An account of Sunday's Papal mass in Rome
An excellent account of what actually happened two days ago in Rome, by an American visitor: http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2010/may/10051702.html . As I was in the city at the time (thouth I wasn't able to see the ceremony, being busy some twenty miles away), I can testify, first, that she has caught the atmosphere exactly: the little details sound just right; and second and perhaps more significant, that she has badly underrated the weather. It was not just bad or unseasonable: it was a monsoon, with days of steady and often vicious rain. On Saturday evening it had got so bad that, when I had to wait in the rain for half an hour for a bus, my very umbrella started leaking. The rain must have broken through the waterproofing. By the time the bus came, I was looking so wretched that, for the first time in my life (I am not yet 48), someone gave me a seat in a crowded public conveyance, as though I were a little old person. (I know that this was not just someone getting off, because he stayed for half a dozen more stops, chatting away with a friend.)
And this was the weather in which up to 200,000 people went to St.Peter's Square to show their support and affection for the Pope. I suggest the leading spirits in the BBC and both the London and NY Times commit seppuku, because there could be no more blazing proof that their hate campaign against Pope Ratzinger has comperehensively failed.
And this was the weather in which up to 200,000 people went to St.Peter's Square to show their support and affection for the Pope. I suggest the leading spirits in the BBC and both the London and NY Times commit seppuku, because there could be no more blazing proof that their hate campaign against Pope Ratzinger has comperehensively failed.