Running Late

Apparently, all the screaming and chanting of the seminarians has held B16's schedule up for the first time.... So much for Teutonic precision -- but then again, JP routinely ran one to two hours behind. In that context, the press corps on the ground are breathing big sighs of relief.

One of the curious moments in watching this Pope, especially given the outpouring on this trip, is seeing what gestures he uses to try and shut the crowd up -- today, he held out his arms, index fingers pointed outward as the sems loudly disrupted the Salve, Regina, the Benedictus (the canticle of Zachariah), and the final paragraph of the Pope's speech, among other moments.

And all this happened in a liturgical context from the guys who are slated to be your next generation of reverent priests. Hmmmm.... Selective interpretation?

Boccardo (the figure on the right in the photo) has put himself in the line of fire to keep the seminarians from crushing the Pope as he leaves St. Panteleon. This event's inner circle included Cardinal Zenon Grocholewski, the prefect of the Congregation for Catholic Education, whose purview includes Seminaries and other institutes of ecclesial study. Any document banning celibate gays from seminaries -- an "imminently" impending document, we're told -- will bear his signature. And then the brooms will sweep across Rome.

At the end of the service, Cardinal Meisner announced that the archdiocese of Cologne would send a copy of the papal remarks to every seminarian in the world -- and they'd pay the postage. Apparently, they can afford it. According to John Allen, Cologne is one of the richest -- and, at 2.2 million Catholics, largest -- Sees in the world.

From the Media Notes Desk, the Pope hadn't even gotten into the car when EWTN cut off the CTV feed and started talking about how wonderful they were again. Ugh. They're not even trusting the sterling Vatican Radio commentary of Sr. Janet Baker anymore, because the Holy See won't promote EWTN's coverage.

Boo. Hoo. Hoo.

The Ecumenical Speech will be a private one, so this ends the Pope's public day. However, I have the text....

PHOTO: REUTERS/Michael Dalder

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