Midnight Mass at Bennie’s
I may be an excommunicated heretic (and proud of it), but I still enjoy watching the pageant at St. Peter’s, though I view it with a much more critical eye these days.
This year I noticed some interesting things:
- The servers were all members of the Legionaries for Christ – yep, the same group formerly headed by Maciel. Now that he’s been removed, apparently they’ve become big players in Rome.
- Another group that’s been getting more prominent lately is the Equestrian Order of the Knights of the Holy Sepulcher of Jerusalem. According to Wikipedia, they’re as old as the Templars. And they seem just as spooky…
- The front section for diplomats was only about half-full. Never noticed that before.
- Bennie’s sermon was a lecture, yadda yadda, but he did mention abused children. Nary a word about priest abuse, of course.
- The camera work was excellent… for propaganda. It went from medium shots of the action at the altar, to big pans over the sculpture and artwork, with lots of tight close-ups of the crowd. Though everybody looked bored and tired, naturally enough, no yawns, nose-picking, etc., the only people shown sleeping were infants, not cardinals. And they went out of their way to get shots of every ethnicity there, to show that Catholicism is a worldwide affair.
- Bennie worked the crowd, both coming and going. Every time he saw a cute baby, he made a beeline to bless it (ugh), stopping the whole procession.
- On the way out, some guy jumped out of the crowd at the pope, and was wrestled to the ground. Bennie pretended not to notice, and the camera did not focus on it. Nor was a word about it mentioned then or later.
So, nothing to worry about folks, everything’s well under control. Same as it ever was.
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