¿Dónde están los niños?

Posted on 23 July 2013 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

During the state ceremonies yesterday for Pope Francis arrival in Brazil, the group of priests I a with (it is our annual summer gathering) note that he was all long-face during the playing of the anthems.

We think we know why.

“Quick!  To England!”

About Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Fr. Z is the guy who runs this blog. o{]:¬)
This entry was posted in Francis, Lighter fare and tagged , , . Bookmark the permalink.

25 Comments

  1. Cool Catholic says:
    23 July 2013 at 2:56 PM

    hahaha! You’re on good form, Fathers! This is even funnier than Fr Z’s last rant!

  3. keithp says:
    23 July 2013 at 3:06 PM

    What is a papal visit without baby kissing? I think the Holy Father(s) carry extra lip balm just for these occassions.

    The Holy Father looks even more un-happy that Putin and O did at THEIR last pow wow. :)

  4. Kathleen10 says:
    23 July 2013 at 3:12 PM

    My goodness, I dislike seeing him look that sad. Maybe he was just tired.

  5. thefeds says:
    23 July 2013 at 3:25 PM

    Might I humbly suggest that in Portuguese, Francis might say: Onde estão as crianças? [Nope! o{]:¬) ]

  6. Adeodataomnia says:
    23 July 2013 at 3:55 PM

    @thefeds:
    You would be correct, only listening to him speak today in Portuguese was a truly horrendous experience. He pronounced many words as if they were simply Spanish, but at least he did get some of the nasal vowels down. In sum, this is nothing that a simple coach could have helped. John Paul II was known to use coaches to help him when giving addresses in other languages. Even Benedict XVI used them for Arabic, for instance.

    But (Lord, forgive me), this man is too humble for a coach.

    [Waaaaaay too serious, man. Lighten up.]

  7. Dan O says:
    23 July 2013 at 3:55 PM

    I’ve noticed that the Holy Father seems to have two expressions. One is smiling, happy and relaxed and the other is serious, stern and intense. When he is saying Mass or praying (or listening to anthems) he seems stern and intense, almost unfriendly. When greeting people he seems much happier and friendlier.

  8. Priam1184 says:
    23 July 2013 at 4:14 PM

    @Adeodataomnia Give the man a break on his Portuguese. Spanish is his native language and it is probably far too easy to slip back into that, coach or no coach.

  9. Luciano says:
    23 July 2013 at 4:48 PM

    @Adeodataomnia
    Holy Father is just using “portuñol”, a very popular language in south america, perfect for misunderstanding between we brazilians and our spanish speaking neighbours :)

  10. RonaldPinheiro says:
    23 July 2013 at 6:11 PM

    Imagine when someone tells His Holiness that the President Rousseff is pro-abortion, and that abortion on-demand is on the verge of becoming the rule for the public health system due to the actions and subterfuges by Rousseff’s party, the PT (Workers Party, sound commie, and commie it is).
    Everybody pray for Brazil and for Pope Francis.

  11. Pingback: Priest inserts pro-life caption to Pope Francis' photo - Jill Stanek

  12. Andrew says:
    23 July 2013 at 9:05 PM

    Hahahahahaha! Politicans desperate to get votes, did things like that, but somehow I don’t think that is where the pope is coming from.

    Personally, I would find a baby more fun to be with, than any career politician.

    And I think the popemobile taking a wrong turn, and then being innundated by people, (I’m not trying to say safety isn’t important) to the horror of the security officials, but Pope Francis loving it, is a real hoot! Humanity today is fraught with anxiety and tension, here is a man who is telling us to follow the words Our Lord told Martha when He said, “Oh Martha, you worry about so many things!” Pope Francis obviously has very low anxiety levels. I say, good on him. when the statistics say that as many as one in five, suffer from this, to some degree.

    Pope Francis took his name after the merchant’s son in Umbria, and this saint had great devotion to the humanity of Jesus Christ. Something tells me that in kissing babies, and being delighted at the unexpected, the Pope is asking all of us, to rediscover our humanity. Perhaps in our efforts to restore the Church to its former glories, that quality in us, has been absent.

  13. Imrahil says:
    24 July 2013 at 5:55 AM

    Our Holy Father, in pronouncing Portuguese as if it were Spanish, is only following in the noble footsteps of his august predecessor, who pronounced Italian, English and French, and I guess Spanish, as if they were Bavarian.

    Taught me an important lesson, then. Learning a foreign language is good (and he did master grammar and vocab in their somewhat entireties), but there is no need to hide one’s own nationality.

  14. Suburbanbanshee says:
    24 July 2013 at 7:32 AM

    Well, we’ve learned some important things this trip.

    1. It’s hard to say no to Pope Francis, but if he asks to make a detour to go drive past the cathedral, you gotta say no. At least if you’re in big city traffic.

    2. If you’re the pope and you’re really behind schedule, they send a helicopter.

    3. This is apparently the first papal visit that has featured rubber bullets used against protestors. But that part wasn’t the pope’s fault.

  15. Muv says:
    24 July 2013 at 7:38 AM

    Yes Fr. Z, (pronounced Fr. Zed here), hooray for England, where for the moment the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have given us the opportunity to behave like normal human beings and get excited and mushy over pictures of a new born baby. David Cameron was like any solid family man giving his congratulations via TV, which had me thinking (God forbid) of the hoohah if an heir to the throne wanted to “marry” a member of his own sex … the succession, legitimacy of heirs born through surrogacy, position of the monarch as Supreme Governor of the Church of England… etc. etc. Would Mr. C. and his ilk realise the mess was all a result of their doing?

    I’m looking forward to the Pope coming here and kissing every baby in sight, and I don’t care if his English stinks.

  16. Suburbanbanshee says:
    24 July 2013 at 8:27 AM

    Well, they’re finally letting the Pope out of the scheduled helicopter to Aparecida. It’s rainy and chilly, but everybody seems to have dressed for it. The Brazilian singers keeping the crowd occupied till he gets there need to get rid of the keyboard guy… well, not really, but I suspect that the crowd noise is throwing off the singers, and that’s why they sound off sometimes.

    The Pope’s schmoozing cracks me up. But security has definitely been beefed up, although the crowd seems friendly and orderly. Some of that reconsideration of the security plan that Lombardi talked about in the news stories.

  17. Suburbanbanshee says:
    24 July 2013 at 8:28 AM

    The keyboard has disappeared, and a well-played Brazilian guitar has replaced it. :)

  18. Suburbanbanshee says:
    24 July 2013 at 8:41 AM

    The keyboard is back. They’ve kept the singers going at this welcome song for a good fifteen minutes. I wish they’d go back to the songs about Our Lady of the Aparecida.

    Okay, now we’re inside church, and somebody is playing a guitar instrumental to keep the crowd noise inside to a dull roar. Nice six-string or twelve-string, sounds like lute music. Now it’s shifted to another welcome song saying nice things about the pope. Very loyal, but probably not what he’d like best!

    He’s venerating the miraculous Our Lady of Aparecida statue. Very serious. Looks very moved afterward. Now they’re shoving a mic in his face.

  19. Suburbanbanshee says:
    24 July 2013 at 8:54 AM

    It turns out that the Aparecida statue of Our Lady is only 15 inches tall and made of terra cotta. It actually got smashed in 1978 by some anti-Catholic guy, but the Brazilians put the fragments back together! More than a hundred shards!

    Almost time for Mass; the pope’s busy in the sacristy. Nice organ music. The gold lighting (and the use of unlit areas) warms up the modern cathedral a lot, and the shape of the place and the mosaics inside are very nice. I like the beautiful blue stained glass. In a hot country, the place looks like it’s built for coolth. The cutout-Christ crucifix is kind of an odd idea – maybe it’s for sightlines – but it’s the kind of modern where you can tell what it’s supposed to be.

  20. Priam1184 says:
    24 July 2013 at 11:05 AM

    @Imrahil Thank you! I did love, in the later years of his papacy, Benedict’s Bavarian accented Arabic…

  21. rbbadger says:
    24 July 2013 at 11:48 AM

    Portuguese is a very interesting language. I speak Spanish quite fluently, thanks to relatives who taught me the language when I was quite young. It makes me quite happy to hear Pope Francis’ Argentine accented Spanish, as I have an aunt from nearby Uruguay who speaks a very similar dialect and who played a big part in introducing me to the language.

    Later on, I was delighted later on to find that I could more or less follow Italian pretty well. So, when I went to Portugal for the first time, I hoped that I would have a similar experience. After all, I could read the news on the internet in Portuguese without much problem. Nothing quite prepared for the actual experience of being in Portugal and finding that at first, I could hardly understand a word. It took some time to actually figure it out. I’ve since learned some Portuguese and while my Portuguese abilities are nowhere near my Spanish abilities, I love the sound of the language all the same. Unfortunately, sometimes my efforts are more like portuñol.

  22. mike cliffson says:
    24 July 2013 at 5:17 PM

    Honestly!
    Default explanation for ANY argentino , the longerlived , the more so ,howsoever holy and rational, ,going long -faced at brazilian national anthem : Football aka soccer defeats!
    Both local teams and national sides!
    Someone do the stats!For An argentine, even one defeat a century is a calamity – and at Brazil’s hands……….

  23. Edprocoat says:
    24 July 2013 at 6:42 PM

    He really looks tired out. In most pictures he looks like a real chuckle-head, the kind of guy that would set down and tell jokes and laugh with you. It must be hard to keep the kind of schedule he has to and get any rest at all.

    ed

  24. Suburbanbanshee says:
    25 July 2013 at 9:14 AM

    Watching the coverage on EWTN of the Pope’s visit to a favela called Varginha. The inhabitants have been kissing the Pope’s hand and the hands of various priests, and the kids have been getting lots of hugs from the Pope too. The Pope is giving their chapel a new chalice and getting their new altar blessed. Not consecrating it with chrism, though. I guess that’s for their bishop.

    A lot of Varginha people are taking the opportunity to kneel and kiss the Pope’s ring. They’re the most formal people all trip! He’s not putting them off, either.

  25. boxerpaws1952 says:
    26 July 2013 at 3:50 PM

    i can imagine some of those babies 10 or so years from now with mom and dad telling them, you were kissed by that Pope.
    The long face-maybe he was already informed about President Rousseff being pro-abortion, and that abortion on-demand is on the verge of becoming the rule. I’m assuming Pope Francis doesn’t have much patience for world governments.

Comments are closed.