Subway color.
Amid the overwhelmingly positive coverage of the pope’s visit, Rocco Palmo’s praise stood out especially fulsome. He described New York City as buzzing with energy over Benedict’s visit. Perhaps Brooklyn doesn’t count, but having spent some time this weekend in several neighborhoods in both the most populous borough and the most famous one, I have to say I didn’t notice anything special about the city’s buzz outside the locations where the pope spent time–apart from the traffic rage emanating from thousands of East Siders. (At the Mass I attended on Saturday evening, the pope’s visit was not mentioned.) This is not to say that the city remained unmoved.
Sitting across from me on the 2 train this morning, a father was deep in conversation with his toddler son about the boy’s imaginary insect friends, when the boy caught a glimpse of his dad’s Daily News. “Who’s that, Daddy?” Pope Benedict graced the cover, superimposed over a wide-angle shot of a de-Yankified Yankee Stadium, smiling wide and waving to the ebullient crowd. “He’s the pope,” the father said. “Catholics like him. In his whole life, he’s never done anything wrong.” At that, the thirty-something Latino gentleman seated next to the father chimed in: “Not true.” The father shrugged, and turned the page. But the boy turned it back, transfixed by the photo. He pointed at various details on the pope’s vestments. “That’s his tall hat, and his long robe,” the father explained. “He takes money from the people and buys fancy clothes with them.”
“He’s old,” the boy observed.
“Yes, but he’s nice. Says nice things, and does nice things, and prays for people. We like him.”
The wise Latino gentleman might have added, “Yeah, and he has absolute power!”
Was the last line in your post, Grant, uttered by the boy’s father or by you? Just curious. ;)
While there are many images and lessons to take away from the Pope’s visit, Bob Nunz’s mention in another thread of the Pope often being surrounded by cardinals and bishops reminded me of a couple of vignettes that I, with my warped sense of humor, found amusing.
No. 1: Was anyone else amused by the TV images of the 50 or so bishops, all in gold vestments and mitres, congregated for 20 minutes or so in front of the first-base dugout at Yankee Stadium while the Pope was devesting after Mass in some underground area behind the dugout? Some of the bishops were waving to the crowd with their folded mitres in hand. If I had been there behind first base, I would have asked them (and dare I say it, the Pope) for a blessing on the dugout and all the Yankees that normally occupy it. (They need it.)
No. 2: After the farewell ceremony last evening at the hangar at JFK Airport, the Pope traveled to his plane in a limo. The TV camera at the departure site was fixed straight ahead on the red carpet, the boarding ramp, and the Alitalia plane the Pope would be boarding. Moments before the Pope’s arrival at the departure area, there was a scurry of red, maroon, purple, and black across the visual field of the camera as a host of cardinals and bishops rushed to get the best positions and to line up along one side of the carpet. It appeared that it was windy, and several of the prelates lost their zuchettos to the wind. It reminded me of how we used to jostle for position at the door to the playground before the recess bell in Catholic grammar school.
Only the New York City subway could produce this scenario; good you were there Grant to write down every word!
I’ve always considered Rocco an adulator of things Romanita -a sort of Fox News of matters Vatican.
I guess I sympathize with him given he’s stuck in that theological backwater where progressive leaders like Krol, Belivcaqua and now Rigali tule.
We need some balanced coverage of the BXVI visit and I harte to say so far it’s not that great.
Thanks, Grant, for a breath of fresh air. Much needed after this strange week.
Thirteen people called my mom’s pastor last week to talk about returning to the sacramental life.
More have called this week.
Can’t wait to see the long term developments.
I have often gone to conferences and returned home with good intentions and much energy, as it seemed. With me, at least, these things tend not to last.
About the Thirteen, one would like to know what caused them to leave and how the bishop of Rome made them think again; and of course what happens thereafter.
We’ve had 3 calls so far in my parish; one Monday, one yesterday, one today. I wonder how widespread this phenomenon is. I hope it lasts.
Does anyone know how this has played out in other countries?