NY Post Gets It

Curtsy: Whispers

Watching the Mass at Yankees Stadium. Cardinal Egan does it up right, I must say. It's the 200th anniversary of the elevation of the first American diocese, Baltimore, into an Archdiocese. And it's the 200th anniversary of the elevation of four provinces of that first archdiocese: Boston, New York, Philadelphia & Louisville. It was great fun to watch the Pope smile and laugh as the cities by turns cheered the Holy Father. It's love!

You know what the one sour note of this visit has been? Inadequate chanting. "Benedict the 16th" is too much of a mouthful in English and Americans haven't come up with any dominant chant to rival "JP II! We love you!" The Italians have "Ben-e-dett-o!" and some of the religious tried that, but it didn't catch on. And the Hispanics have "Viva el Papa!" and they tried, but that didn't really catch either. You can feel that the crowds want to chant something, but there's no consensus for what. I think a simple "Ben-e-dict! Ben-e-dict!" could work. Brothers and sisters in Oz, you have a little over 2 months to come up with something: mustn't let the romance language speakers outdo us.