*Ninme pointed me to this Beeb photo collection --you can see pix of all this dour pope's dour and wizened old followers. (Didn't understand her post's headline until the last photo.)
*Here's some of the Beeb's coverage of the event. Catholic bloggers are better (did I mention Tim Drake?) but I include it as an example of interesting secular coverage. The whole piece gives you the sense of excitement, cameraderie, joy, exhuberant love of the Pope. . .until the last line, when, unable to help themselves, they feel they must remind us that many young people disagree with the Pope. Not the ones who are there, mind you. Several blogs have already reported kids being approached by reporters obviously looking to find some dissenters --and being brutally disappointed.
* This Vatican page has yesterday's official addresses up, and you can return today and tomorrow as they fill in other things.
Upon B16's election, I speculated with some friends about what chant would replace "JPII, we love you!" From the Beeb & Tim Drake, it appears to be the Italian "Be-ne-det-to." I can't believe my suggestion: "Benedict, Benedict, X-V-I; you're our go-to doctrine guy!" didn't catch on. Or the one from a friend's daughter: "Sweet 16!"
I note in the Beeb's story the comment about the Pope not kissing the ground as JPII always did. Since his election, there have been comments in many places about B16 being much more shy than JPII and not being "good at" big crowds in the way JPII was. The implication seems to be that B16 is "not as good" as JPII in a certain way --or sometimes that his more restrained style implies a criticism of his predecessor in some matters. Let me just state for the record that I love B16 for having the courage not to be simply a JPII imitator. Years ago --when JPII was still quite vigorous --I remember discussing w/ Hubby how his personal style had changed the Papacy. We both agreed that it would be a dangerous temptation for any successor who didn't have the same gregarious style to try to live up to JPII's public gestures. It is no criticism of JPII to note that to the extent that he set an expectation of how popes would behave, he was exposing his predecessors to the danger of trying to live up to his dramatic gestures without having the personality to make it work. B16 has the humility to just be the pope and not worry too much about being "the successor to JPII." That shows that in his own way he has just as much sense of himself and sense of the dramatic as JPII did.
