A day after elevating 22 archbishops to cardinal—including the New York Archdiocese's Timothy Dolan—Pope Benedict led mass at St. Peter's Basilica today. And, at least according to the AP's report, the pontiff is looking and sounding rough: "Benedict, who turns 85 in April, read a long homily in a hoarse voice and looked tired on the third straight day of speeches, rituals and appearances for the new cardinals. Benedict told the new members of the College of Cardinals their main task is to 'bear witness to the joy of Christ's love.'"
Pope Benedict's age and fatigue has been noted before—he is using a wheeled platform these days.
The AP also notes, "The Vatican has been embarrassed by months of intrigue involving alleged corruption and apparent jockeying for power within the hierarchy with a view to the next papacy. The leaking of documents and a rash of in-house scandals have been interpreted by observers as indications that Vatican insiders see Benedict's attention to the Holy See's bureaucracy as waning."
In the meantime, the Daily News has an editorial today saying that New Yorkers should thank Benedict for elevating Dolan: "Many find fault with Catholic tenets on abortion, gay marriage rights and other articles of Dolan's faith. At the same time, though, his good-natured zest for belief at large is hard to resist. His manner conveys universal truths: It's okay to believe, more than okay. It's wrong for popular culture to make freaks — Dolan's word — of people who choose to live by moral codes. It's right to stand on conscience. All of which appeals equally to dogmatics, doubters and deniers."
The News also praises Dolan's fight with President Obama over the birth control mandate. In his message to New Yorkers printed in the News, Cardinal Dolan writes, " I’ve become a New Yorker. And I like to brag about the beauty and the virtue and the goodness that I see in the New York community. I bristle and cringe when people who aren’t New Yorkers caricature New Yorkers as cold and unfriendly and rude and almost atheistic and pagan...The Catholic Church in New York is not looked upon as some outsider. New York is a place where religion is welcome, where the contribution of the faith community is a cherished part."
The Italian media is excited about the idea of Dolan being... pope material.
