Benedict Transforms Papal Roadshow Into a Courteous Tip-toe

c. 2006 Religion News Service LAGIEWNIKI, Poland ÆÂ? The very sight of the snowy-haired pontiff sent dozens of teenaged school girls into a mild frenzy. “Benedict, we love you!” they shouted from the upper pews, hoping to illicit a glance from Pope Benedict XVI as he entered their church. Their cries for eye contact went […]

c. 2006 Religion News Service

LAGIEWNIKI, Poland ÆÂ? The very sight of the snowy-haired pontiff sent dozens of teenaged school girls into a mild frenzy.

“Benedict, we love you!” they shouted from the upper pews, hoping to illicit a glance from Pope Benedict XVI as he entered their church.


Their cries for eye contact went unanswered. Benedict, reserved and heavy-lidded, approached the altar at Our Lady of Divine Mercy, a Roman Catholic shrine revered by Poles. He knelt in prayer and the church fell into silence.

Benedict’s four-day swing through John Paul II’s homeland has been billed as a spiritual journey in the footsteps of John Paul. But if John Paul once strutted through Poland like a rockstar, Benedict has slowed the papal roadshow down to courteous tip-toe.

The disparity, however, hasn’t discouraged thousands of young Poles from flocking to Krakow and its environs for the chance to hang out with the pontiff.

“I was hoping he’d look our way,” said 18-year-old Agnieszka Urban, who had been calling out to Benedict along with dozens of her classmates at the Divine Mercy’s reform school for girls. Placing the two popes side by side, she said, “the two don’t compare.”

Marta Jaskowiak, her English teacher and chaperone for the day, chimed in: “He’s really shy, so it’s hard to connect with him. At least he’s trying.”

It is no secret that Benedict lacks the charisma and star power of his predecessor ÆÂ? a polyglott, poet, and trained performer. But that hasn’t stopped him from trying to channel John Paul. He has studied up on his Polish. He has walked where John Paul walked, diligently criss-crossing John Paul’s homeland.

“He who wishes to understand a poet should visit his native land,” Benedict said, quoting the German poet Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe, during a visit to John Paul’s hometown of Wadowice on Saturday (May 27). Moments later he was reminiscing on John Paul’s days as altar boy there.


While these brushes with John Paul’s personal past have been frequent, the question on the minds of many Poles is whether any of the late pontiff’s signature charisma will eventually rub off.

“People want him to be a star, but he just isn’t,” said Tomasz Krzyzam, 42, a freelance journalist.

This desire was particularly apparent as hundreds of thousands of young Poles poured into Krakow’s Blonia Park for a music-filled twighlight encounter with the pontiff. As the sun set and Benedict got up to leave, cries of “Stay with us!” issued from the throng.

Benedict responded to their pleas with open arms and an occasional smile, but ultimately he stuck to his schedule. With candle lights blazing and a field of banners fluttering, Benedict dutifully boarded his popemobile.

An hour later, the city’s attention shifted to the archbishop’s palace, which is hosting the pontiff during his stay in Krakow. On Friday, Benedict had appeared in the window and delivered prepared remarks in Italian. This time, he came his remarks came in Polish:

“Tomorrow lies ahead of us,” he said. “In greeting you now, I invite you to the Mass we are to celebrate tomorrow.”


The crowd applauded, but made no sign of dispersing. “Goodnight!” Benedict added; then he went to bed. KRE END MEICHTRY

AP-NY-05-27-06 1721EDT

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