{"id":14201,"date":"2013-06-09T15:49:55","date_gmt":"2013-06-09T19:49:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/?p=14201"},"modified":"2013-06-11T17:47:29","modified_gmt":"2013-06-11T21:47:29","slug":"playing-pilot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/2013\/06\/playing-pilot\/","title":{"rendered":"Playing Pilot"},"content":{"rendered":"

(Vatican Radio) In a style that seems to have become almost signature of the current pontificate, Pope Francis stepped out of yet another scripted session to engage in a spontaneous question-and-answer period with hundreds of children and teens.<\/p>\n

The papal audience in the Paul VI Hall with students, teachers and staff of Jesuit grade schools and high schools on Friday became a friendly dialogue between the 76-year-old pontiff and the young people.<\/p>\n

The students, who had come from six Italian cities and one school in Albania, were passing time singing a Christian rap song, when the Pope entered the hall unannounced. At his sighting, they immediately erupted into cheers and applause.<\/p>\n

In response, it seems, Pope Francis decided to put his five-page written message aside.<\/p>\n

\u201cI prepared a text, but it\u2019s five pages! A little boring,\u201d he said to the young people, who responded with laughter and applause.<\/p>\n

He proposed to give a short summary and then take questions from the students instead. (source)<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The one question not even mentioned in this report from Vatican Radio was of course the only part the media concentrated on.<\/p>\n

One of the most touching moments came when Teresa, a bright-eyed redhead no more than six, asked Francis flat out if he had wanted to be pope.<\/p>\n

Francis joked that only someone who hated himself would ever want to be pope. But then he became serious: \u2018\u2018I didn\u2019t want to be pope.\u2019\u2019 (source)<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I guess for many outside of the Catholic Church and unfortunately too many within see the papacy in terms of power and control. Kind of a President of the Catholic Church. So it is somewhat shocking to people to think that someone would not aspire to such a position. No doubt though that in the history of the Church the worst pope\u2019s were indeed those that wanted to be pope and did see it in terms of prestige an power.<\/p>\n

Still for the media and many others this is a surprising thing. Which just goes to show that once again they haven\u2019t been paying attention. I don\u2019t remember picking up on Pope Benedict XVI coat of arms with the bear of St. Corbinian and the multiple times he tried to retired as prefect of the CDF. Blessed John Paul II reportedly went to the august 1978 Conclave, stating that he was not at all fit to become pope and was elected to his own surpise. He hesitated quite some time before uttering the traditional \u201cAccepto\u201d. Maybe it is really hard to imagine service over personal desires now that radical individuality is the norm. If we use the term \u201cpublic servant\u201d at all we often use it with more than a dash of sarcasm.<\/p>\n

Now since we don\u2019t have an actual transcript of this event there are some questions regarding some of the coverage that is hard to definitively answer. Although I put my money on negative spin.<\/p>\n

For example Vatican Radio\u2019s article<\/a> reported:<\/p>\n

\u201cI have a need to live among people.\u201d he said. \u201cIf I were to live alone, perhaps a little isolated, it would not be good for me. \u2026 It is my personality. \u2026 It is not an issue of personal virtue, it is only that I cannot live alone.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Other media outlets reported that it was to \u201cpreserve his mental health\u201d or for his \u201cpsychiatric\u201d health.”<\/p>\n

Still there were way more interesting answers he gave in this question and answer session.<\/p>\n

When a student doubting his faith asked for words of encouragement, the Pope likened the faith to a long walk. \u201cTo walk is an art,\u201d he said, \u201cTo walk is the art of looking at the horizon, thinking about where I want to go but also enduring the fatigue. And many times, the walk is difficult, it is not easy\u2026 There is darkness\u2026 even days of failure\u2026 one falls\u2026 But always think this: do not be afraid of failure.<\/p>\n

\u201cDo not be afraid of falling. In the art of walking, what is important is not avoiding the fall but not remaining fallen. Get up quickly, continue on, and go,\u201d he said to applause. \u201cBut it is also terrible to walk alone, terrible and boring. Walking in community with friends, with those who love us, this helps us \u2026 get to the end.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

and<\/p>\n

In response to a question by a teacher about the role of Catholics in politics, the Pope said participation in politics is a Christian obligation.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe, Christians, cannot \u2018play Pilot\u2019 and wash our hands. We cannot,\u201d he said. \u201cWe must participate in politics because politics is one of the highest forms of charity because it seeks the common good. And Christian lay people must work in politics.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is not easy; politics has become too tainted. But I ask myself: Why has it become tainted? Because Christians have not participated in politics with an evangelical spirit? \u2026 To work for the common good is a Christian duty, and many times the way in which to work towards it is through politics.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Update: Zenit provides a full translation<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(Vatican Radio) In a style that seems to have become almost signature of the current pontificate, Pope Francis stepped out of yet another scripted session to engage in a spontaneous…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[50,24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14201","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pope","category-punditry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14201","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14201"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14201\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14205,"href":"http:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14201\/revisions\/14205"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14201"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14201"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14201"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}