A Touch of Benedict
It's always nice to read about how Pope Benedict XVI has touched the hearts of many people. Here you will find some amusing anecdotes on the Holy Father.
...John L. Allen Jr., a writer for The National Catholic Reporter, recalled meeting him for the first time at a cocktail party in 1997 in San Francisco. The second most powerful man in the Roman Catholic church was definitely not holding court. "He was just sort of off in a corner," said Allen, who was working on a biography, later called "Cardinal Ratzinger" (Continuum: 2000). "And I remember going up and introducing myself to him. I was just bowled over, first of all how shy he was. And secondly, he had a kind of dry sense of humor and just how nice he seemed. "This certainly was not what his public image would lead you to expect," he said.
...From his first few appearances, including the one today in Paul VI auditorium in the Vatican, it seems clear that he will not be as dynamic as John Paul II, who as a young man was an actor. Joseph Ratzinger pursued a more solitary art, the piano. On Saturday, he wandered from his script only to joke briefly about switching from one language to the next. "We're in Italy, so let's return to Italian," he said after reading sections of his speech in English, German and French (the French speakers in the audience applauded him).
When he stood to take the microphone after delivering his speech, he did not greet reporters by name or make the sort of impromptu remarks that John Paul might have in his healthier days. Benedict went directly into the Lord's Prayer."
But he was smiling, congenial — and orderly. Colleagues and friends say a sense of order may also be a hallmark of this new pontificate, though detractors worry, too, that it might too much resemble rigid traditionalism. Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, archbishop of Genoa, who worked for 20 years with Ratzinger, said movers were transferring his enormous collection of books from his apartment just outside the Vatican into the papal apartments — in the exact same order.
The order, however, does not seem a sign of personal rigidity, friends say. He rarely shows anger. He is reserved, they say, even shy, but approachable and informal.
"Those who describe him as cold, detached, inaccessible and too intellectual have not met him," wrote Alessandra Borghese, an Italian noblewoman, describing dinner with him in 2004.
"He didn't seem tired but quite amused," she wrote. "His glass was filled with his favorite 'wine': lemonade." Quoting him, she wrote: "In my rhythm of work, and the necessity always to be very lucid, I do not even allow myself a glass of wine. I get up at 6 in the morning, though I used to get up earlier years ago. After Mass, meditation and the breviary, my day does not allow a moment of pause: meetings, conferences, texts to review, documents to sign."
The new pope is not, however, a teetotaler: Bertone said he occasionally allows himself a glass of "excellent" wine from Piedmont. Manuela Macher, co-owner of the Cantina Tirolese, a Bavarian restaurant near the Vatican where he is a regular, said he also liked an occasional German beer, Franziskaner Weissbier. Which raises a question: Does he order the large size or the small?
"No, no — the small," she said. "Or orange juice."
Macher said he was modest, not at all showy for a man of his position, with a dry sense of humor. "Someone lost his dog and put up a sign: Has anyone seen this German Shepherd?" she recalled. "He came in and said, 'No, no, it's not me. I'm here.' It was really funny — it surprised us. I think he is going to surprise us."
(Source: Meet Benedict XVI: Shy, orderly and funny by Ian Fisher of the New York Times, 4/23/05)
I like the one about the German Shepherd.
...John L. Allen Jr., a writer for The National Catholic Reporter, recalled meeting him for the first time at a cocktail party in 1997 in San Francisco. The second most powerful man in the Roman Catholic church was definitely not holding court. "He was just sort of off in a corner," said Allen, who was working on a biography, later called "Cardinal Ratzinger" (Continuum: 2000). "And I remember going up and introducing myself to him. I was just bowled over, first of all how shy he was. And secondly, he had a kind of dry sense of humor and just how nice he seemed. "This certainly was not what his public image would lead you to expect," he said.
...From his first few appearances, including the one today in Paul VI auditorium in the Vatican, it seems clear that he will not be as dynamic as John Paul II, who as a young man was an actor. Joseph Ratzinger pursued a more solitary art, the piano. On Saturday, he wandered from his script only to joke briefly about switching from one language to the next. "We're in Italy, so let's return to Italian," he said after reading sections of his speech in English, German and French (the French speakers in the audience applauded him).
When he stood to take the microphone after delivering his speech, he did not greet reporters by name or make the sort of impromptu remarks that John Paul might have in his healthier days. Benedict went directly into the Lord's Prayer."
But he was smiling, congenial — and orderly. Colleagues and friends say a sense of order may also be a hallmark of this new pontificate, though detractors worry, too, that it might too much resemble rigid traditionalism. Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, archbishop of Genoa, who worked for 20 years with Ratzinger, said movers were transferring his enormous collection of books from his apartment just outside the Vatican into the papal apartments — in the exact same order.
The order, however, does not seem a sign of personal rigidity, friends say. He rarely shows anger. He is reserved, they say, even shy, but approachable and informal.
"Those who describe him as cold, detached, inaccessible and too intellectual have not met him," wrote Alessandra Borghese, an Italian noblewoman, describing dinner with him in 2004.
"He didn't seem tired but quite amused," she wrote. "His glass was filled with his favorite 'wine': lemonade." Quoting him, she wrote: "In my rhythm of work, and the necessity always to be very lucid, I do not even allow myself a glass of wine. I get up at 6 in the morning, though I used to get up earlier years ago. After Mass, meditation and the breviary, my day does not allow a moment of pause: meetings, conferences, texts to review, documents to sign."
The new pope is not, however, a teetotaler: Bertone said he occasionally allows himself a glass of "excellent" wine from Piedmont. Manuela Macher, co-owner of the Cantina Tirolese, a Bavarian restaurant near the Vatican where he is a regular, said he also liked an occasional German beer, Franziskaner Weissbier. Which raises a question: Does he order the large size or the small?
"No, no — the small," she said. "Or orange juice."
Macher said he was modest, not at all showy for a man of his position, with a dry sense of humor. "Someone lost his dog and put up a sign: Has anyone seen this German Shepherd?" she recalled. "He came in and said, 'No, no, it's not me. I'm here.' It was really funny — it surprised us. I think he is going to surprise us."
(Source: Meet Benedict XVI: Shy, orderly and funny by Ian Fisher of the New York Times, 4/23/05)
I like the one about the German Shepherd.
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