What Does The Prayer Really Say?
W D T P R S

UPDATED

The Wednesday Audience used to be fairly dull, especially have having been to a few.  This Pope, however, is getting more an more interesting.

Today there was an attack on the Pope’s person.  I know the Holy See is saying it wasn’t an attack.  However, I apply the "Duck Argument": the guy was clearly shouting menacing things so that a Vatican cop lined up across from him before he jumped, it took several men to get him down, and one of the Swiss went to the hospital.  And the Holy See says it wasn’t an attack.  Riiiiiiiight.

However, there were fireworks in the Pope’s address today, which focused on St. Cyprian of Carthage.

You are going to love this one, folks, when it comes out in English.

Among the highlights I enjoyed is this.  Read this and think about the Pope’s motives for the upcoming Motu Proprio (my translation and emphases):

[Cyprian] distinguishes between the Church visible, hierarchical, and the Church invisibile, mystical, but affirms with force that the Church is one only, founded on Peter.  He does not weary of repeating that "who abandons the cathedra of Peter, on whom the Church was founded, deludes himself that he has remained in the Church" (Unity of the Catholic Church, 4).  Cyprian knows well, and formulated it with forceful words, that "outside the Church there is no salvation" (ep. 4,4 and 73,21) and that "whoever does not have the Church as mother cannot have God as Father" (Unity of the Catholic Church, 4).  An inalienable characteristic of the Church is unity, symbolized by Christ’s seamless garment (ibid, 7): the unity of which he says finds its foundation in Peter (ibid, 4) and its perfect realization in the Eucharist (ep. 63,13).  "There is only one God, only one Christ", Cyprian admonishes, "only one is His Church, only one faith, only one Christian people, close in stable unity in the cement of concord: and you cannot separate that which is one in its nature (Unity of the Catholic Church, 23). 

The Fathers of the Church were uniformly horrified by schism.

This Pope is steeped in the Fathers, especially St. Augustine, another North African who like Cyprian fought schism.

Notice the reference to Eucharistic unity. 

Think about the SSPX and the Motu Proprio.

Then there is this.  Quoting Cyprian the Pope continues:

"And when we gather together as one with the brethren and we celebrate the divine sacrifices with the priest of God, we must remember reverential fear and discipline, not to throw our prayers here and there to the wind with unseemly words, nor hurl with bombastic verbosity demands that ought to be commended to God with moderation, because God is the listeners not of the voice but of the heart (non vocis sed cordis auditor est)" (3-4).  This concerns words that remain valid also today and which help us to celebrate the Holy Liturgy well.

I got a note from someone saying that this blog is making his browser crash.

Is anyone else having trouble?

Yesterday I added a video display at the bottom of the left side bar for when I turn on the webcam in the Sabine Chapel.

Chime in if you are having trouble.
 

UPDATED (go to bottom of entry)

Here is a shot of a guy (27 year old German) trying to jump onto the Holy Father’s jeep as it passes by during a General Audience in the square. (For video for here.)

Just before I came back I had a chat with some Vatican security folks about the difficulties they are experiencing because of the increasingly large crowds coming to see the Holy Father for audiences, recitation of the Angelus, and Masses. 

A while back I found a story which I didn’t post, but it is appropriate now.  If anyone wondered whether the crowds were really increasing.  It was an interview with the commandant of the Swiss Guard (my translation from Italian):

The number of hours of work of the (Swiss) Guards has increased with the election of Benedict XVI…  According to our statistics each Guard assumes about 10 hours of extraordinary duty each month, for a total of about 185 hours.  During the Wednesday general audiences with John Paul II, there were present between 15,000 and 20,000 pilgrims.  Now, there are present between 30,000 and 40,000 faithful.  Consequently we have needed about 20 supplementary Guards in uniform to assure order in St. Peter’s Square.

This dope in the square today has underscored the difficulties faced when trying to secure the Pope’s safety.  This week the challenges in Rome will be HUGE also because President Bush will come to Rome to visit the Holy Father.  There will be massive anti-American demonstrations on the part of the left and anarchist bozos who crawl out of the Cloaca Maxima for these occasions. 

I suspect there is a great deal of pressure on the Pope to decrease his exposure in the Square.

Remember that in Italy these days the Church and the Pope have been under attack.  The left is losing ground with the Italian people. Let us not forget that before the huge success of "Family Day" in May the new President of the Italian Bishops Conference (CEI), Archbp. Bagnasco of Genoa, was sent death threats.  During the meeting of the CEI in Rome a couple weeks ago, he had to travel in a secure perimeter.  The "anti-family" legislation (read: "pro-homosexual") that has been introduced has met with serious opposition from the Church and Catholic lay groups, and they are I think gaining ground. 

Now that the old Christian Democrat Party is defunct and not serving as weak-kneed compromising filter between the Church and the people, the left-wing is becoming increasingly agitated.  As happened in the 80’s there could eventually fragment off of the left, with anarchists and the radical homosexualists, a seriously violent faction.

Today’s incident should remind us that there is a social context to these images and news stories.  This is important because what happens with the Church in Italy, and in St. Peter’s Square, can actually have ripple effects through the rest of the Catholic world.  Events like this can subtly change things like timing and language.

UPDATE (16:55 CET):

I have been getting calls and SMSs.  One of the Swiss Guards on the security detail who brought this guy down to the cobblestones was injured and hospitalized. 

I am told this was an attack and not just an enthusiastic pilgrim or someone seeking his few minutes of fame.  The reason for the attack is unclear.

Meanwhile, on TGCOM it is reported that the Holy See says: "Nessun attentato, voleva solo attirare l’attenzione su di sé ... No attack, he only wanted to get himself some attention".  Fr. Lombardi, papal spokesman, said that he was "squilibrato", "mentally unbalanced" and psychiatric specialists were brought in.

UPDATE (17:25 CET):

There is another video available.  You can clearly see that one of the Vatican gendarmes saw there was a problem with this guy, who was several layers of people away from the barrier.  The gendarme was lined up at the barrier directly across from the guy when he jumped.  We can surmise the guy had been shouting something other than "Viva il Papa!" before he jumped.  What he must have been shouting was bad enough to have attracted the serious focus of that gendarme.

 UPDATE (17:35 CET):

Apparently the guy was a 27 year old German.  The Holy See, via Fr. Federico Lombardi, SJ, is saying that this was not an attack, but that the fellow was mentally unbalanced. 

On the other hand, I must point out, you can see on the videos that it took several men to get this guy to the ground.  Also, one of the non-uniformed Swiss went to the hospital.  What might this guy have done had he reached the Pope?  Would it have looked more like an attack then?