What a near disaster! Brazil really botched the arrival of His Holiness.
Brazil did not botch it up. The Vatican reported what happened. The road has 16 lanes. The city had cleared the four central lanes on the southbound side for the pope’s motorcade. When the driver of the lead car made the right turn, he turned too soon. Instead of turning into the center, he turned into the far left of the right lanes which were reserved for buses and pilgrims. In other words, he was one lane short of where he was supposed to be. The cars behind him followed without realizing what they were getting into until it was too late to back out.
Why must we always think the worse?
That’s what I was thinking, but then again, the route could have been planned a bit differently. Anyways he made it safe and sound to where he needed to go.
I also noticed the “sign of the times”…“a large crowd followed and pressed around him”, yes, but the intention was not to touch at least his clothes…instead it was more like: “If I could just* take a picture of him with my cellphone*”
I think the Holy Father is experiencing a new degree of contact with the crowd…people at the Vatican are sort of used to seeing the Pope, so they are big crowds but more organized…and before I do not think he had to face such crowds as bishop or cardinal…now he meets big crowds who see in him a passing image of Christ’s vicar on earth, and they will go for him with the same dramatic thirst we read of in the Gospels…and that love can overwhelm and hurt. I hope he will slowly acknowledge this, and trust more in the safety measures recommended by his personal guard…
The Vatican also addressed this question. Fr. Lombardi quoted the Holy Father saying that in the spirit of St. Francis of Assisi who was one with the poor and in the manner of St. Peter who walked among the martyrs, the Bishop of Rome must not shy away from danger. He has no plans of changing his mind on this matter. His intent is to be able to physically touch the people and be touched.
He (the pope) told his secretary to clam down. The secretary was concerned for the pope’s safety when they were trapped in that crowd. The pope told the secretary that he was enjoying himself and if something happened, it is God’s will. “We do not own anything in this world, not even our lives.”
This was interesting, because this is a direct quote from the Rule of St. Francis to our order. These may come out soon in Vatican news. We get it through our own internal memos from Franciscans who were present. These reach us as things are happening. There are several Franciscan communities reporting: MFVA, OFM, OFM Cap, and FMDV
POPE’S TRANSLATED SPEECH courtesy of Rome Reports
I heard the actual speech in Portuguese. The English translation does not do it justice. There are certain words and expressions in Portuguese that don’t exist in English. Also, if one does not hear the voice behind the words, one misses much of the nuance.
It was a great speech. Madam President’s welcome address to the Holy Father was equally beautiful. It was very informal, friendly, passionate and hopeful.
Whether one agrees with either one or neither, one had to admit that they were very comfortable with each other, both avoided all forms of political correctness, but spoke as friends to each other, which is refreshing, because North Americans and Europeans tend to be much more formal in these ceremonies.
There was even a lot of hugging and kissing. The Holy Father hugged the President and kissed her when she welcomed him. He also hugged her and kissed her goodnight as he was leaving the palace. The entire event was very beautiful. If you understand Portuguese, go to CTV. You can see and hear the entire thing without the English overlay. The English translation that was posted above was being read as the pope spoke. I saw it first on EWTN and later on Salt & Light TV. I was disappointed, because Pope Francis is generally a very energetic and charismatic speaker. This was rather flat.
Later, a brother told me that the video was on CTV in Portuguese without the English overlay. I watched and listened and was delighted. It is much much better. There are certain points that the pope makes with humor, other to which he adds great energy.
**
God wished that the first international trip of my pontificate should take me back to my beloved Latin America, **
When he said this, his voice cracked. You could see that he is actually homesick and is delighted to be among his people. This explains a great deal his decision to live in Casa Santa Marta. He did say that he needs to be around people. Hearing his voice and the emotion with which he delivered this line, I can now understand the man’s attachment for community life, family and home.
