Posted on 01/06/2023 7:25:46 AM PST by ebb tide
Most Americans probably missed Pope Benedict's funeral service, given that it was held in the wee hours of the American morning.
But writer Rod Dreher, who has interest in Catholic things, was there, and as someone with affection for Pope Benedict XIV, didn't want to miss his funeral.
The pomp and ceremony of it was lovely, as was the mass itself. But there was one element that Dreher thought a little substandard -- Pope Francis's presiding over the mass itself, in his reading of the eulogy for his immediate predecessor. He kind of went ... generic, like he didn't know the guy.
In a piece for The American Conservative that is just out, Dreher writes:
The funeral mass itself was quite beautiful. I don't know how many people were present in the square -- 60,000? -- but it wasn't like John Paul II's funeral, because Benedict had been out of the papal office for almost a decade. Still, those who were there loved him. Two old Bavarian women sat behind me. They loved him too, but in a way the rest of us can't understand. He was theirs.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
Ping
The Church has an atheist Communist sitting in the Captain’s chair. An Eternity in Hell awaits him.
Francis botches all things Catholic. He’s the anti pope
And Benedict put him there.
Read later.
Disgusting...
I have so struggled with this too… that said if our life is meant to be preparation for the afterlife… Benedict spent 10 years in prayer and will hopefully be very close to our Lord for eternity.
Perhaps in the next life he can have the impact we hope for in this one.
A shift in the Church would be a miracle at this point.
Just another Leftist destroying whatever is in his path.
While I thought the homily was fine, I did notice that it was a bit impersonal. Not sure who wrote it.
Benedict didn’t do anything to help build the church, but certainly helps hasten the decline of the importance of church.
It looks like Francis didn’t have much love for Benedict and didn’t try to hide it in his little talk.
If it had been obama, biden, castro, lenin, marx or nicolas maduro, he’d be wailing in tears and unable to speak.
You have NO idea of which you speak!!
Oh, he knew the guy. And didn't like him.
I must disagree. It turned out Benedict felt he was physically hamstrung in the performance of the office and stepped aside after a few brilliant years. But we must not let his tenure define his life. He served under John-Paul II as his right hand and the rebuilding of the defined faith that took place under JPII was virtually his shared accomplishment. His theological works in the decades prior to his Papacy were great and are still having a wonderful impact and say this as a non-Roman Catholic.
I haven't watched the funeral, but by all accounts, Francis appeared genuinely grieved during the liturgy.
In sum, Framcis’ homily was perfuntory and nothing more, which by itself says a ton as to what Francis actually thought of Ratzinger. For Francis he was merely doing a required task, nothing else, nothing else contributed to his words.
at the time, i thought it bloodless and not memorable - but thought i should read it later. now that i read it, i see i wasn’t all wrong.
Bergoglio was a Cardinal before Ratzinger became Pope and he did not vote in the conclave that elected Bergoglio.
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