OK. Please understand that I don't want to be an alarmist. However, on my tape of the baptisimal service I noticed what seemed to be an open gash at the base of the left thumb. Is it possible he had a surgical procedure done? If so, I am surprised this information didn't make it into the press.
Help, anyone?
Thanks for translating and posting Papa's homilies. I was moved by his words to the parents and his speaking extemporaneously. It is when he is at his best, in my opinion.
Also thanks for the great pictures.

Sylvia

SYLBILMO,

I too watched the EWTN replay of the baptisms and I noticed the same thing as you did but I think it was a shadow or crease at the base of his thumb where it connects to the palm of his hand. When he wore a bandaid on his left thumb for a day or two before, it was higher up, between the joint and the base of his thumb. If he had had surgery or cut himself at the crease, they would have had to bandage half his hand. I have to admit though that I sat up and took notice too when I saw that crease. We definitely don't want anything bad happening to Papa, not even something small.

Dear Friends - I spotted big Georg at the baptism Mass yesterday! He was sitting at the far side, in line with the altar, on Papa's left. There wasn't a close up of him at all, unfortunately, but I did notice he was rubbing his eyes and blinking, which we know he does a lot, because he has problems with his eyes. I was so pleased [and comforted] to know he is still there to support Papa. He can also check that bad thumb!
I was looking out for Ingrid, too, because she is usually with big Georg, but I couldn't see her.
Yes, I thought I noticed a gash at the base of Papa's thumb - funny how we all notice the same things about him! But it was only a crease. Whatever he did must have been on the outer side of the thumb, on the knuckle - could have been broken skin caused by the cold weather [we call that a "chap" in England]. In which case, I'm in good company, because I have them on my fingers, though not badly. See - he DID need gloves as well as his camauro.
Beautiful photos on our photo thread - for which many thanks. I love the names given to the baptised babies - especially Benedetta and Benedetto and Karol, of course.
Good to see Lutheranguest back and Willow - there IS NO CURE for Ratzingeritis, so we may as well all accept it!!!!! It's a lovely feeling, so who cares? Mmmmmmmmmm
Pace e choia a tutte amice!
Love, Caritas etc. - Mary x oh and sogni d'oro!

There is a very well known "quote" among the Curia and the closest papal staff;
"Those who speaks, do not know nothing and those who really knows never speaks"
So perhaps willwe never know for real, what happened to Papa Ratzi's thumb.
And Maryjos I seaw the batosm today as I was in a trip, but I could notice that there was a woman at Mons. Ratzinger side? Was she Ingrid? OR one os the lay sisters who takes care of the papal household??

[Modificato da @Nessuna@ 10/01/2006 4.35]

Yes Maryjos and Nessuna, we all noticed the same thing while watching the baptism. When the camera was focused on Papa at the baptismal font as he was baptizing each baby, we all saw in the center of the camera lens sitting in the far background "La Familia" with Big Georg sitting next to Little Georg & Cardinal Harvey. Sitting at Msgr. Ratzinger's right side was a lady. I was trying to look real hard but she didn't look like Ingrid Stampa to me. She probably was one of the lay sisters that came along to look after him. So we now know that Papa still has his big brother living with him at the apartment, which is always nice to know.

THE PAPAL FAMILY AT THE BAPTISMS

The woman next to Papa's brother was definitely not Ingrid. It probably was one of the 4 lay sisters in the papal household. One news article said that George Ratzinger was supposed to arrive in Rome on Dec. 28 and stay two weeks so he may be flying back to Germany very soon. It's too bad because I am sure Papa really enjoys his company and worries about him when he is back in Bavaria alone.

Some pics, where you can see "Big G", "Little G" and one of the sisters (?)

Welcome "back", Simone - we missed you for several days! I am so impressed with what you did -
you obviously lifted those frames from a video of the Baptism. Thanks for documenting for us all
the presence of Papa's little family at the event!

[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 10/01/2006 14.14]

"SISTER RATZI: the best ratzifan in the world" is her signature and when she joined
this forum recently, a number of "sisters" immediately disputed - in jest -her claim!
Anyway, today she posted this in the main forum -

Let me share with you my story...
the owner of the Catholic bookstore is about to place a sign
on the door that says
"I cannot enter" with my picture on it...my mother threatens to
send me packing along with my books
by Joseph...what can I do? I cannot help buying them!!!"

She then lists what books she already has -

---

Introduzione allo spirito della liturgia (my strong point!)
senza radici
europa
l'europa di benedetto nella crisi delle culture
elementi di teologia fondamentale
introduzione al cristianesimo
il nuovo popolo di Dio
la mia vita
il sale della terra
settimana santa
speranza del grano di senape
e altri tre dei quali ora mi sfugge il titolo...
(and three others whose titles escape me)

---

"Are they too many perhaps?"

[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 11/01/2006 3.30]

TOO MANY PAPA BOOKS

The Catholic book store in our town is always delighted to see me because of all the Papa books I buy. Somehow, I have even managed to buy 2 copies of the same book at times(memory lapse or enthusiasm??). Anyhow, not to brag but I have more than Sister Ratzi. My family now realizes the best gift to get me is a book by Papa and they also know that is the gift I will buy for them. One of my children said recently, "Mom, we appreciate the books you give us by the pope but could you maybe buy us a shirt or tie instead once in a while." Despite the complaint, I notice that they are reading the books and occasionally borrowing from my personal stack. You can never have enough of Papa's books.

Thank you, Simone, for those video captures. They clearly show Big Georg, lil Georg and a woman to Big Georg's right. She is not Ingrid, though, is she? Yes, she's one of the sisters in the Papal Household......but then, where was Ingrid?
She was at the Mass on December 8th, in the front row.
I am just so relieved to know that Big Georg is still there and the two brothers can relax together, listening to music. Our dear Papa needs a rest after the hectic Advent, Christmas and New Year events; not just Mass either, were they?

Yes, you are right: those who really know are not going to say anything. All we can do is speculate about things amongst ourselves. We truly love him, yet we know so little. Such is life! One happy thing: his thumb is all better and I can save the ointment and plasters, though I hope they won't be needed!
Do you remember the song "I'm a Believer"? It goes, amongst other lines which aren't appropriate, "Love was out to get me, that's the way it seems...." Well, it's certainly got ME!
Buona Notte, Papa......Schlaf gut!
Love to everyone - Mary x

I wonder, when will be issued the new ecyclic (Deus Caritatis Est)...seems that translations last long time

Who haven't read Papa's speech to Ambasadors, do it!
This speech has world wide political impact.(especially the words about terroism)

Czech Ambasador also told medias, that this meeting was overcrowded: some ambasadors who usually had no interest to be present there before, came this year. The atmosphere was very joyful (I think "choyful" ) than in previous years when JP2 suffered more and more.

Paratzifan spins a tale:

Suore delle Sante Coccole: -"Santità, santità!!!" (Your Holiness!...)
Suor Ratzigirl: -"Che faccia-facciosa che hai!!!!!" (Love your funny face!")
Suor Sihaya: -"Sei bellissimo!!!!!!" (You are so beautiful!)
Suor Paparatzifan: -"I tuoi occhi sono allucinanti!!!!" (You have amazing eyes!!!)
Suor RATZGIRL: -"Ohhhh, le orecchiette elfiche!!!" (Oh, those elvish ears!)
Suor Paparaxvi: -"Ti offro una rosa con tanto amore!!!" (I offer you a rose with all my love!!!)
Suor GABRIELLA.JOSEPHINE: -"Ho scritto un poema per te!!!!" (I wrote a poem for you!)


Ruini: -"Questa situazione non può continuare a lungo!!!
Dobbiamo fermare queste energumene!!!" (This situation can't go on!!! We must stop these creatures!!!)
Silvestrini: -"Il peggio è che lui non dice niente e così loro si prendono confidenza..."
(The worse part is he does not say anything, and so, that just gives them more confidence...)


Suor Paparatzifan: -"Ohhhh, Signore, quanta bellezza papale!!!! I miei occhi non possono sopportare...
Ohhhh, mi sento male, credo che... STUUUUUNC!!!! (Oh, Lord, such papal beauty!!! My eyes can't take it all...
Ohhhh, I don't feel well, I think... STUUUUNC!!!)


Cerimoniere: -"Santità,cosa facciamo con la suora qua? Ha avuto un malore!"
(Holiness, what do we do with this sister? She suddenly took ill!)
B16: -"Lascia stare!!! Ormai sono abituato agli svenimenti femminili...Qualcuno la raccoglierà..."
(Let her be!!! I've become accustomed to females swooning...
Someone will take care of her...!!!)

Great captions by the ladies upstairs! Very funny stuff. Thanks for the translations Teresa. We should do some humorous pic captioning of our own here in English at the Pictures and Video thread. There's plenty of pics around the forum to caption. I'm not good in coming up with funny lines but I'm sure the rest of you can write some gems! What say you?

Hi, benefan, I'm ready for take-off !
Would you like to open the new Thread "all the things we love about him", because it was your idea, or shall I do ?

Complimenti!!!!!!!!

My cats are running hither and thither all around me, mieouwing in chorus, very shocked, while their owner {one mag6nideum) is laughing fortississimo while gazing at ratzifan's trio of pics. The words for the SECOND one, with dear Cardinal Ruini, and the composition of that pic...oh, oh, oh..... THANKS RATZIFAN

Those pics... those captions... too funny

Dear friends,

I spent all morning sorting out my pictures and video clips of Papa, making backup copies etc.

The only things I don't have are the clips of the time when I was in Rome (apart from the angelus of 30.10.!
And I can't find them in the internet.

I am missing the following video films:

29.10. - beatification

01.11. - angelus (all saints)

02.11. - general audience


If you know where I can still download them please let me know.

Many thanks in advance - grazie molto.

I only have the "01.11. - angelus (all saints)" 4 Mo , in Italian language ; I can send you it

Sylvie

Oh, Sylvie that would be so kind.

I give you my email address:

lapiranja@web.de

Merci beaucoup.

In a news account of the gay marches in Rome and Milan yesterday in support of a law
to recognize de-facto unions (including that of homosexual partners), Italian playwright
Dario Fo, who won the Nobel Prize in Literature many years ago (an ideological choice that prefigured
English playwright Harold Pinter's Nobel Prize in 2005) was quoted as saying:
"We thought the Church had stopped interfering in Italian politics...but on the contrary,
there is a terrible resurgence. These are bad signs for freedom of expression."

Come again?!?!?!?!
Number One: How is the Church - by restating its bimillenial views on marriage and the family
and respect for all human life - "interfering" in Italian politics? If that is interference,
then anyone who speaks out about any political issue is "interfering" in Italian politics.
Then, so are Mr. Fo and the thousands of gays and lesbians who demonstrated with him.
The Church is an interest group, too, like they are, only much bigger, but then it has a
2000-year head start on the gay movements! Theyre venting their frustration because they
know they can't match up to such an adversary.

Number Two: That the Church speaks out its stand constitutes "bad signs for
freedom of expression"??? It is exercising its freedom of expression. Doesn't
Mr. Fo realize it is he and all ideologically blinded anti-Church elements like him
who want to muzzle the Church from expressing itself in the public arena,
who demand freedom of expression for everybody else but would deny it to the Church?

Oviously, even a Nobel Prize winner can be so ideologically overwrought
he does not even realize when he is spouting stupidities!

This morning, I commented in another thread on a remark Christopher at RFC had posted
about Paul Elie:
"Although Christopher says Elie 'is a serious writer and will make a sincere effort', so are
Noah Chomsky and other ideology-driven writers 'serious' but their agenda does get in the
way of 'sincere effort'.

And I might add, in the way of plain old common sense, as Mr. Fo makes ludicrously obvious.

[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 16/01/2006 9.09]

Ratzigirl picked up from a Spanish site this composite image
comparing Ratzi in 1951 to James Dean around that same time.
The hair and the look appear similar, but no question who's
better-looking!

Papa looks better - sure But Jimmy Dean would have been the ideal actor to express our young Papa in a movie.

Ratzigirl reports that the Turkish newspaper "Hurriyet" published an item today
saying that Mehmet Ali Agca, has said that for $5 million, he is willing to disclose
who ordered him to assassinate John Paul II in May 1981....No other details, but
I am sure the Italian and international press will pick up.

Turkey may send Pope's attacker back to prison

ANKARA — Mehmet Ali Agca, the man who shot Pope John Paul II in 1981, faced a possible return to jail after Turkey's Justice Minister yesterday sought to overturn a court decision freeing him after a quarter-century.
.
Justice Minister Cemil Cicek formally requested that a court overturn the decision to release Agca, after weeks of raging debate on whether the 48-year-old former hitman had served less time than he should for crimes he committed in Turkey before his release last Thursday.
.
After nearly 25 years in jail, most of it in Italy, Agca was set free thanks to sentence reductions in the form of a series of amnesties and other reductions foreseen in the Penal Code but experts say deductions from his jail term have been miscalculated.
.
In his letter to the appeals court, carried by the Anatolia news agency, Mr Cicek argued against a court decision to deduct the time Agca served in Italy from his Turkish jail sentence.
.
The minister said that Agca still had to serve a reduced 10-year sentence for the 1979 murder of a prominent journalist, arguing that the said sentenece could not have been deducted from his overall jail time. — AFP
ANKARA — Mehmet Ali Agca, the man who shot Pope John Paul II in 1981, faced a possible return to jail after Turkey's Justice Minister yesterday sought to overturn a court decision freeing him after a quarter-century.
.
Justice Minister Cemil Cicek formally requested that a court overturn the decision to release Agca, after weeks of raging debate on whether the 48-year-old former hitman had served less time than he should for crimes he committed in Turkey before his release last Thursday.
.
After nearly 25 years in jail, most of it in Italy, Agca was set free thanks to sentence reductions in the form of a series of amnesties and other reductions foreseen in the Penal Code but experts say deductions from his jail term have been miscalculated.
.
In his letter to the appeals court, carried by the Anatolia news agency, Mr Cicek argued against a court decision to deduct the time Agca served in Italy from his Turkish jail sentence.
.
The minister said that Agca still had to serve a reduced 10-year sentence for the 1979 murder of a prominent journalist, arguing that the said sentenece could not have been deducted from his overall jail time. — AFP
www.todayonline.com/articles/95838.asp

Check out a parody on American liberal Catholics - entitled
"Americans dismayed as Pope remains Catholic". The title
does express very well the attitude of many cafeteria Catholics!
www.wittenburgdoor.com/archives/pope.html

---

Scritto da: TERESA BENEDETTA 19/01/2006 17.57
Check out a parody on American liberal Catholics - entitled
"Americans dismayed as Pope remains Catholic". The title
does express very well the attitude of many cafeteria Catholics!
www.wittenburgdoor.com/archives/pope.html

---

Thank you, Theresa, I was laughing on the floor.

First, though:
Hi, Maklara - glad you got as much fun out of that parody as I did!! And I am so relieved
to hear from you...I was going to raise an alarm that we had not heard from you for
days! I hope all is well.
---------------------------------------------------------------

Now, the next topic I will refer to is no laughing matter, however. I didn't realize -
although I should have - that some Catholic campuses in America have been hosting
the theatrical piece called "The Vagina Monologues" (hereinafter to be referred
to as TVM! I am aware that it has had some success even on a worldwide basis,
where leading feminists offer their services to perform the piece, which as
far as I understand it, glorifies female sexuality but also deals with the
problems it can create or that it confronts in today's world.

Well, one of my favorite bloggers, Curt Jester, today cites a Catholic college
president who said "NO, you will not stage this piece on this campus," and writes
why not! I invite you to read what Father Brian O'Shanley, president of Providence
College in Vermont, writes to the community about it:
www.providence.edu/Administration/Presidents%2BOffice/Vagina%2BMonolo...

Then the Jester also cites a CWN story about the TVM 'phenomenon" and
a lay group that has been trying to prevent it from being staged on more
Catholic campuses. Read it on
www.cwnews.com/news/viewstory.cfm?recnum=41785

---

Scritto da: TERESA BENEDETTA 19/01/2006 23.57
First, though:
Hi, Maklara - glad you got as much fun out of that parody as I did!! And I am so relieved
to hear from you...I was going to raise an alarm that we had not heard from you for
days! I hope all is well.

---

Thank Teresa for your attention to me. I have now the exam term at university so I have only little time to finding and commenting.
But still this forum is usually second website (after my mailbox account) I visit when I am online.
"I watch but I am not watched."

[Modificato da Maklara 20/01/2006 10.50]