Vatican – The late John Paul II was known for blazing new trails, but it seems that his successor, Pope Benedict XVI, is well on his way to blazing some trails of his own. The Holy Roman Pontiff has staked his claim to a corner of cyberspace.
Why would the most visible religious leader in the world, the leader of over one billion Catholics, who even has his own press office, choose to publish a weblog? The pope, who pens under the catchy nickname Papa Ratzi, states on his blog that his reason for blogging is that he “really, really likes the idea of musing.”
...Apparently, the Holy Pontiff is no longer content reading the opinions of others, and desires to have a forum of his own. I placed a call to the papal office to get a comment and was told by the Holy Father’s secretary that the pope’s blog is his personal enterprise, and that any questions regarding it should be directed to him directly via his Haloscan commenting system, which can be found on his blog.
I made some contacts in order to get an idea of what members of the Curia think about this unconventional hobby of the pontiff. According to one high level Vatican insider who wishes to remain anonymous, the pope started blogging simply because he enjoys it. This source informs me that even as Cardinal Ratzinger, the Holy Father often stayed up to the wee hours of the morning commenting on various blog sites under a pseudonym.
...Not all of the people I spoke with were pleased with the notion of the pope blogging. One of the more progressive bishops fears that the pope will, in his words, “get mixed up with the wrong crowd and be persuaded to reform the reform of the liturgy.” He continued, “There are a great number of reactionaries blogging who don’t like Clown Masses, hippy folk song hymns, chitchatting in a gymnasium, the Sign of Peace and other fruits of the liturgical reform. The Holy Father is already inclined to limit the freedom of liturgists and roll the liturgy back to the Middle Ages; the last thing we need for him to believe is that the general consensus is with him.”
Another Vatican official voiced the concern that the pope’s blogging may be interfering with his work. Apparently the Holy Father’s first encyclical was due to be released July 17, but has been continually delayed because the pope has been spending an inordinate amount of time preparing his blog and commenting on other blogs.
Go to the source! http://musumpontificalis.blogspot.com/
Good parody site. I particularly like the Relatavism post.
ReplyDeleteGreat satire. Thanks for the heads-up on that blog!
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