Thursday, April 21, 2005
of hierarchies and e-mails...
The Pope got his own e-mail account the same day he was rung in - a gmail account I hope? Most importantly of all though... The hierarchy of the Vatican is preserved, they say... Now we know the true reason why the vote went the way it did ; heck, why nothing ever really changes as a matter of fact...! Isn't the most plausible theory regarding the assassination of JFK exactly that ; he wanted to shake things up, to make too many changes... they stopped him cold in his tracks in Dallas. RFK would have been elected President if he had not promised that the first thing he would have done as Prez was re-open the case and the investigation to find out who truly killed his brother - shortly after stating his intentions, he was assassinated too. We know why Abraham Lincoln bit the bullet in such a cowardly way too. Gandhi was realizing peace - an undesired change in this world, in truth of fact (just ask Dubya - he wants no peace! War is SO GOOD FOR THE ECONOMY!) - so he was shot too. Who knows why John Paul the FIRST lasted barely a month himself... maybe he threatened the hierarchy... hmm? The status quo...? Job security is such a precious commodity nowadays... One has to conform in order to survive - otherwise... Now, don't get me wrong here ; I am no anti-conformist for the sake of being so! AU CONTRAIRE - one should do the RIGHT THING - ALWAYS - even if it is not the popular thing to do! I resent any form of elitism though - and if the Vatican is like that, it goes beyond the mere problem of being blind to the problems that the Church faces today... and that is just too bad for the Conclave there...
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New Pope Keeps Vatican Hierarchy Intact Apr 21, 7:00 PM (ET)
By BRIAN MURPHY
VATICAN CITY (AP) - Pope Benedict XVI reinforced his caretaker image Thursday, reappointing the entire Vatican hierarchy chosen by his populist predecessor, John Paul II. At the same time, the new pontiff sought to dispel any impression that he was aloof or dour.
He waved and smiled at crowds gathered along the short stretch between the Vatican gates and his old apartment, where he spent some time in the afternoon. "Viva il papa!" some shouted. The pope, dressed all in white, raised both hands in a greeting.
His schedule also shows hints of the openness and symbolic gestures that were at the heart of John Paul II's reign: a meeting with journalists Saturday, an outdoor Mass to formally take the papal throne Sunday and a visit Monday to a church built over the tomb of St. Paul - an apostle who carries deep significance for Roman Catholics and Christian Orthodox.
The Vatican even unveiled new e-mail addresses for Benedict, following an innovation started by John Paul.
In the first days of his papacy, the 78-year-old Benedict has projected two clear styles.
One was expected: the confident and well-prepared Vatican insider who was one of John Paul's closest advisers for more than two decades. His decisions on the top-level posts came quickly - some popes have struggled for weeks - and showed continuity with his predecessor.
Benedict was reported to have told cardinals shortly after he was elected that his papacy would be a short reign.
There were no changes in any major Vatican office all the way up to the No. 2 slot, the secretary of state, Cardinal Angelo Sodano. The only question remains who will fill the powerful job that the new pope held since 1981: overseeing church doctrine and punishing those who stray.
Among names that have surfaced are Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn of Austria and Cardinal Francis George of Chicago.
There is also speculation about how long Sodano will remain secretary of state. He is 77, two years past the normal retirement age for Vatican officials.
In the latest comments about the new pope's health, his brother, the Rev. Georg Ratzinger, said Thursday that Benedict "doesn't have any complaints now."
"From the point of view of his health, obviously he isn't the same as 10 years ago," Ratzinger told Sky Tg24 television. "Let's hope that everything goes well."
The second image emerging - a humble and welcoming pastor - has caught many off guard.
The pontiff's name, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, became synonymous among Catholics with the church's strictest factions and earned him nicknames that played off his German background, such as "God's rottweiler."
But top prelates and other church experts say it was an unfair reputation.
All agree that he is strongly rooted in church traditions and inflexible on issues such as the church's bans on contraception and women priests. But so was John Paul. The new pontiff may lack his predecessor's charisma, but he shares his sense of reaching out to the faithful, they say.
"He was a follower and servant of the late Pope John Paul II," Vatican-based Colombian Cardinal Lopez Trujillo told Colombian radio RCN. "He is a simple man, serene, cordial, with a fine sense of humor and very kind. ... No one has seen him in a moment of indisposition of rancor or intolerance. These are myths the press invented."
Another cardinal, Italian Tarcisio Bertone, who had worked as Ratzinger's top aide, described how the new pope always paid attention to the street cats around the Vatican and how they sometimes followed him as he walked to his office.
Bertone joked: "One time the Swiss Guards had to intervene: 'Look, your eminence, the cats are laying siege to the Holy See.'"
The Rev. Anthony Figueiredo, a Rome-trained theologian at Seton Hall University in New Jersey, said the pontiff is making the needed transition from the rigid role of "defender of doctrine" to the world stage as "unifier and spiritual leader."
Benedict "will be very firm on doctrine. We know that," said Figueiredo. "But you will see a man who is much more approachable than this reputation as an authoritarian, Germanic figure."
On Wednesday, with several nods to John Paul's groundbreaking papacy, Benedict sketched out some of his broad priorities, including "an open and sincere dialogue" with other faiths and trying to reverse the decline in church attendance and vocations in the West.
He also appears interested in picking up where John Paul left off with efforts to end the nearly 1,000-year estrangement with Orthodox churches, which broke with the Roman church over papal authority and disputes about the liturgy. One of the late pope's unfulfilled dreams was to visit Russia, the most populous Orthodox nation.
On Monday, Benedict plans to visit the Rome basilica built over the tomb of St. Paul, who helped bring Christianity to regions on both sides of the current Catholic-Orthodox divide.
The Sunday inauguration Mass on St. Peter's Square also shows he favors the populist touch of recent popes who have opted to hold their installation ceremonies outdoors rather than in St. Peter's Basilica.
The Vatican expects at least 1,500 bilingual translators from the German-speaking areas of northern Italy to assist pilgrims from the pope's homeland. The following day, the pope plans a separate audience with German faithful, Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said.
And in another sign Benedict intends to follow John Paul in reaching out to other religions, the new pope invited the chief rabbi of Rome, Riccardo di Segni, to his installation Mass. The rabbi will not be able to attend as Sunday is the first day of Passover, but he was pleased to be asked, his spokesman Riccardo Pacifici said.
By BRIAN MURPHY
VATICAN CITY (AP) - Pope Benedict XVI reinforced his caretaker image Thursday, reappointing the entire Vatican hierarchy chosen by his populist predecessor, John Paul II. At the same time, the new pontiff sought to dispel any impression that he was aloof or dour.
He waved and smiled at crowds gathered along the short stretch between the Vatican gates and his old apartment, where he spent some time in the afternoon. "Viva il papa!" some shouted. The pope, dressed all in white, raised both hands in a greeting.
His schedule also shows hints of the openness and symbolic gestures that were at the heart of John Paul II's reign: a meeting with journalists Saturday, an outdoor Mass to formally take the papal throne Sunday and a visit Monday to a church built over the tomb of St. Paul - an apostle who carries deep significance for Roman Catholics and Christian Orthodox.
The Vatican even unveiled new e-mail addresses for Benedict, following an innovation started by John Paul.
In the first days of his papacy, the 78-year-old Benedict has projected two clear styles.
One was expected: the confident and well-prepared Vatican insider who was one of John Paul's closest advisers for more than two decades. His decisions on the top-level posts came quickly - some popes have struggled for weeks - and showed continuity with his predecessor.
Benedict was reported to have told cardinals shortly after he was elected that his papacy would be a short reign.
There were no changes in any major Vatican office all the way up to the No. 2 slot, the secretary of state, Cardinal Angelo Sodano. The only question remains who will fill the powerful job that the new pope held since 1981: overseeing church doctrine and punishing those who stray.
Among names that have surfaced are Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn of Austria and Cardinal Francis George of Chicago.
There is also speculation about how long Sodano will remain secretary of state. He is 77, two years past the normal retirement age for Vatican officials.
In the latest comments about the new pope's health, his brother, the Rev. Georg Ratzinger, said Thursday that Benedict "doesn't have any complaints now."
"From the point of view of his health, obviously he isn't the same as 10 years ago," Ratzinger told Sky Tg24 television. "Let's hope that everything goes well."
The second image emerging - a humble and welcoming pastor - has caught many off guard.
The pontiff's name, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, became synonymous among Catholics with the church's strictest factions and earned him nicknames that played off his German background, such as "God's rottweiler."
But top prelates and other church experts say it was an unfair reputation.
All agree that he is strongly rooted in church traditions and inflexible on issues such as the church's bans on contraception and women priests. But so was John Paul. The new pontiff may lack his predecessor's charisma, but he shares his sense of reaching out to the faithful, they say.
"He was a follower and servant of the late Pope John Paul II," Vatican-based Colombian Cardinal Lopez Trujillo told Colombian radio RCN. "He is a simple man, serene, cordial, with a fine sense of humor and very kind. ... No one has seen him in a moment of indisposition of rancor or intolerance. These are myths the press invented."
Another cardinal, Italian Tarcisio Bertone, who had worked as Ratzinger's top aide, described how the new pope always paid attention to the street cats around the Vatican and how they sometimes followed him as he walked to his office.
Bertone joked: "One time the Swiss Guards had to intervene: 'Look, your eminence, the cats are laying siege to the Holy See.'"
The Rev. Anthony Figueiredo, a Rome-trained theologian at Seton Hall University in New Jersey, said the pontiff is making the needed transition from the rigid role of "defender of doctrine" to the world stage as "unifier and spiritual leader."
Benedict "will be very firm on doctrine. We know that," said Figueiredo. "But you will see a man who is much more approachable than this reputation as an authoritarian, Germanic figure."
On Wednesday, with several nods to John Paul's groundbreaking papacy, Benedict sketched out some of his broad priorities, including "an open and sincere dialogue" with other faiths and trying to reverse the decline in church attendance and vocations in the West.
He also appears interested in picking up where John Paul left off with efforts to end the nearly 1,000-year estrangement with Orthodox churches, which broke with the Roman church over papal authority and disputes about the liturgy. One of the late pope's unfulfilled dreams was to visit Russia, the most populous Orthodox nation.
On Monday, Benedict plans to visit the Rome basilica built over the tomb of St. Paul, who helped bring Christianity to regions on both sides of the current Catholic-Orthodox divide.
The Sunday inauguration Mass on St. Peter's Square also shows he favors the populist touch of recent popes who have opted to hold their installation ceremonies outdoors rather than in St. Peter's Basilica.
The Vatican expects at least 1,500 bilingual translators from the German-speaking areas of northern Italy to assist pilgrims from the pope's homeland. The following day, the pope plans a separate audience with German faithful, Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said.
And in another sign Benedict intends to follow John Paul in reaching out to other religions, the new pope invited the chief rabbi of Rome, Riccardo di Segni, to his installation Mass. The rabbi will not be able to attend as Sunday is the first day of Passover, but he was pleased to be asked, his spokesman Riccardo Pacifici said.
Pope Benedict XVI Gets E-Mail Address Apr 21, 1:52 PM (ET)
By WILLIAM J. KOLE
VATICAN CITY (AP) - Pope Benedict XVI had an Internet fan club even when he was cardinal. Now the Vatican has taken the logical next step by giving him a papal e-mail address.
The Holy See hasn't said how many messages the pope has gotten, but if the late John Paul II's experience with a multimedia ministry is any guide, the new leader of the world's 1.1 billion Roman Catholics will have an inbox jammed with prayers, problems and pet peeves.
On Thursday, the Vatican modified its Web site so users who click on a "Greetings to the Holy Father" icon on the home page automatically activate an e-mail composer with his address in the send field.
The address for messages in English is benedictxvi@vatican.va. There are also addresses for e-mails in Italian, Spanish, French, German and Portuguese.
Benedict's e-mail isn't the only address generating interest in an online world.
The pope's election triggered a mad scramble among people eager to register with various incarnations of his name on free e-mail providers such as Yahoo! and Microsoft Corp. (MSFT)'s Hotmail, British Broadcasting Corp. reported Thursday.
And there is action on the Web, too. At one point Thursday, bidding on eBay surpassed $1,175 for "PopeBenedictXVI.com" - a Web domain name being peddled by an enterprising soul from Ontario, Canada.
John Paul was the first pope to use e-mail, a medium that made its debut during his 26-year papacy. The Vatican said he received tens of thousands of messages in his final weeks as he struggled with illness.
The Vatican even sent an e-mail to journalists to announce John Paul's death April 2.
It's unclear how much, if any, e-mail Benedict receives will be answered by him or a member of his staff. When John Paul was hospitalized, a spokesman for the clinic caring for him said that the pope was shown some of the e-mails and that all of the messages he received would get an official response.
In 2001, sitting in the Vatican's frescoed Clementine Hall, John Paul used a laptop to tap out an apology for Roman Catholic missionary abuses against indigenous peoples of the South Pacific.
The Holy See often issues news or documents to journalists via e-mail, and its labyrinth of obscure offices and councils are on the Web in a half dozen languages. Even the Sistine Chapel with its famed art collection offers a virtual tour.
Long before Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was elevated to pope this week, an online fan club sang his praises and offered souvenirs with the slogan: "Putting the smackdown on heresy since 1981." That's when the doctrinal hard-liner became head of the Vatican's powerful Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith.
A message on the club's home page greets visitors and describes the unofficial fan site as "our little way of expressing our thanks and moral support for the man once known as Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI."
"These are the kinds of things that can be modern at church," a message from one visitor reads. "Some people don't know it's perfectly possible to be technologically 'advanced' and follow the road our Lord established 2,005 years ago."
While John Paul embraced the new communications technology as a useful tool in the church's efforts to spread the Gospel, he took a cautious approach to e-mail and the Internet.
He spoke out against the proliferation of online pornography and hate speech, and he said the industry's needs to police itself and meet the "ethical and spiritual challenges" raised as communications technology evolves.
"Its misuse can do untold harm, giving rise to misunderstanding, prejudice and even conflict," he said in a January message marking the 29th World Communications Day.
---
On the Net:
Vatican site: http://www.vatican.va
Ratzinger fan club: http://www.ratzingerfanclub.com
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By WILLIAM J. KOLE
VATICAN CITY (AP) - Pope Benedict XVI had an Internet fan club even when he was cardinal. Now the Vatican has taken the logical next step by giving him a papal e-mail address.
The Holy See hasn't said how many messages the pope has gotten, but if the late John Paul II's experience with a multimedia ministry is any guide, the new leader of the world's 1.1 billion Roman Catholics will have an inbox jammed with prayers, problems and pet peeves.
On Thursday, the Vatican modified its Web site so users who click on a "Greetings to the Holy Father" icon on the home page automatically activate an e-mail composer with his address in the send field.
The address for messages in English is benedictxvi@vatican.va. There are also addresses for e-mails in Italian, Spanish, French, German and Portuguese.
Benedict's e-mail isn't the only address generating interest in an online world.
The pope's election triggered a mad scramble among people eager to register with various incarnations of his name on free e-mail providers such as Yahoo! and Microsoft Corp. (MSFT)'s Hotmail, British Broadcasting Corp. reported Thursday.
And there is action on the Web, too. At one point Thursday, bidding on eBay surpassed $1,175 for "PopeBenedictXVI.com" - a Web domain name being peddled by an enterprising soul from Ontario, Canada.
John Paul was the first pope to use e-mail, a medium that made its debut during his 26-year papacy. The Vatican said he received tens of thousands of messages in his final weeks as he struggled with illness.
The Vatican even sent an e-mail to journalists to announce John Paul's death April 2.
It's unclear how much, if any, e-mail Benedict receives will be answered by him or a member of his staff. When John Paul was hospitalized, a spokesman for the clinic caring for him said that the pope was shown some of the e-mails and that all of the messages he received would get an official response.
In 2001, sitting in the Vatican's frescoed Clementine Hall, John Paul used a laptop to tap out an apology for Roman Catholic missionary abuses against indigenous peoples of the South Pacific.
The Holy See often issues news or documents to journalists via e-mail, and its labyrinth of obscure offices and councils are on the Web in a half dozen languages. Even the Sistine Chapel with its famed art collection offers a virtual tour.
Long before Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was elevated to pope this week, an online fan club sang his praises and offered souvenirs with the slogan: "Putting the smackdown on heresy since 1981." That's when the doctrinal hard-liner became head of the Vatican's powerful Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith.
A message on the club's home page greets visitors and describes the unofficial fan site as "our little way of expressing our thanks and moral support for the man once known as Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI."
"These are the kinds of things that can be modern at church," a message from one visitor reads. "Some people don't know it's perfectly possible to be technologically 'advanced' and follow the road our Lord established 2,005 years ago."
While John Paul embraced the new communications technology as a useful tool in the church's efforts to spread the Gospel, he took a cautious approach to e-mail and the Internet.
He spoke out against the proliferation of online pornography and hate speech, and he said the industry's needs to police itself and meet the "ethical and spiritual challenges" raised as communications technology evolves.
"Its misuse can do untold harm, giving rise to misunderstanding, prejudice and even conflict," he said in a January message marking the 29th World Communications Day.
---
On the Net:
Vatican site: http://www.vatican.va
Ratzinger fan club: http://www.ratzingerfanclub.com
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