The Popemobile
Sep. 10th, 2003 02:13 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lollardfishWhen I get old and can't walk, I want Mercedes to build my electric wheelchair, just like the Pope's!
This morning I rose relatively early (one of the people in the dorm room at the hostel had decided to close the windows, and temperatures had risen) and made my way towards St. Peter's. My coffee had not yet set in, and a little dazed I made my way past a row of police barriers, and fell in with something of a crowd. As I passed the police with the metal detector wands (which they weren't really using), and realized that there were at least three different types of police around, I suddenly knew this was not just the early morning line to get into St. Peter's.
Everyone around me was holding these little yellow slips of paper, but I quickly determined no one was actually looking at them so long as one wasn't trying to go up front. Chairs were all laid out in three groups: A few up on the steps flanking a red-rectangular roof (a glorified shade tarp), one large set of seats directly below the steps, and then a much larger set of seats behind them, with a wide path down the middle. I slid into the back set of seats, and quickly found a spot in the front row. It was around then I noticed the marching bands. Now in my defense they weren't playing yet. On the other hand, the bright yellow costumes as they made their way to their seats should have been a dead giveaway. About this time I realized that this was one of those, old, 'general benedictions in St. Peter's Square by the pope' things you sometimes see or hear about.
So there I sat, talking to the nice Kiwis (New Zealanders) next to me, and watching the spectacle of the arrivals. Four bands or more. So many priests and nuns, including many cardinals (I assume Cardinals are the guys with the pink sashes. Very fashionable). The Swiss Guards with their swords and halberds, dressed in orange, red, and blue. The wash of language as people chatted animatedly with each other, argued with the guards (the Vatican municpal police, not the Swiss Guards, nor the Carabiniere, nor the Rome municipal police, nor the army military police, and not the secret service types either. They got their later) about where they got to sit. The brides and grooms, all poshed out in their finery (I hope they had umbrellas!) heading up to sit on the steps, waiting to get blessed by the pope. Quite a show.
A helicopter wound overhead, and a lot of people cheered. Was this the pope coming back to the Vatican from Castle Gandolfo? Soon, from the back of the piazza, the Popemobile came rolling, secret service at its sides (and on the nearbye roofs. And here, and there. Quite impressive really, Pope and two cardinals inside. The Popemobile is a little, electric (or quiet anyway), sleek, black, convertable used to cart the Pontiff from place to place. There he sat in the back as he passed right through the rows of seats (the edge of the car perhaps two feet away from me, as I was in the first row of my section), and the Pope managed a little wave from time to time. Everyone cheered and shouted. The women on my left, hispanic (not spaniards, I thought, but I could be wrong), talked to their mothers on their cellphones about what they were seeing and hearing.
Two tenors sang beautifully while the guards got people seated again (amidst a lot of arguing and tears, "But my children, they need to see His Holiness, won't you let my children stand here!"), and than Il Papa began to speak. Before the Pope had arrived, five clerics had, in succession, gotten up to announce to the crowd the text on which he would be commenting. They did this in Italian, French, German, English, Spanish, and Polish, each repeating the same text (at least for the four languages I could understand). This was to be part of the Pope's weekly commentary on various psalms and prayers and such, and today's was to be on Ezekiel (verse 25-28?).
It is an interesting text. God promises to cleanse his people, and restore them, and "Then you shall dwell in the land of
your fathers, and you shall be My people and I shall be your God." Jews interpret it as a text about the restoration of Israel. As for His Holiness' interpretation? Well, honestly, he was very difficult to understand in any language. It was impressive, for he read his text in all six languages, and I am told he has a command of all of them. But his speech was slurred, and, if I can be pardoned the apostasy, he spoke a bit like Marlon Brando at his most icomprehensible. Ah well. I think he said it was about Catholics who had been lost being able to be redeemed or found again, or something. I really couldn't hear clearly. Maybe there's a website somewhere ... weeklypopespeech.com or something.
Still, the spectacle was amazing. Before the pope switched languages, a priest would welcome the people of a given language group, and call out special welcome to the "Lutherans from Riga," or the People from the parish of St. So-an-so in Napoli, and cheers would go up. It was a bit like being at a concert! "Anyone here from Cleveland? Give it up for Cleveland!" The Poles were especially loud and proud (then again, Il Papa is a Pole). They had the bands. They had flags (as did the Chileans). They had special cheers and shouts. They were pretty damn excited.
After a general benediction and a pater noster, the procession to the Pope began, and I watched all this. Dignitaries and clerics approaching him, kneeling, giving him gifts. Then the brides and grooms coming forward, two by two, kneeling, and getting ten seconds of blessing. Each couple got ten seconds. It took five seconds for them to get in and out of position. The whole process took fifteen minutes ... you math types can tell me how many couples there must have been. But. Lots.
Later, as the icing on the cake, I got to be among the first to be let into a newly reopened St. Peter's (closed during the ceremony, which is weekly). I avoided the lines as I climbed the 320 stairs to the top of the cupola, with an extraordinary view of the Vatican and Rome. Then I wandered about the world's largest church for a bit, looking at all the opulence. More than the gold, which I am pretty accustomed to in Italian churches, I found the repetative focus on 'this being the largest church in the world' a bit off-putting. I mean, it's one thing with the Mall of America being the largest shopping mall ... but is that sort of behavior appropriate for a house of worship? Later I hope to make it to the Jesuit church in Rome, apparantly filled with anti-protestant sentiment. But for today ... it's off to the vatican museum and the sistine chapel.
One final note about Rome. Traffic here is crazy. Like, on a par with Istanbul sort of crazy. I almost want to get a car, or a motorscooter, and give it a try. Then again, maybe another trip. Crossing the street is fun though. It's all about not disrupting the flow of traffic as you walk between moving cars. It takes ... timing.
There's just too darn much to do in this city!
This morning I rose relatively early (one of the people in the dorm room at the hostel had decided to close the windows, and temperatures had risen) and made my way towards St. Peter's. My coffee had not yet set in, and a little dazed I made my way past a row of police barriers, and fell in with something of a crowd. As I passed the police with the metal detector wands (which they weren't really using), and realized that there were at least three different types of police around, I suddenly knew this was not just the early morning line to get into St. Peter's.
Everyone around me was holding these little yellow slips of paper, but I quickly determined no one was actually looking at them so long as one wasn't trying to go up front. Chairs were all laid out in three groups: A few up on the steps flanking a red-rectangular roof (a glorified shade tarp), one large set of seats directly below the steps, and then a much larger set of seats behind them, with a wide path down the middle. I slid into the back set of seats, and quickly found a spot in the front row. It was around then I noticed the marching bands. Now in my defense they weren't playing yet. On the other hand, the bright yellow costumes as they made their way to their seats should have been a dead giveaway. About this time I realized that this was one of those, old, 'general benedictions in St. Peter's Square by the pope' things you sometimes see or hear about.
So there I sat, talking to the nice Kiwis (New Zealanders) next to me, and watching the spectacle of the arrivals. Four bands or more. So many priests and nuns, including many cardinals (I assume Cardinals are the guys with the pink sashes. Very fashionable). The Swiss Guards with their swords and halberds, dressed in orange, red, and blue. The wash of language as people chatted animatedly with each other, argued with the guards (the Vatican municpal police, not the Swiss Guards, nor the Carabiniere, nor the Rome municipal police, nor the army military police, and not the secret service types either. They got their later) about where they got to sit. The brides and grooms, all poshed out in their finery (I hope they had umbrellas!) heading up to sit on the steps, waiting to get blessed by the pope. Quite a show.
A helicopter wound overhead, and a lot of people cheered. Was this the pope coming back to the Vatican from Castle Gandolfo? Soon, from the back of the piazza, the Popemobile came rolling, secret service at its sides (and on the nearbye roofs. And here, and there. Quite impressive really, Pope and two cardinals inside. The Popemobile is a little, electric (or quiet anyway), sleek, black, convertable used to cart the Pontiff from place to place. There he sat in the back as he passed right through the rows of seats (the edge of the car perhaps two feet away from me, as I was in the first row of my section), and the Pope managed a little wave from time to time. Everyone cheered and shouted. The women on my left, hispanic (not spaniards, I thought, but I could be wrong), talked to their mothers on their cellphones about what they were seeing and hearing.
Two tenors sang beautifully while the guards got people seated again (amidst a lot of arguing and tears, "But my children, they need to see His Holiness, won't you let my children stand here!"), and than Il Papa began to speak. Before the Pope had arrived, five clerics had, in succession, gotten up to announce to the crowd the text on which he would be commenting. They did this in Italian, French, German, English, Spanish, and Polish, each repeating the same text (at least for the four languages I could understand). This was to be part of the Pope's weekly commentary on various psalms and prayers and such, and today's was to be on Ezekiel (verse 25-28?).
It is an interesting text. God promises to cleanse his people, and restore them, and "Then you shall dwell in the land of
your fathers, and you shall be My people and I shall be your God." Jews interpret it as a text about the restoration of Israel. As for His Holiness' interpretation? Well, honestly, he was very difficult to understand in any language. It was impressive, for he read his text in all six languages, and I am told he has a command of all of them. But his speech was slurred, and, if I can be pardoned the apostasy, he spoke a bit like Marlon Brando at his most icomprehensible. Ah well. I think he said it was about Catholics who had been lost being able to be redeemed or found again, or something. I really couldn't hear clearly. Maybe there's a website somewhere ... weeklypopespeech.com or something.
Still, the spectacle was amazing. Before the pope switched languages, a priest would welcome the people of a given language group, and call out special welcome to the "Lutherans from Riga," or the People from the parish of St. So-an-so in Napoli, and cheers would go up. It was a bit like being at a concert! "Anyone here from Cleveland? Give it up for Cleveland!" The Poles were especially loud and proud (then again, Il Papa is a Pole). They had the bands. They had flags (as did the Chileans). They had special cheers and shouts. They were pretty damn excited.
After a general benediction and a pater noster, the procession to the Pope began, and I watched all this. Dignitaries and clerics approaching him, kneeling, giving him gifts. Then the brides and grooms coming forward, two by two, kneeling, and getting ten seconds of blessing. Each couple got ten seconds. It took five seconds for them to get in and out of position. The whole process took fifteen minutes ... you math types can tell me how many couples there must have been. But. Lots.
Later, as the icing on the cake, I got to be among the first to be let into a newly reopened St. Peter's (closed during the ceremony, which is weekly). I avoided the lines as I climbed the 320 stairs to the top of the cupola, with an extraordinary view of the Vatican and Rome. Then I wandered about the world's largest church for a bit, looking at all the opulence. More than the gold, which I am pretty accustomed to in Italian churches, I found the repetative focus on 'this being the largest church in the world' a bit off-putting. I mean, it's one thing with the Mall of America being the largest shopping mall ... but is that sort of behavior appropriate for a house of worship? Later I hope to make it to the Jesuit church in Rome, apparantly filled with anti-protestant sentiment. But for today ... it's off to the vatican museum and the sistine chapel.
One final note about Rome. Traffic here is crazy. Like, on a par with Istanbul sort of crazy. I almost want to get a car, or a motorscooter, and give it a try. Then again, maybe another trip. Crossing the street is fun though. It's all about not disrupting the flow of traffic as you walk between moving cars. It takes ... timing.
There's just too darn much to do in this city!
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2003-09-10 02:25 pm (UTC)(no subject)
From:By the way, the Vatican accepts Diner's Club
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:no subject
Date: 2003-09-10 03:30 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-09-11 03:10 pm (UTC)B
?
Date: 2003-09-15 06:19 pm (UTC)- JCoppercorn (aka Mrs. Pied Piper)
My language base
From: