Dear readers of Protect the Pope,
The reason for Protect the Pope’s silence over the past three days is that we were hit by two technical problems – my pc had to be sent away for repairs and we lost broadband connection.
Broadband is restored and I’ve borrowed someone else’s laptop to send this post. Hopefully we’ll be up and running agains during the evening.
Thank you for your patience. I’ve posted readers comments, apart from the troll comments and lies.
Deacon Nick Donnelly
I’m happy to know that you’re fine ! Thank you for your efforts, Reverend Nick !
A couple of things worth mentioning:
At the general audience on Wednesday the Pope received a huge standing-ovation
In the afternoon, at the end of the Ash-Wednesday Mass in St Peter’s,he got another standing ovation and the applause lasted several minutes. He himself interrupted it after a while saying “let’s get back to prayer”.
He said that he could feel “almost physically” the affection and prayers of the people.
Next public outing of the Pope will include:the next two Sunday angelus Prayers before the 28, the next Wednesday general audience,and -most importantly- on Wednesday, the 27th of February, the Pope will give his final salutation and farewell to all pilgrims in St Peters’ square.
Yesterday he met with the Roman priests,who were very moved.
Tomorrow he will receive in a private audience Italian PM Monti, and the day after the president of the Italian Republic Napolitano,with whom he had a special relationship ( and this is significant, because-while Monti is a devout Catholic, Napolitano is atheist and-nevertheless- he has never made a secret of his deeply-felt admiration for Pope Benedict. In his end-of year messages Napolitano always lamented the Christian’s persecution around the world) The Pope will also meet with the Bishops of the Lombardy region and the Bishops of the Liguria region,as long scheduled. They are the only Bishops who will have the chance to meet him before his resignation. ( The meeting with them had been scheduled long ago)
hope you are back to normal soon. God bless
Thanks for your efforts with running this site. I appreciate it is demanding.
Good to see your are back, this blog is much needed
It is worth noting that the Holy Father gave a fascinating off-the-cuff disquisition to the Roman clergy yesterday, about his experience of the Second Vatican Council. See Inside the Vatican website, “Without a Script”.
God’s justice.