Happy 92nd Birthday Emeritus Pope Benedikt!
Today the day after the inferno engulfed the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris is his birth-day.
It's not even a week since he published his latest missive on the subject of pedophilia in the Roman Catholic Church and the decline in moral standards in society.
I recall watching the BBC World News live broadcast on the day this pope resigned.
There was a BBC reporter almost alone in the darkness of the evening in St. Peter's Square. I remember it well.
The reporter was summing up the dramatic events of the day and saying something to the effect that the crowds had now departed and the square looked deserted.
Almost before the words were out of the reporter's mouth from the heavens above a flash like a blue arrow smashed into the highest point of the dome of St. Peter's Church on the opposite side of the square with what can only be described as an almighty crash.
To say I was astounded would be putting it mildly. I was agape.
Film director Oliver Stone couldn't have arranged it better.
Here is a mysterious force at work, I thought to myself.
And now on the morning of Benedikt's birthday (as if on queue) the most iconic cathedral in Paris, some say in Europe, lies in ashes.
A bizarre coincidence?
A birthday present?
Or something present?
The good Emeritus Pope must be wondering even as I am wondering.
Whatever next?
Whatever we want to call it, it seems there is a force in the world that moves in mysterious ways . . .
Was there ever any doubt about that last comment Gwil?
ReplyDeleteSt Bernadette died on 16th April and had vision of Mary on the 16th April at Lourds. Coincidences.
ReplyDeleteSee the ps below.
DeleteAfter I'd the written the above I had to take somebody to an appointment. As we rounded a corner about two minutes into our journey a small flat truck carrying nothing but a brush and a shovel in a box behind the drivers cab came towards us. Printed prominently across the bonnet of the approaching vehicle was the name Benedict. Another coincidence?
ReplyDelete