Benedict Blesses from Papal Apartment

One Fox news reporter mentioned that it seemed strange to see somone standing at the window (referring to Pope John Paul's ill health over the past few years)...

Happy Easter to the Orthodox!

Happy Feast Day to all workers under the patronage of St. Joseph...




From BBC NEWS | Europe | New Pope delivers first blessing:

"Pope Benedict XVI has given his first traditional Sunday blessing to the faithful from the same apartment window used by his predecessor.

St Peter's square was packed with tens of thousands of pilgrims, who the Pope addressed in Italian and Spanish.

He also wished Orthodox Christians a happy Easter, and mentioned the need to promote Christian unity in the world.

In delivering his blessing on May Day, Benedict XVI also called for worker's rights to be respected.

'I address you, my very dear brothers and sisters, for the first time from this window that the beloved figure of my predecessor made familiar to countless people in the entire world,' he said."

From a Reader of The Power of the Cross

A Reader comments:



"We just finished your bible study :Power of the Cross' - ABSOLUTELY WONDERFUL!!!!!!!. It was soooo Catholic and thank you for speaking the truth. We have a lot of Catholics out there (including myself) who missed these lessons over the last 20 years. We have made Catholicism what we wanted it to be. Not how is really is. I believe it opened the eyes of a lot of the ladies in the group."

Welcoming Pope Benedict XVl

From Welcoming Pope Benedict XVl:



"The press has been quick to characterize Ratzinger as an inflexible and mean-spirited theologian, but I know him to be different. On one visit to him I was accompanied by one of my first grandsons, a boy who is healthy now but who had been born prematurely and had a very rough beginning. I asked Brother Joseph to bless him, and he is now a strapping fourth grader who throws a ball, plays chess, and proudly strums on a guitar. Who knows how much the heartfelt prayer of this old man helped?"

You May See This in Your Paper

It is always interesting how an interviewee chooses what you say to publish. I think he really resonated with the stress part and when he called the stress was at its height. But the book in question is ready to go to the printer and you can have a copy of what is a "beatiful" book in your hands in about three weeks. I provide the link to the book below the story...



From Pope products rushed to market: South Florida Sun-Sentinel:



"Our Sunday Visitor, an Indiana publisher of Catholic literature, bulletin inserts and offering envelopes, drew up a contract with a writer two years ago for a book about the papal succession. We Have a Pope! was expected to go to press this week, less than a month after Pope John Paul II died.



'It's being edited as it's being written. It's very stressful,' said acquisitions editor Michael Dubruiel.



'We're looking to really say, who is this man? And how is he not the caricature of him in the mainstream press?' Dubruiel said. He expects an initial printing of 40,000 copies of We Have a Pope!, about four times more than usual for the publisher."

Pope Moves Into Apostolic Palace

From Reuters:

Pope Benedict was on Saturday moving into the papal apartment where John Paul died and was expected to deliver the weekly blessing from there for the first time on Sunday, Vatican sources said.

The bedroom and bathroom have both been repainted and special medical facilities installed for the ailing John Paul have been removed from one of the rooms in the suite.

First Book on New Pope

Available May 19th...




256 pages
Includes color images of the new pope!
Everything you wanted to know...
Great price on Amazon...$14.95 retail..

John Allen Expresses Regrets Over Papal Biography

To be more specific, the Cardianal's biography that he wrote a few years ago...



From The Word From Rome April 26, 2005:



"Six years ago, I wrote a biography of the man who is now pope titled Cardinal Ratzinger: The Vatican's Enforcer of the Faith. In the intervening period, I have learned a few things about the universal Catholic church and how things look from different perspectives. If I were to write the book again today, I'm sure it would be more balanced, better informed, and less prone to veer off into judgment ahead of sober analysis. "