Catholic Online Forum

Where were you when Pope Benedict was elected? I was at work and had a news site running behind my work on my computer. I kept switching screens while I waited and waited for the news. I was a little unsure when it was announced Cardinal Ratzinger was the new pope but by the time I went to Mass that evening I was ecstatic! I still remember sitting in the pews praying before Mass and hearing our priest whistling in the confessional! He was that happy! I am sad now that his papacy is drawing to a close but I know he's doing the right thing (not that it matters what I think anyway... )

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Daisy Martin

No idea. I can't remember a thing about it. I couldn't have cared less who was pope in 2005.

(I did see parts of Pope John Paul II's funeral on TV, and I did have a vague rather inexplicable sense of sadness and loss).

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Grace

As to the past, let us entrust it to God's mercy, the future to Divine Providence. Our task is to live holy the present moment. - Saint Gianna Molla

Was at work and saw it on the live feed from either EWTN or Fox News. I remember thinking that we were (still) in good hands. I also remember laughing to myself at all the liberals I knew who had thought finally we would get a Pope who would liberalize sexual morals and allow wholesale the option for married men and women to become priests. I also remember how some of the liberals I knew wore black armbands around the parish at the news because they thought Cardinal Ratzinger would "take us back to the 16th century." They were wrong on both counts, not surprisingly.

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Dean
Most people's sense of history goes back to breakfast time - Benjamin Netanyahu

That seems rather suprising for Catholics, Dean, but I guess not.

I was driving home and heard the news and felt very happy. I was familiar with him and very surprised that someone so well known would become Pope.

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Andrew McAllister

Respect for the dignity of every innocent human being from conception/fertilization, without exception, without compromise, without apology.

Unhappily, Andrew, nothing Catholics (including ordained and those lay people who work at parishes) do surprises me anymore. Happily, that sort is no longer at my parish.

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Dean
Most people's sense of history goes back to breakfast time - Benjamin Netanyahu

I was at home and saw the crawl thingy on the TV screen almost as soon as they posted it, before they opened the balcony and showed us who it was.

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Rose West
"May God help us not to spoil His work" (Bl. Mother Theresa)

I was at home. Don't know whether I had it on TV or the radio. I was surprised, but pleased that he was elected. Thought he had probably rubbed too many people the wrong way; guess the Holy Spirit was working overtime on that one.

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- Joe Kelley

Death is only a shadow across the path to Heaven.

Fast asleep.

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James Daly

"It is the Lord." (Jn 21:7)

I have trouble remembering by evening what I had for breakfast so I have no idea what I was doing that Tuesday eight years ago.

But given that 6:00 p.m. April 19, 2005 in Rome was noon in CST time, USA, if it wasn't raining (or too muddy), I was probably planting the early garden. If it was raining, chances are I was reading a book … or having lunch.

As to what I was doing when I first heard the news from the conclave, more than likely I was watching the news because that is probably the way I found out.

But whether that was at noon, CST or 5:00 p.m. or 9:00 p.m., I cannot say with certainty.

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In Christ,

Jim B

I will consider your position if stated with firm, well-thought-out, quiet reasoning. Hateful diatribe, ad hominem attacks and shouted rhetoric don't impress.

I was at home, and actually browsing the forum here when somebody posted about "white smoke." So I ran downstairs and turned on the television and caught the rest of it. And rejoiced.

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Catherine Wetmore

The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult, and left untried. --G.K. Chesterton

It was one of the very last things (if not the last thing) that my mother watched on TV as she was on hospice, dying. She turned to me and said, "don't you think that is a good choice" and I said, "yes, yes, very much and you don't need to worry, the church is in good hands". I didn't know she had such interest in it though she followed the funeral as best she could (she was nearly blind) but I was fooled. She adored JPII, being Polish herself and raised in a Polish parochial school where Polish language and history were studied, she wanted someone to carry on the tradition.

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Valerie Garcia
vals1990@yahoo.com

"Listen, O my son, to the precepts of thy master, and incline the ear of thy heart, and cheerfully receive and faithfully execute the admonitions of thy loving Father, that by the toil of obedience thou mayest return to Him ....." St. Benedict

I was on a bus going to work. I knew then that white smoke had appeared above the Sistine chapel's chimney and was excited to know who it was. By the time I got to my office, people were screaming and jumping up and down with delight. I had to calm someone down to ask who was the new Pope.

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Pax et bonum,
Marie

JMJ

Marie,

I want to work in your office.

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James Daly

"It is the Lord." (Jn 21:7)

James,
You'd be surprised where it was. It's the advertising department of the left-leaning San Francisco Chronicle! (I imagine the mood was quite the reverse in the editorial department.)

For some inexplicable act of God, almost all of us in the retail and classified departments were Catholics: Whites of Irish, Check, Italian, and German origins; Latinos (Mexicans and Guatemalans); and quite a few Filipinos. We had a betting game going and most were rooting for Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn.

As I have read a few Ratzinger books by then, he was the only papabile I was interested in. So I (and a guy named Joe Murray) won the bets. But everybody was so thrilled for the new Pope, just the same.

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Pax et bonum,
Marie

JMJ

I was sitting on the couch watching EWTN. Raymond Arroyo was cluelessly talking on about something while white smoke was rising behind him. I remember having mixed feelings. Bl. JP II was the only pope I had "known" and he died just months after my earthly father had died. I grew to love His Holiness Emeritus Benedict XVI and I still do. Each pope has his own gifts to offer according to how God designed him. Pope Francis's "To Walk To Build To Witness, Always with the Cross of Christ" is a perfect papal address in this Year of Faith. It's fitting, too, that ournew pope is known for his humility, as humility is the path of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI.

Long Live His Holiness Emeritus Benedict XVI!
Long Live His Holiness Pope Francis!

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Nina

The true light that enlightens every man was coming into the world. ~John 1:9