that the New York Times et al. were doing a poor job of concealing their intense dislike. Reaching for something incriminating, they published profiles of Joseph Ratzinger emphasizing as much as possible his former membership in the Hitler Youth. Remember that? They'd work it into their lead paragraphs, even. It sure sounded bad the way they wrote it up, till you found out that he was all of fourteen years old at the time, and membership was mandatory for all German 14-year-olds, and he ditched the meetings anyway. I figured if the media were making themselves look like journalistic hacks just to make him look bad, he must be doing something right. (And boy, some things haven't changed.) So I liked Ratzinger from the get-go, but at the time I didn't give it a lot of thought. Now, of course, I love him. It makes me happy to remember who our Pope is. :)Fr. Z has video of the announcement.
3 comments:
I was watching the live feed from the Vatican that day. The doors opened, the Cardinal comes out and starts reading the proclamaton:
Habemus Papam............
Josephum.........
I almost fainted right there!
So you knew Cardinal Ratzinger already. That must've been so exciting.
I like watching the video of it-- the wily cardinal who made the announcement deliberately paused and left the crowd hanging before saying the name.
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