THE POPE SNEAKS OFF TO HIS OLD DIGS--OR DOES HE?
Dear Friend of Catholic Answers:
An article in London's "Telegraph," citing a report in the Italian newspaper "La Stampa," says that Pope Benedict XVI "has been sneaking back to his old room outside the Vatican walls."
"At about 9 p.m. a plain, dark car carrying 78-year-old Pope Benedict and his private secretary, Don Georg Gänswein, swirls out of a side door of Vatican City. [Query: How does a car "swirl"?] It then doubles round in the back streets before arriving at 1 Piazza Citta Leonina, a hall of residence for senior Church figures and the Pope's home as a cardinal for almost 24 years."
(When I was in Rome last week I walked past this building on my way to the Vatican Museums. It is just behind the right arm of Bernini's colonnade. Between it an the colonnade is a wall, and on the colonnade side is one of the more interesting fountains in Rome, the fountain of the four tiaras. It's a small thing, easily missed as you walk around the perimeter of Vatican City. I took a photo of it but didn't think to go around the wall to take a photo of the Pope's former residence.)
The newspaper report continues:
"The Pope gets out of the car disguised in the plain black priest's robes he wore when he was the Catholic Church's senior theologian. [Comment: What "robes"? Priests don't wear robes, unless they're walking out of the rectory early on a chilly morning to pick up the newspaper. When out and about they wear black suits or cassocks.] Wearing a black hat and with his head down, he opens the wooden door himself, as he did for all those years, and tiptoes inside followed by Don Georg." [He "tiptoes" inside? Is he trying to hide from whoever lives on the ground floor?]
Who saw this anyway? Was a reporter from "La Stampa" hanging out in Piazza della Citta Leonina (the proper name of the street), just hoping the Pope would drive up? If so, didn't he have a camera to catch the moment?
"It is not a question of just dashing in for a few minutes to grab a bag or a book," said "La Stampa." "He spends at least a couple of hours there." The newspaper speculates that "Pope Benedict appears to be hankering after his old, reflective life as a cardinal and a theologian."
The Vatican correspondent for "La Stampa" is quoted as saying, "The calm existence he had before, and the most certainly more weighty one he has now, are separated by just a few hundred meters; maybe the temptation is just too much even for the strong but delicate personality of Benedict XVI."
More pertinently, maybe the temptation is just too much for the newspaper guys. They need to puff up a story where there may not be one.
The "Telegraph" writer says that "the Pope is already starting to gain a reputation for slightly eccentric behavior and a penchant for disguise. At Christmas he delighted crowds by turning out in a red, fur-lined hat that used to be worn by popes in the Middle Ages to keep their heads warm. He also has been seen wearing red Prada shoes and pricey Serengeti sunglasses."
This amounts to a disguise? How does a pope hide by wearing red shoes? You'd think that black loafers would be more discreet. Didn't Dorothy stand out when she wore those ruby slippers?
And are sunglasses enough to let a pope melt into a crowd? Wouldn't the white cassock be a giveaway, no matter how dark the glasses might be? I understand how a young child might think he becomes invisible to his parents once he dons a pair of sunglasses, but can't we presuppose that popes know better than that?
And what about that red hat, which is called a "camauro"? In the weeks before Christmas I saw a few women sporting red Santa hats. The hats made them more conspicuous, not less. If a pope thinks he can go incognito by wearing new headgear, he should try at least something as ubiquitous as a baseball cap. A bright-red camauro just won't cut it.
There was no need to psychoanalyze the Pope, no need to talk about his "hankering after his old, reflective life." If Benedict XVI wants peace and quiet to read a book, there is plenty of room in the Apostolic Palace. He doesn't need to sneak around the block to his old apartment.
In winter the Sistine Chapel closes to the public at 1:45 in the afternoon. The Chapel is connected to the Apostolic Palace, so the Pope could pop in any time in the later afternoon and have the place to himself. It strikes me as a good place for a thinker to think, and it has the advantage of not forcing him to change into clerical blacks and to arrange for a car and driver.
So what has the Pope been doing over at his old digs, presuming he actually has taken these nocturnal trips?
If he goes there, I don't think it's to do scholarly work. That he can do at his new lodgings. Besides, two hours at a stretch doesn't allow a real scholar to get much done. If the apartment still has papers and books that the Pope wants to use, it would be easier to have someone pack them up and bring them across the street to him. That way, there would be no risk that paparazzi would catch sight of Papa Ratzi.
My guess is that the Pope visits Piazza della Citta Leonina, if he still visits it at all, to see not his books or his old rooms but to pay a pastoral visit to someone who resides there, perhaps an infirm former colleague, someone who is unable to walk the few hundred feet over to the Vatican and up to the Bronze Doors.
p.s., If you have a comment about anything appearing in this E-Letter, please do not hit your Reply button. Instead, go to Catholic Answers' discussion forums at
http://forums.catholic.com
where you may post your comment in the forum dedicated to the E-Letter. You will find a thread devoted to this issue of the E-Letter. Feel free to add your comment in the form of a reply to that thread.
*If you grew up watching Rocket J. Squirrel, this title may mean something to you. If not, never mind. (The Mr. Big I refer to is a Good Guy, of course, and is not from Pottsylvania.)
|
C A T H O L I C A N S W E R S :
[TOP]
of
Discuss
Index
Prior issue
Next issue
Sign up