Pope Benedict XVI Blog

Letter from Rome, #22: Love in the Ruins

insidethevatican - Jul 18, 2009



The monsignor of whom the dying cardinal spoke, speaks. And, a love story...

By Robert Moynihan, reporting from Rome

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"What needs to be discharged is the intolerable tenderness of the past, the past gone and grieved over and never made sense of. Music ransoms us from the past... Start a new life, get a girl, look into her shadowy eyes, smile... You play a tune and we'll watch evening fall and lightning bugs wink in the purple meadow..." —Walker Percy, Love in the Ruins: The Adventures of a Bad Catholic at a Time Near the End of the World, 1971

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I studied the works of Walker Percy, the American Catholic novelist, when I was in college, at Harvard. I went to meet Percy in 1977. His most important book is a collection of philosophical essays entitled The Message in the Bottle.

The entire goal of his writing was to show how the historical events of Christian history constituted a "message" which brought life to people who were in the position of "castaways" on a desert island, waiting for a message that could help them in their plight to wash up on the beach...

And he did not write didactically, as if to say, "this is the message, here is part one, here is part two, you must believe this point, and this point, and also this other point..."

Rather, he described men and women finding the message, right in the middle of their loneliness -- all of us are shipwrecked; that is why we should be kind to one another -- and in finding the message, finding true life.

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The Pope Seems Fine

Before continuing, I should note that Pope Benedict XVI seems fine, though he broke his write in a fall the night before last.

He fell after getting up from his bed about 1 am, but did not tell anyone until the next morning. "He slipped in his bath this morning. He was taken to hospital for check-ups. It's nothing serious," Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi, S.J., said.

The injury was so minor that the Pope ate breakfast and celebrated Mass before he went to hospital. At hospital he had minor surgery to treat a slight fracture of his wrist. The Pope was lightly sedated for the procedure.

Benedict is at the resort of Val d'Aosta for a two-week holiday. While on holiday, the Pope, an avid pianist, planned on enjoying the use of a piano that had been sent to the chalet.

This morning's accident is the first health concern for Pope Benedict since he took the position in April 2005.

I do think, however, that this is a valuable "sign." What do I mean?

I mean that the Pope, despite the care of his staff, is still working a very busy schedule for a man of 82. I get tired just trying to follow all the meetings he has.

Perhaps he and his staff should consider cutting back even further on his schedule of meetings, and the number of discourses he reads.

After all, he is still writing his second book on Jesus — an important task he should bring to completion.
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posted by Dr. Denice Hanley, DPM, M.Div. @ 9:13 PM