“My Friend Benedict XVI”
On the Ignatius Press website (May 6), there was an interview with Fr. Joseph Fessio, the top dog at Ignatius Press, called “Fr. Fessio on Benedict XVI: My Friend, Benedict XVI.” On Michael S. Rose’s new website on Pope Benedict XVI, paparatzipost.com, Rose provides a snippet from the interview and then gives a link to the Ignatius Press website for the full interview. Rose’s website welcomes visitors, so readers can make comments online. Curiously, the readers weren’t interested in Fessio’s view of Benedict; rather, they were interested in Fessio himself.
The first comment was this: “Fr. Fessio’s total media saturation on ‘my friend Ratzinger’ is getting a bit annoying. I’m not much of a media hound, but I still can’t turn around without seeing Fr. Fessio. OK, you’re friends; we get it.”
Then OregonRN says: “Because the article [interview] does not identify a writer [interviewer], this appears to be another probing interview of Fr. Fessio by Fr. Fessio. I would like to read such an interview with Fr. Fessio on the subject of hubris.”
Then Gyrine says: “Have you folks considered that the ‘Big Fess’ might be making a big deal of ‘his friend’ Benedict because he has no other friends left?”
You May Also Enjoy
In Italy there was a culture of Catholicism, of an old Catholic people -- unassuming, tolerant, and devout in a way that only people who know who they are can be.
Today sensitivity is a virtue, stimuli are irresistible, environment is determinative, and we prefer our chicken frozen and wrapped in plastic.
People turn to the Catholic Church not so much because they are drawn by its beauty (though they sometimes are) as because they cherish truth.