Tuesday, April 05, 2005
Poynter Online
I saw the pope in 1999 in St. Louis with some friends at a youth rally at the local arena. Quite an experience! It was as if he were a rock star—as soon as he came in, everyone started screaming at the top of their lungs. And this was AFTER the real rock stars took the stage and coaxed the archbishops in attendance to do the wave.
I went to St. Patrick’s Cathedral on Saturday after I heard about his death to attend 5:30 mass. The place was packed—I got there ten minutes early and had to sit on the side behind a pillar. Some people could only stand. And this was the normal Saturday mass. Afterward, I signed the condolence book being sent to the Vatican. Such an amazing experience to be there on that day of all days.
I would suggest you all go to Poynter’s Web site, which has a gallery of all the front pages on papers on the day of his death. It’s interesting to see how each publication played his life out and what pictures they used. I especially like the one used by Poynter on its site. Suck an amazing photo in so many ways.
In the meantime, I am getting excited about watching the process to elect a new pontiff. Slate’s scorecard gives a rundown of a few of the potential future popes and New Advent has a detailed description of the conclave. In fact, I would highly recommend New Advent for Catholics and non-Catholics over the next few weeks—it’s a great resource on all things Catholic. Oh, and quite cool: this time, the Vatican will be ringing the main bell—the one rung when the pope died—when a new pope is elected so there is no confusion between black and white smoke.
Thanks for the links, Jenny. I really enjoyed the pictures. As a non-Catholic, I wish I had more time to spend reading the New Advent site. I feel better educated already having just read the article on the conclave. There is still a lot I don’t know about or understand, though, so I’m going to bookmark it and try to read more articles over the next few weeks. Great idea!
Posted by Joan on 04/06 at 11:05 AMOh yeah, it’s an awesome site. I had to use it again today. They have so much terminology about so many things that it’s hard to explain it all the time. They kept mentioning the secret cardinals—essentially these are people the pope has not had a chance to elevate to cardinal yet but wants to. interesting.
Ha ha! My secret word to post this message is soo the opposite of the pope.
Posted by jenny on 04/06 at 02:34 PM