Therefore every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like a householder who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old.
10) The Pope's instinctive removal of his zuccheto for the national anthem on arrival in Edinburgh...a masterclass in how to switch the narrative course of an entire event - at day one, hour one, minute one - with the very simplest of gestures. Genius.
9) Sky News' holy trinity of experts: Ann Widdecombe; Alastair Bruce OBE; and US native - Fr Tom Williams (dean of the theology school at the Regina Apostolorum Pontifical University in Rome). Anyone who stuck with Sky during the whole Papal trip know what a majestic performance these three gave across the four days. With perfect anchoring by Colin Brazier and Anna Botting throughout. Hats (and thank-you postcards) off to Sky. Coverage so fulsome that by the end of the fourth day even I was agreeing with the humanists who called it "fawning"...except that I didn't care!
8) The Pope's raised "you don't say!" eyebrows to Dr. Rowan Williams at Westminster Abbey as the latter declared that (paraphrasing) "some Christians have different interpretations of your role as successor of Peter". Supreme Olivieresque subtlety. And they say that Pope John Paul was the actor!
7) Sky's Alastair Bruce mistakenly and non-ironically referring to the "Celtic Invocation" (with which the Liturgy of the Eucharist began at Bellahouston Park) as the "Celtic Innovation". He didn't realise how inadvertently spot-on he really was.
6) Oscott seminarian, Brendan Seery, declaring, during an interview with Sky's Anna Botting (16:08 on Sunday), that as a young boy he used to "play Mass with Milky Bar buttons and Ribena juice". Yes, Brendan, you really did say that live on TV before a nation whilst the rest of your fellows watched on! Something tells me that's an anecdote to be wheeled-out again and again at ordination! God bless you, Brendan, in your future studies. There are some fine priests in the production line.
5) Fr Tom Williams, thinking the Sky cameras had switched to adverts, giving Ann Widdecombe an ostentatious thumbs-up after she'd expertly batted away the theological non-complexities as to why women can't be ordained. Hilarious. I was expecting him to give a high-five and full-on "get-in-there, Ann!"
4) Frank Carson in full Order of St Gregory the Great regalia at Cofton Park. A surreal sight and sound to be seen and heard amid the encircling gloom at 6am. You really had to be there. It's the way he wakes 'em.
3) Papal secretary, Fr Georg Gaenswein, surreptitiously trying to shove the papal glasses into the Pope's hands during the gift exchange ceremony at Westminster and the accompanying body language refusal which was subtitled: "Look Georg, I know you've tried pushing them over my arms and into my clasped hands but to no avail, then under my arms and into my open hands and then even a flat-out elbow nudge...but you'll soon get the blunt message that I'm not going to need them as I really won't be looking at this for too much longer." Perfect master and servant comedy!
2) The gently ascending guffaw from the congregation at Westminster Cathedral which saved a moment and saved the Pope from an awkward shift in his seat as Bishop Edwin Regan mentioned his non-appearance in Wales. In that very moment the Pope "got" the fine-tuning of British humour. And Bishop Regan narrowed his eyes to say "gotcha!"
...and majestically at No. 1...
...no red carpet on His Holiness' arrival at Edinburgh airport (the wind, or so they said) but there sure was at Birmingham on his departure. A metaphor, if ever, for the entire event!
I fear it's BAU with the media as the Vatican bank faces an enquiry. The BBC and Hampstead's white supremacists will not give up their power without a fight so it was nice while it lasted …
It will be interesting to know when this 'enquiry' was first begun? That "Kasper interview" for example, was given a few weeks ago (but nearly backfired as many of the blogosphere agreed with him!) and released on the eve of the visit which is an old journalistic trick.
This is a 'biggie' as the images of Calvi and Blackfriars bridge "which name derives from the black cappa worn by the Dominican Friars who moved their priory from Holborn to the area between the River Thames and Ludgate Hill in 1276 … " - fill in the rest.
8 comments:
I have to say Father that I probably watched more TV in the last four days than in the last four years!
I love those sisters, a traditional order along with the Friars of the Immaculate!
My Top 10 fave observed moments:
10) The Pope's instinctive removal of his zuccheto for the national anthem on arrival in Edinburgh...a masterclass in how to switch the narrative course of an entire event - at day one, hour one, minute one - with the very simplest of gestures. Genius.
9) Sky News' holy trinity of experts: Ann Widdecombe; Alastair Bruce OBE; and US native - Fr Tom Williams (dean of the theology school at the Regina Apostolorum Pontifical University in Rome). Anyone who stuck with Sky during the whole Papal trip know what a majestic performance these three gave across the four days. With perfect anchoring by Colin Brazier and Anna Botting throughout. Hats (and thank-you postcards) off to Sky. Coverage so fulsome that by the end of the fourth day even I was agreeing with the humanists who called it "fawning"...except that I didn't care!
8) The Pope's raised "you don't say!" eyebrows to Dr. Rowan Williams at Westminster Abbey as the latter declared that (paraphrasing) "some Christians have different interpretations of your role as successor of Peter". Supreme Olivieresque subtlety. And they say that Pope John Paul was the actor!
7) Sky's Alastair Bruce mistakenly and non-ironically referring to the "Celtic Invocation" (with which the Liturgy of the Eucharist began at Bellahouston Park) as the "Celtic Innovation". He didn't realise how inadvertently spot-on he really was.
6) Oscott seminarian, Brendan Seery, declaring, during an interview with Sky's Anna Botting (16:08 on Sunday), that as a young boy he used to "play Mass with Milky Bar buttons and Ribena juice". Yes, Brendan, you really did say that live on TV before a nation whilst the rest of your fellows watched on! Something tells me that's an anecdote to be wheeled-out again and again at ordination! God bless you, Brendan, in your future studies. There are some fine priests in the production line.
5) Fr Tom Williams, thinking the Sky cameras had switched to adverts, giving Ann Widdecombe an ostentatious thumbs-up after she'd expertly batted away the theological non-complexities as to why women can't be ordained. Hilarious. I was expecting him to give a high-five and full-on "get-in-there, Ann!"
4) Frank Carson in full Order of St Gregory the Great regalia at Cofton Park. A surreal sight and sound to be seen and heard amid the encircling gloom at 6am. You really had to be there. It's the way he wakes 'em.
3) Papal secretary, Fr Georg Gaenswein, surreptitiously trying to shove the papal glasses into the Pope's hands during the gift exchange ceremony at Westminster and the accompanying body language refusal which was subtitled: "Look Georg, I know you've tried pushing them over my arms and into my clasped hands but to no avail, then under my arms and into my open hands and then even a flat-out elbow nudge...but you'll soon get the blunt message that I'm not going to need them as I really won't be looking at this for too much longer." Perfect master and servant comedy!
2) The gently ascending guffaw from the congregation at Westminster Cathedral which saved a moment and saved the Pope from an awkward shift in his seat as Bishop Edwin Regan mentioned his non-appearance in Wales. In that very moment the Pope "got" the fine-tuning of British humour. And Bishop Regan narrowed his eyes to say "gotcha!"
...and majestically at No. 1...
...no red carpet on His Holiness' arrival at Edinburgh airport (the wind, or so they said) but there sure was at Birmingham on his departure. A metaphor, if ever, for the entire event!
.
Me too.
Incidentally what happened to the eastern-style pallium that this Pope wore in the early days of his pontificate?
I fear it's BAU with the media as the Vatican bank faces an enquiry. The BBC and Hampstead's white supremacists will not give up their power without a fight so it was nice while it lasted …
It will be interesting to know when this 'enquiry' was first begun? That "Kasper interview" for example, was given a few weeks ago (but nearly backfired as many of the blogosphere agreed with him!) and released on the eve of the visit which is an old journalistic trick.
This is a 'biggie' as the images of Calvi and Blackfriars bridge "which name derives from the black cappa worn by the Dominican Friars who moved their priory from Holborn to the area between the River Thames and Ludgate Hill in 1276 … " - fill in the rest.
And there probably have been more hours of religious broadcasting in the last four days than there have been in the last four years!
I too, was glued to the TV for the duration of the Papal Visit- and I'm not saying sorry!
What a charming picture! And it's lovely to see their habits.
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