Vatican City
Easter Day, 2010
Pope Benedict XVI intended his Easter mass to act as a special reminder to the world that we are celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Second Vatican Council.
The bread used for the Eucharist was a special gift. It was intended to remind us of the Pope’s concerns for our environment. The bread was a form of hearth bread. It had been cooked just a week ago by a poor family living in a place where too much dumping had polluted the landfill. Many people suffered from diseases that come from the chemicals found in the mountains of trash. The bread was a simple gift. The family received no compensation. They understood that the pope was a holy person and that he would use it as a gift to the whole world.
The wine came from Poland. It was a special reminder of the Polish woman poet, Anna Swir. She was reconciled to the Catholic Church before her death. The wine recalls the poem she wrote as a war nurse when she risked her life for a dying soldier. Everyone attending the pope’s mass was given a souvenir bookmark. One side had a translation of the poem and the other a copy of the recipe used to make the hearth bread.
At the usual time for the “kiss of peace” ceremony, the Pope requested that the people present remain standing quietly while he embraced his fellow bishops at the altar. The Pope wanted his blessing to show his love and concern for the bishops of the whole world. Then the Pope was seated and put on his bishop’s hat, a pointed head gear. The Pope wanted to remind the world that he was the head of the “college of bishops” which is the worldwide organization by which the church is governed. Then to everyone’s surprise, 2700 white rose petal leaves fell from the ceiling. These represented the 2,700 bishops who attended the Second Vatican Council, fifty years ago.
Recipients were asked to respect the gift as a free gift and to preserve the petals as a souvenir. It was suggested that they not use the hearth bread for a mass. Simply share the bread with others or at a family meal to recall the meaning. Any bread used at mass should have the same values.
Respectfully submitted:
Marilynn Thomas, Journalism Student
Thomas Aquinas College
San Francisco, California, USA
Miss Thomas was selected by the staff at her college after the pope requested that this nominally conservative Catholic College be named to write the news report for this Easter Day mass.
Briefly: A Quicklook at the Papacy of Pope Benedict XVII
by Frank Freeman
April 14, 2010
By recognizing Anna Swir, the pope is implicitly recognizing that the Catholic Church is intrinsically a feminist organization. The “hearthbread” means that our outlook on humanity is the essentially same as that of National Geographic Magazine. It is sweetened with the nearly universal experience of Christian ministries: those that go to give help to the very poor come back enlivened. The experience is that of being given to.
I hope that these brief notes help. Previous popes have had a different, more conservative, stereotyped and distanced outlook. And their previous ministries have distanced themselves from the inner qualities of the lives of the people that they served.
At one time, the people of Poland classified the poetry of Anna Swir as “existentialist.” She used a robust form of Polish and her translators mistook it for existentialism. It is primarily her war record as an army nurse that makes her poetry universal. To the pope, the universal quality, she helped injured soldiers with their death, is a part of our faith; and he honors her for it. He also calls attention to the universal in feminism. Her life of service is explicit universal feminism.
The restoration of the “college of bishops” gives the church a mechanism by which the universal in human beings can be recognized. Previous popes saw the mass wine as “existentially wine” and did not relate it to actual personal experiences. In this case, it is a life that overcomes death. By opening the door of our faith, the pope has given fresh life to his church.
What, praytell, is National Geographic's outlook on humanity?
ReplyDeleteWhat is meant by "authentic feminism"?
ReplyDeleteAnd what is meant by "existentialism"? Both St. Thomas Aquinas and Jean-Paul Sartre have been described as "existentialist" thinkers, and yet the respective philosophies of these two men could not be more different. Clearly, then, "existentialist" is a very broad term if it can be applied to such disparate thinkers. And why would someone mistake "a robust form of Polish" for an "existentialist" style? And what is it about being an army nurse that makes poetry universal? Very few people are army nurses. It is hardly a universal experience.
ReplyDeleteHere is the poem about the dying soldier. This should illuminate the aforementioned connection with wine.
ReplyDeleteAt five in the morning
I knock on his door.
I say through the door:
In the hospital at Sliska Street
your son, a soldier, is dying.
He half-opens the door,
does not remove the chain.
Behind him his wife
shakes.
I say: your son asks his mother
to come.
He says: the mother won't come.
Behind him the wife
shakes.
I say: the doctor allowed us
to give him wine.
He says: please wait.
He hands me a bottle through the door,
locks the door,
locks the door with a second key.
Behind the door his wife
begins to scream as if she were in labor.
The Author Replies: The date should be April 2014. The Pope then would be Benedict XVII.
ReplyDelete(1) I have no idea what "authentic feminism" means. Where did you get the phrase?
(2) The form of existentialism in Poland was Heidegger.
(3) War nurses are a staple in literature. Earnest Hemingway? Pasternak's Laura. Abraham Lincoln's wife, Mary Todd and Walt Whitman worked side-by-side in the civil war. Roman Polanski the movie director had a nurse comfort a dying boy-soldier in a movie about the fall of Warsaw at the end of WWII. It is eerily like Anna Swir's role.
(4) The mistake was made by Czeslaw Milosz and later he apologized. It is a lot easier then you might think.
(5) Hanna Arendt studied under Heidigger. She is famous for her work on the Holocaust. And for affirming the need to reconstruct with literature the lives that were lost - using literary art to make it as real as possible.
(6) THE DATE IS A FICTIONAL DATE. IT IS THE 50TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE SECOND SESSION OF THE COUNCIL WHERE THE NATURE OF THE SYNOD OF BISHOPS WAS AFFIRMED. THE RULE WAS NEVER IMPLEMENTED. MY ESSAY IS A LITERARY CONSTRUCTION OF THE POSSIBILITY.
I got the phrase "authentic feminism" from this very post before it was re-written. How do you know that the next pope will be named Benedict XVII? If you had in mind Heideggerian Existentialism, then why didn't you say so? You still have not explained what it is about "a robust form of Polish" that would make one mistake it for a Heideggerianly existentialist style. Is it because a robust from of Polish is as maddeningly cryptic as Heidegger's prose? What?
ReplyDeleteWar Nurses may well be a literary staple because they show universally recognized and desired acts of compassion. In other words, it is what they do that has universal resonance, not what they are.
And how praytell can a date like April 2010 be fictional? Are you telling me that this past April was not real? Or do you mean to say that April 2014 is fictional? Well, April 2014 has not happened yet. So, in that sense it is fictional, I suppose, but unless the world ends on March 30, 2014 or sometime before, April 2014 will happen, or do the same sources that tell you that the next pope will be Benedict XVII tell you that the world will end before April 2014 ever happens, thereby rendering it a completely fictional date?
I'd like to remind all commenters on this blog that all comments are intended to be civil and encourage discussion, particularly student discussion. If a comment comes across as uncivil, overtly aggressive, or socially inappropriate (think: Would you talk to someone like this in person without angering them?), I will remove it. I will not censor content in any way--only the way it is presented.
ReplyDelete--Jamey Stegmaier, Director of Operations
Previous popes saw the mass wine as “existentially wine” and did not relate it to actual personal experiences.
ReplyDeleteWould the author, please, clarify the meaning of this sentence. Thanks.
The Author replies:
ReplyDelete(A) Your statement about "compassion" is apt.
Poland has a fine university, long associated with political unity. And a King Saint Hedwig who put her kingdom on the line. That should do for "robust."
The date is April 2014.
(B) Yes, the concern of Canon Law is that the wine has to be real wine for the sake of the sacrament. Any personal meaning - such as remembering a dying soldier or feeling close to the very poor is left out. The rememdy is to do as Benedict XVII.
There is a kind of blog on Heidigger and religion that is easily found on the Internet. There you will find the interpretation (of H) that our imagination of the future shapes our personality. Otherwise, why have any free will?
Thanks to all who read my essay.
(A) still does not answer the question as to what is about a "robust Polish" that would make one mistake something written it for a species of Heideggerian existentialism.
ReplyDeleteAs for (B): Law, even Canon Law, must be general and, therefore, cannot address personal meaning. Personal meaning is limited to the individual person for who a particular personal meaning is meaningful. That's why it's personal. For instance, my toga that my dear mother (God rest her soul!) made for me in the fourth grade has personal meaning for me as my security blanket. I don't expect other people to see it as anything more than a tunic (it's actually not a toga, but a tunic), even though for me it means much more than that. In fact, I really don't want other people to understand this tunic the way I do precisely because its meaning for me is indeed personal.