Post by Gorf on May 5, 2005 7:37:04 GMT -5
• April 20, 2005 | 1:39 p.m. ET
Why "Benedict"? (Keith Olbermann)
SECAUCUS — Karol Wojtyla’s predecessor originally created the name "Pope John Paul" to honor — and underscore his continuity with — his two immediate predecessors, John XXIII and Paul VI.
His successor has chosen — as you well know by now — the name Benedict XVI, raising it into a tie for the second most frequently selected Papal title with “Gregory,” behind the 23 Johns. But it’s an ancient name, now having been chosen by incoming Pontiffs just twice since 1740.
This is not mere statistical trivia.
As the unfortunate Cardinal Luciani in 1978 was so careful to recognize those who went before him, the former Cardinal Ratzinger is now invoking the memories of the other fifteen Benedicts.
The first, chosen in 579, is so obscure that the only trace of his pontificate is a document showing he granted one an Italian estate to a local Abbot. The second Benedict, we are told, was a great singer — an unusual resume for a Pope. The third had to fight off an invasion by the Saracens.
Numbers four to nine are generally conceded to mark the darkest period in Papal history — one was deposed, one was killed, one was bribed into resigning. The tenth was literally the "anti-Pope" during the pontificate of Nicholas the second in the 11th Century, but Benedict the 11th made peace with the French.
The 12th we'll get to presently; the 13th was pretty much nondescript; the 14th was feisty (during an argument with the French ambassador, he once seized the man, shoved him into the Papal chair and said "Be Pope yourself!"). And the 15th, who ascended in 1914, tried to keep the Vatican neutral during the first World War and publicly pleaded with world leaders not to fight — becoming in the process the first Pope to correspond with an American president. There is little doubt the new Pope is trying to evoke that Benedict, and the Saint of the same name, and even the word itself (benedictum) meaning, simply, “blessing.”<br>
But then there was Benedict the 12th and one almost wishes there was still a place for his earthy self-deprecation at the Vatican. Elected in 1342 — on the first ballot, and when the Popes still ruled more or less in hiding at Avignon, France — he was Cardinal Jacques Fournier, and he evidently wasn't too happy about his new job.
To his fellow cardinals he said, quote, "you have elected a jackass."
Certainly that is not the Benedict which the former Cardinal Ratzinger hopes to emulate. But the selection does raise the question: What does the name mean in the end? Does the name shape the Pope or does the Pope shape the name?
If we could ask one past Pope for an answer, it would be the Cardinal who advanced to the title in 468. He became Pope Hilarius. At the time, the word — in Latin and Greek alike — still principally meant gracious or cheerful, and had not yet assumed its current sense of stand-up comedy.
They made him a Saint — possibly because he’d have to carry that name throughout history. But it’s instructive to note that there has yet to be a Pope Hilarius II.
Why "Benedict"? (Keith Olbermann)
SECAUCUS — Karol Wojtyla’s predecessor originally created the name "Pope John Paul" to honor — and underscore his continuity with — his two immediate predecessors, John XXIII and Paul VI.
His successor has chosen — as you well know by now — the name Benedict XVI, raising it into a tie for the second most frequently selected Papal title with “Gregory,” behind the 23 Johns. But it’s an ancient name, now having been chosen by incoming Pontiffs just twice since 1740.
This is not mere statistical trivia.
As the unfortunate Cardinal Luciani in 1978 was so careful to recognize those who went before him, the former Cardinal Ratzinger is now invoking the memories of the other fifteen Benedicts.
The first, chosen in 579, is so obscure that the only trace of his pontificate is a document showing he granted one an Italian estate to a local Abbot. The second Benedict, we are told, was a great singer — an unusual resume for a Pope. The third had to fight off an invasion by the Saracens.
Numbers four to nine are generally conceded to mark the darkest period in Papal history — one was deposed, one was killed, one was bribed into resigning. The tenth was literally the "anti-Pope" during the pontificate of Nicholas the second in the 11th Century, but Benedict the 11th made peace with the French.
The 12th we'll get to presently; the 13th was pretty much nondescript; the 14th was feisty (during an argument with the French ambassador, he once seized the man, shoved him into the Papal chair and said "Be Pope yourself!"). And the 15th, who ascended in 1914, tried to keep the Vatican neutral during the first World War and publicly pleaded with world leaders not to fight — becoming in the process the first Pope to correspond with an American president. There is little doubt the new Pope is trying to evoke that Benedict, and the Saint of the same name, and even the word itself (benedictum) meaning, simply, “blessing.”<br>
But then there was Benedict the 12th and one almost wishes there was still a place for his earthy self-deprecation at the Vatican. Elected in 1342 — on the first ballot, and when the Popes still ruled more or less in hiding at Avignon, France — he was Cardinal Jacques Fournier, and he evidently wasn't too happy about his new job.
To his fellow cardinals he said, quote, "you have elected a jackass."
Certainly that is not the Benedict which the former Cardinal Ratzinger hopes to emulate. But the selection does raise the question: What does the name mean in the end? Does the name shape the Pope or does the Pope shape the name?
If we could ask one past Pope for an answer, it would be the Cardinal who advanced to the title in 468. He became Pope Hilarius. At the time, the word — in Latin and Greek alike — still principally meant gracious or cheerful, and had not yet assumed its current sense of stand-up comedy.
They made him a Saint — possibly because he’d have to carry that name throughout history. But it’s instructive to note that there has yet to be a Pope Hilarius II.