Not again, please....
February 11, 2012 3:47 AM   Subscribe

After the rumoured murder of John Paul I and the attempts on the life of John Paul II, and following an old, old tradition, an Italian daily has now published a restricted document purporting to warn Benedict XVI of a plot to kill him before the end of this year.
posted by aqsakal (35 comments total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
2012 seems like a good year to play Nostradamus Bingo.
posted by run"monty at 4:01 AM on February 11, 2012 [1 favorite]


If he gets it, does Joe Biden take over?
posted by goethean at 4:17 AM on February 11, 2012 [4 favorites]


Wasn't this featured on the History Channel last week?
posted by fairmettle at 4:28 AM on February 11, 2012


Somewhere, Dan Brown begins furiously typing.
posted by nathancaswell at 4:48 AM on February 11, 2012 [7 favorites]


Furiously photocopying.
posted by GallonOfAlan at 4:52 AM on February 11, 2012 [7 favorites]


Why would anyone bother? Ratzo is irrelevant to most Catholics anyhow. Even Ireland kicked out the Papal embassy over the handling of the pedophile crisis.
posted by mermayd at 4:53 AM on February 11, 2012 [2 favorites]


There is ALWAYS going to be a plot to kill 'famous person X'. Some nothing more than the fever-dream inside the head of one person.

Why would THIS pope be any different?
posted by rough ashlar at 4:55 AM on February 11, 2012 [1 favorite]


Viral marketing!
posted by usonian at 4:57 AM on February 11, 2012 [3 favorites]


If he gets it, does Joe Biden take over?

No; apparently it'll be Cardinal Angelo Scola (although there's no word on how the secret vote for the successor would be rigged).
posted by aqsakal at 5:20 AM on February 11, 2012 [1 favorite]


If you pray to God to give the Pope a fatal heart attack, does the Vatican treat it as an assassination attempt?
posted by Faint of Butt at 5:32 AM on February 11, 2012 [4 favorites]


Traduzione di Massimo Paradiso
That was one of the shittier translations I've seen lately. I wonder how much he was helped by Google.

The original article in Italian for those who are interested.
posted by romakimmy at 5:35 AM on February 11, 2012


You're right - it was a lousy translation.

But the original was in fact in German, romakimmy. Your link is to a translation into Italian. Comparing the three, I suspect Paradiso had no German and translated (poorly) into English from the Italian translation.
posted by aqsakal at 5:43 AM on February 11, 2012


The actual damning document I understand was in German, but I believe Sig. Paradiso translated Marco Lillo's article I linked above. Why they don't use proper translators mystifies me. You or I could have done a much more comprehensible job of translating Sig. Lillo's piece ;) Eh, I'll just go back to watching the snow instead of gnashing my teeth over bad translations...
posted by romakimmy at 5:58 AM on February 11, 2012


Why would anyone bother? Ratzo is irrelevant to most Catholics anyhow.


This is a joke, right?
posted by resiny at 6:08 AM on February 11, 2012


Interesting but unlikely. Also interesting, Philadelphia's Cardinal Bevilaqua - long suffering from both cancer and Alzheimers - had been found competent to testify in a multiple defendant sex abuse case. He died the day after the finding. The coroner in neighboring Montgomery County is investigating, since the timing of his death is 'peculiar'.
posted by rzklkng at 6:13 AM on February 11, 2012


"Ils sont fous ces romains..."
posted by Meatafoecure at 6:23 AM on February 11, 2012


Why "warn"? Surely it should be "your ascension to a better place is nigh, rejoice".
posted by episodic at 4:54 AM on February 11


That's not really how it works.
posted by gjc at 6:32 AM on February 11, 2012


Directly killing the Pope is the old way. Today, true revolutionaries seek to engage the Pope's resources in meaningless combat, exhausting his energy, weakening him systemically.

For example, some activist friends of mine recently attempted to ask the Pope to provide contraception to women. They didn't directly succeed in that mission, but they did manage to divert huge amounts of socio-cultural attention and money in that direction. Other radicals have maintained that a woman has the right to choose whether or not to have a child. The Pope fights these people, spends money and time and energy fighting these people, and loses a little each day. More daring members of the opposition have asked if two people who love each other can be together even if they have the same gender. The papacy loses resources every day it opposes that possibilty.

We don't need to kill the Pope. It's a war of attrition, and we have time...
posted by twoleftfeet at 6:44 AM on February 11, 2012 [7 favorites]


There is ALWAYS going to be a plot to kill 'famous person X'. Some nothing more than the fever-dream inside the head of one person.

Why would THIS pope be any different?


Have you seen this Pope?

If your pot is to end the immortal terror-reign of the Vampire Lord of the Mediterranean, you need to go on quests for the Sword of the Wizard King and the Crown of the Sun. Then you have to steal the Holy Crosier of Smiting from the treasury of the Vampire Lord himself. Along the way you will befriend a Pirate with a Heart of Gold and probably save a Tomboy who prefers shorts and long stockings.

Most people can't handle that kind of plot. Well, not believably, anyway.
posted by GenjiandProust at 7:07 AM on February 11, 2012 [4 favorites]


Today, true revolutionaries seek to engage the Pope's resources in meaningless combat, exhausting his energy, weakening him systemically.

Nope, those are all pretty much right up his alley. What else would he be doing in times like ours?
posted by resurrexit at 7:07 AM on February 11, 2012


What else would he be doing in times like ours?

Far be it from me to tell the Pope how to do his job, but I really would like to see a widely recognized spiritual leader talking about how important it is to love one another and help each other become better people.

Not my idea. I read it in a Good Book.
posted by twoleftfeet at 7:26 AM on February 11, 2012 [1 favorite]


Far be it from me to tell the Pope how to do his job, but I really would like to see a widely recognized spiritual leader talking about how important it is to love one another and help each other become better people.

The Dalai Lama?

Of course, there are, I am pretty sure, people who want to kill him, too.
posted by GenjiandProust at 8:14 AM on February 11, 2012 [1 favorite]


The Dalai Lama?

I'm pretty sure he's not a good Christian. So whatever he says about peace and compassion and love doesn't count.
posted by twoleftfeet at 8:16 AM on February 11, 2012 [1 favorite]


Far be it from me to tell the Pope how to do his job, but I really would like to see a widely recognized spiritual leader talking about how important it is to love one another and help each other become better people.

I have good news for you. He has written extensively on that subject.

http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/encyclicals/documents/hf_ben-xvi_enc_20051225_deus-caritas-est_en.html

http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/encyclicals/documents/hf_ben-xvi_enc_20071130_spe-salvi_en.html

http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/encyclicals/documents/hf_ben-xvi_enc_20090629_caritas-in-veritate_en.html

There are also several books.
posted by michaelh at 8:41 AM on February 11, 2012 [4 favorites]


I'm pretty sure he's not a good Christian.

Oh, sure, now you are adding qualifiers.

More seriously, I can only assume this is nerve-wracking for public figures, even those who can afford heavy security. I mean, all it takes is a little fame to attract the attention of people who will write or email you with all sorts of lurid threats and scenarios. Especially if you are a woman. Now, most of these messages will come from people who get their whole thrill from sending the message, so you can pretty much safely ignore 99%? 99.9%? 99.99? But there must be, in the back of your mind, the sense that you might have missed that tiny fraction, that one person who is going to actually try something. Which, I imagine, is a very unpleasant feeling.
posted by GenjiandProust at 8:42 AM on February 11, 2012 [1 favorite]


To those wondering about how a good Catholic should think about the prospect of assassination, I suggest this quote from a speech of Benedict's:

To die, in fact, is part of life and not only of its end, but, if we pay attention, of every instant. Despite all the distractions, the loss of a loved one makes us discover the "problem," making us feel death as a radically hostile presence contrary to our natural vocation to life and happiness.

Jesus revolutionized the meaning of death. He did so with his teaching, above all by facing death himself. "Dying he destroyed death," says the liturgy of the Easter season. "With the Spirit that could not die, Christ defeated death that was killing man," wrote a Father of the Church (Melito of Sardis, "On Easter," 66). In this way, the Son of God wished to share our human condition to the end, to open it to hope. Ultimately, he was born to be able to die and in this way to free us from the slavery of death. The Letter to the Hebrews says: "that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone" (2:9).

Since then, death is no longer the same: It has been deprived, so to speak, of its "venom." The love of God, acting in Jesus, has given new meaning to the whole of man's existence and in this way, has also transformed death. If in Christ human life is a departure "from this world to the Father" (John 13:1), the hour of death is the moment in which this departure takes places in a concrete and definite way.

Those who commit themselves to live like him are freed from the fear of death, no longer showing the sarcastic smile of an enemy but offering the friendly face of a "sister," as St. Francis wrote in the "Canticle of Creatures." In this way, God can also be blessed for it: "Praise be to you, my Lord, for our Sister Bodily Death." We must not fear the death of the body, faith reminds us, as it is a dream from which we will awake one day.


I would take that to mean that Benedict should take precautions in order to avoid assassination since it would prematurely end his life and his service to his family, the Church, etc. At the same time, if he was to die, he could praise God for his death and would gain Heaven, which would obviously be nice. Regardless of whether he fears death or not, that does not abrogate the responsibility of others to protect him and other people from assassination, especially if it's the job of those others (vocation again) to protect people (police, swiss guard, etc.)
posted by michaelh at 8:54 AM on February 11, 2012 [2 favorites]


Wasn't this featured on the History Channel last week?

No. The History Channel is only about aliens and Vietnam.
posted by Fizz at 9:32 AM on February 11, 2012 [1 favorite]


Well, if they do kill the pope, we can then move on to Pope Inconsequential CCLXVII.
posted by Mister Fabulous at 10:22 AM on February 11, 2012


I really would like to see a widely recognized spiritual leader talking about how important it is to love one another and help each other become better people.

For some reason his remarks on love and goodness tend not to be widely reported in the media. If you were expecting to hear them there––as opposed to, say, in his sermons, encyclicals and books––then yes, I can imagine you might think he never talked about those things.
posted by Cortes at 11:29 AM on February 11, 2012


Somewhere, Dan Brown's monkeys begin furiously typing.
posted by mattoxic at 11:59 AM on February 11, 2012


Somewhere, Dan Brown's monkeys begin furiously typing.

I don't think so. Most monkeys I know can write far better prose than "Deception Point".
posted by Skeptic at 12:17 PM on February 11, 2012


The translation is off so it's hard to understand but the threat on the Pope seems like one of many bizarre statements and actions from Palermo Paolo Romeo. Did anyone else take away that this guy is in China wearing his full constume, claiming to be an emissary and confident of the Pope, some kind of three-way Popish council, without any permission or knowledge of the Grand Wizards back in Rome?
posted by PJLandis at 12:45 PM on February 11, 2012


I remember this movie. Didn't they have to change the name though?
posted by radwolf76 at 1:32 PM on February 11, 2012


Fizz: "No. The History Channel is only about aliens and Vietnam."

And pawning things.
posted by Dr. Zira at 2:21 PM on February 11, 2012


The History Channel is only about aliens and Vietnam.

Aliens in Vietnam??? So that's what that was all about.

And here I thought it was about poppies. Which are only dangerous when it's not snowing or so empirical studies suggest.
posted by Twang at 6:01 PM on February 11, 2012


« Older Purple in the morning, blue in the afternoon...   |   State of Denmark Newer »


This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments