Peggy Noonan: The Day I Met the Pope

Opinion Journal ^ | 08/02/2002 | Peggy Noonan

[Campion]

I ask a simple question, "Yeah..... but is he a PROPHET!? ", and people go ballistic!!

Does it occur to you that maybe we're sick of having every single thread related to Catholicism hijacked by people who think they have a divine annointing to "save" us into their own particular religious sect?

Too many of those attacks begin with someone "just curious" asking a "simple question" that ends up being something like, "How do you Catholics reconcile the fact that you recrucify Jesus at every Mass with the 1.3 billion Jews and Baptists Pope Pius XV murdered through the Spanish Inquisition during the Nazi Holocaust, after they were anathematized and damned to hell by the Council of Trent for refusing to worship the Virgin Mary? (I read this in a Jack Swaggart -- or was it Jimmy Chick? -- tract, so I know it's true and don't try to deny it.)"

Everything we believe is available at any bookstore or on the net, in a big book called the "Catechism of the Catholic Church". If you want to ask questions, there's no need for exclamation points or all caps.

[Dajjal]

Pontifical bump

[TomB]

Unless you are incredibly dense, you could plainly see that this thread isn't the place for that.

Head on over to any of the "whore of Babylon" that pop up from time to time and post your "question" there.

[independentmind]

Thanks for the ping, Salvation. Another great article by Noonan.

[pgkdan]

Bump for later reading

[Atticus]

[Valin]

Oh to be a fly on thr wall when those rwo met.

[McGavin999]

Breathtaking.

[Salvation]

Could you please add me to the Noonan ping list. I usually like her articles.

Thanks in advance.

[Havisham]

As I read Peggy's story I lived it with her and the other joyful visitors. Beautiful. (tears)

[Pokey78]

Done.

[ventana]

Everything we believe is available at any bookstore or on the net, in a big book called the "Catechism of the Catholic Church". If you want to ask questions, there's no need for exclamation points or all caps.

Smile bump.

[Luis Gonzalez]

"It's like some great white dove flutters from your chest, emerges and flies upward. And you didn't even know it was there. And all this leaves you reaching outward, toward one who is broken, ungainly, without grace. And it fills you with tears."

Some things simply transcend the art of writing, and become raw, pure emotion set to words.

No one can teach anyone how to do that, I think one has to be born with this ability, and Peggy was.

What an incredible piece, what an incredible writer.

Thanks for the *pings*.

[1rudeboy]

bttt

[SuziQ]

I'm really curious about the procedures for that audience. Was there no name-check at the door? No security screening? It almost seems as if anyone could have gone to those doors in the morning and been allowed in

I'm sure all those folks were 'vetted' before they were granted the audience. And as for just anyone coming in with the group, did you notice her comment about having to walk by the Swiss Guards? I'm sure that each person in that group was 'well known' to the Guards by the time they passed. I would guess that photos of everyone who had been granted an audience were given to the Guards and they were 'checking' each one of them as they passed.

[SuziQ]

Thanks for the ping, Pokey! Though I get the Opinion Journal in e-mail everyday, we're on vacation, and I wouldn't have seen it until I got back home.
Peggy writes from her very soul, and it brought tears to my eyes reading of how she felt meeting this wonderful man, and how she shared the feelings of others doing the same.

[Sabertooth]

No one can teach anyone how to do that, I think one has to be born with this ability, and Peggy was.

There you go, puncturing my "if I only diagram enough sentences" balloon.

[.45MAN]

(((((PING)))))