A Historic Event

Memories came flooding back yesterday as I watched Pope Benedict's final hours.

It was just 6 years ago that my family and I were standing in line at the entrance of the Papal Palace in Castel Gandolfo's Freedom Square waiting to receive the Papal Blessing.

We were staying in a villa 9 miles outside Rome in Castel Gandolfo for the occasion of my brother's wedding at The Vatican. 

It was a historic event for my family and we were incredibly blessed to have had the rare privilege to attend the Papal Blessing in this picturesque Italian locale.

 For nearly 400 years, the town of Castel Gandolfo has played host to a succession of pontiffs seeking solace from the stifling Roman summer.

Pope Benedict will spend some two months here as he waits for the restoration of more permanent lodgings in a convent inside the Vatican where he will live out his life, hidden to the world.

Pope Benedict's apartment has been sealed.

 

The doors closed with the symbolic red ribbon, all part of the ancient, secret and elaborate process leading up to choosing a new pope.

 

 As the College of Cardinals begins to congregate next week ahead of a March conclave to choose Benedict's successor, the pope's off-season stint in Castel Gandolfo is an added assurance that he won't exert any undue influence in the selection.

Does he still believe what he believed as a child?”

Pope Benedict XVI answers:“I would answer in similar terms. I would say: Simplicity is truth—and truth is simple. Our problem is that we no longer see the forest for the trees; that for all our knowledge, we have lost the path to wisdom. This is also the idea behind Saint-Exupéry’s The Little Prince, which shows how the cleverness of our age causes us, ironically, to overlook the essential, while the Little Prince, who hasn’t the faintest idea about all this cleverness, ultimately sees more and better.

- See more at: http://www.patheos.com/blogs/yimcatholic/2011/04/to-get-to-know-my-pope-viva-il-papa.html#sthash.vcXPMRiz.dpuf

Does he still believe what he believed as a child?”

Pope Benedict XVI answers:“I would answer in similar terms. I would say: Simplicity is truth—and truth is simple. Our problem is that we no longer see the forest for the trees; that for all our knowledge, we have lost the path to wisdom. This is also the idea behind Saint-Exupéry’s The Little Prince, which shows how the cleverness of our age causes us, ironically, to overlook the essential, while the Little Prince, who hasn’t the faintest idea about all this cleverness, ultimately sees more and better.

- See more at: http://www.patheos.com/blogs/yimcatholic/2011/04/to-get-to-know-my-pope-viva-il-papa.html#sthash.vcXPMRiz.dpuf

When Pope Benedict was asked if he still believed what he believed as a child, he answered, "I would say: Simplicity is truth - and truth is simple. Our problem is that we no longer see the forest for the trees; that for all our knowledge, we have lost the path to wisdom."

 

Does he still believe what he believed as a child?”

Pope Benedict XVI answers:“I would answer in similar terms. I would say: Simplicity is truth—and truth is simple. Our problem is that we no longer see the forest for the trees; that for all our knowledge, we have lost the path to wisdom. This is also the idea behind Saint-Exupéry’s The Little Prince, which shows how the cleverness of our age causes us, ironically, to overlook the essential, while the Little Prince, who hasn’t the faintest idea about all this cleverness, ultimately sees more and better.

- See more at: http://www.patheos.com/blogs/yimcatholic/2011/04/to-get-to-know-my-pope-viva-il-papa.html#sthash.vcXPMRiz.dpuf

"What really counts? What is authentic? What keeps us going? The key is to see what is simple."

Viva Il Papa!

“What really counts? What is authentic? What keeps us going? The key thing is to see what is simple. - See more at: http://www.patheos.com/blogs/yimcatholic/2011/04/to-get-to-know-my-pope-viva-il-papa.html#sthash.vcXPMRiz.dpuf

“I would answer in similar terms. I would say: Simplicity is truth—and truth is simple. Our problem is that we no longer see the forest for the trees; that for all our knowledge, we have lost the path to wisdom. This is also the idea behind Saint-Exupéry’s The Little Prince, which shows how the cleverness of our age causes us, ironically, to overlook the essential, while the Little Prince, who hasn’t the faintest idea about all this cleverness, ultimately sees more and better. - See more at: http://www.patheos.com/blogs/yimcatholic/2011/04/to-get-to-know-my-pope-viva-il-papa.html#sthash.vcXPMRiz.dpuf