You have probably heard that Pope Francis recently made a direct personal phone call to someone.
This is in from the jocose Eye of the Tiber:
Pope Francis Calls Zack Snyder To Complain About Choice Of Ben Affleck For Batman
Hollywood, CA––”Hello, it’s Pope Francis,” were the first words spoken during a conversation in which His Holiness telephoned Zack Snyder, director of the upcoming film “Man of Steel 2.” “Hello Your Holiness,” answered a dazed Snyder, no stranger to celebrities but still star struck to be speaking to the Holy Father, the Vicar of Christ on earth. “Listen, I’ll get to the point,” said Pope Francis, “I thought 300 was awesome, and Man of Steel was pretty great too. But I don’t know about Ben Affleck as Batman in your next movie.” Snyder reportedly stuttered at this point, unsure what to answer His Holiness. “I mean, I trust you as a director and all that, and I’m sure it won’t be that bad, but there really weren’t any better choices? I mean this is the guy that played Daredevil. Did you even see that movie?” Snyder then reportedly answered that he had not. “Exactly,” answered the Pope, before concluding, “My son, I’m not saying this is an enormous mistake or anything, and I’m certainly not speaking ex cathedra here. I’m just asking you to reflect a little more when you make decisions like this.”
¡Papa Francisco acude en auxilio! Santo Padre, por favor, ayuda a los pobres admiradores de Batman!
And, yes, I know that Batman in Spanish is “Batman”.
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Que se sepa quien es el autentico superhero y quien es un tipo con un traje chulo?
With regard to the Batman & Robin cartoon at the top of this post, is there a controversy about whether the Holy Father is “Pope Francis” or “Pope Francis the First”? I understood that, though there was no need for him to have a regnal number as there had been no other Pope Francis from whom he had to be distinguished, Cardinal Bergoglio specified that his regnal name would be “Francis I” rather than just “Francis”. I have read that John Paul I formally stated that his regnal name was “John Paul I” rather than “John Paul”.
By analogy, monarchs of England have no regnal number unless they have had successors with the same name, e.g. King Stephen, King John, Queen Anne and Queen Victoria. Queen Elizabeth [Tudor] became “Queen Elizabeth I” only on the accession of Queen Elizabeth II in 1952.
Father be careful with your final little note there, implying that the “Batman” is said the same in Spanish as in Engish; while we say “BATman” (with the emphasis on the BAT), the shift the emphasis to the MAN, so it comes out as “batMAN.” As per the Batman/Robin illustration above, this could cause some problems for stray Americans looking for superheroes in Mexico … :)
JacobWall says: so it comes out as “batMAN.”
I promise that, howeverso often I speak about BATman in Spanish, I will say BatMAN.
“Ayuda a los pobres….” Ayudar is the infinitive. And when speaking in Spanish about Batman, I’ve never heard it pronounced Batmán. That sounds really weird. Gringos, sigh.
JacobWall: I take it back. ¡BATman!
The Batman panel was from a Silver age issue, I’d estimate, probably from 1963 (pre-New Look Batman). Probably, Batman or World’s Finest.
The Chicken
I’m calling shenanigans. Usually when Pope Francis calls someone on the phone, he introduces himself by saying “Bergoglio here” or “this is Bergoglio,” instead of saying “its Pope Francis.”
Perhaps he only uses Bergoglio when he calls friends he knows, such as the newspaper guy in Buenos Aires — “Seriously, it’s Jorge Bergoglio, I’m calling you from Rome” — (http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/03/22/pope-cancels-newspaper-delivery-back-home-in-argentina/?_r=0) or when he called his shoe guy — “Hello Samaria, it’s Bergoglio” — (http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/pope-phones-argentine-shoemaker-for-shoe-repairs/), although he did reportedly say “Samaria, it’s Francis, the Pope!” when the guy asked who it really was.
If I have to give Ben Affleck credit for something, it is that he split when Jennifer Lopez when she alledgedly refused to go through with annulling all of her previous marriages so that she and Ben could get married in the Catholic Church. Now he is with a really sweet hearted lady, Jennifer Garner, and has a family. Plus he made that Jersey Girl movie where he had George Carlin as a father and sent his little girl to St. Maria Goretti school. I mean, Jersey Girl wasn’t an example of a pure Catholicism, but it had enough references to be nice.