Just before Christmas our only Catholic
newspaper in South Africa, The Southern Cross, chose to post, on its Facebook
page, a random story from the Chicago
Sun-Times about Pope Benedict XVI’s ailing health.
To this day, I remain completely at a loss
as to why this rather insignificant article, full of pointless speculation,
needed any attention whatsoever. Especially since it has been dredged up from a
newspaper that is not Catholic and is on the complete opposite end of the earth
to South Africa. Very strange behaviour indeed!
Then I came across this post, on a Blog I
follow, titled “The Tablet’s
unseemly haste to bury Pope Benedict XVI before he’s died”. It was about a
similar story that was published by The Tablet. The Tablet
article reads:
“Although Pope Benedict’s general health appears to be good, he has
begun to show signs of fatigue and increasing frailty. History and prudence
would suggest that the cardinals of the Church should seriously start thinking
about suitable candidates to succeed him. Casting a vote for the Successor of
Peter is the main and gravest purpose for which they are given a red hat. They
must avoid being caught unprepared, as apparently they were at the last
conclave, when a number of cardinals publicly confessed that they did not know
their confrères very well.”
The comment by the Protect The Pope Blog is
brilliant. It reads:
“What a cheek! Pope Benedict XVI is planning two major apostolic
journeys to Mexico and Cuba early in 2012,working on the final volume of his
trilogy on Jesus of Nazareth, writing the encyclical on Faith that completes
his series on the Theological Virtues, on top of all the other daily public
appearances, homilies, addresses and meetings. And Robert Mickens has the
rudeness to write about a successor to the Holy Father. I’d like to see him do
as much when he’s nearly 85.
What this impertinence is really about is the well known fact that
Mr Mickens can’t stand Pope Benedict XVI.
The story goes that when Pope Benedict walked out on to the loggia of St
Peter’s as the new pope, Mr Mickens burst into tears of frustration and rage.
So now Mr Mickens and the editor of The Tablet want to put the
pontificate of Pope Benedict behind them as fast as possible, with their
fantasies of a new pope.”
I wonder. Does the editor of the Southern
Cross also share the views of Mr Mickens of The Tablet? Is the editor of the
Southern Cross too having fantasies of the appointment of a new pope as fast as
possible?
Personally I hope and pray that Pope Benedict XVI is around for another ten years, at least.
