Could it be magic?
What image does the phrase ‘papal audience’ conjure for you? Possibly you have an image of some Francis Bacon type pope sitting on a throne in a room lit by flickering firelight and intrigue, with plenty of gothic woodwork for scheming cardinals to hide behind, while you, slightly off your tits from incense inhalation, do ring kissing and ask that he use his influence to shave you a couple of years off your time in hell. Or have your views been coloured by too many ‘an audience with…’ tee vee specials, and you expect a few anecdotes and finishing on a song?
For the parents of Madeleine ‘Maddie*’ Macann, it meant standing with the crowd, waiting until the ex-nazi in question shuffled down the line to them and then a few words and the blessing of a picture of their missing daughter. On the one hand, the ‘tapas two’ must be feeling pretty grim, on the other hand - think what that picture will fetch on eBay.
I’m not sure exactly what the audience with the Pope was meant to achieve. My only thought was, if you wanted to understand the mind of a paedophile, you’d do a lot worse than speaking to a bloke who runs an organisation chock-full of them. It’s a bit like Clarice Starling going to see Hannibal Lector in ‘Silence of the Lambs’ to gain some insight into the mind of a serial killer…and a serial overactor in the form of Anthony Hopkins.
The Pope apparently blessed a picture of the little girl. What this is supposed to achieve I’m not sure - it smacks of sympathetic magic straight out of the dark ages. If they are resorting to that, are they also visiting a voodoo priest who is jamming nails into the photofit of the suspected abductor?
* The family are at pains to call the little girl by her full name, the tab tabbie tabloids prefer to use the abbreviated form - possibly because they can save space to put it in bigger print, possibly because they can save space to advertise their ‘save three tokens and get a free can of lager’ promotion. Probably because they realise that their readers will only hear family members addressed by their full names on rare occasions - christenings, weddings and court appearances. For funerals the shortened version is preferred, as it’s far more economical to have a wreath spelling out ‘nan’ than ‘beloved grandmother’.
For the parents of Madeleine ‘Maddie*’ Macann, it meant standing with the crowd, waiting until the ex-nazi in question shuffled down the line to them and then a few words and the blessing of a picture of their missing daughter. On the one hand, the ‘tapas two’ must be feeling pretty grim, on the other hand - think what that picture will fetch on eBay.
I’m not sure exactly what the audience with the Pope was meant to achieve. My only thought was, if you wanted to understand the mind of a paedophile, you’d do a lot worse than speaking to a bloke who runs an organisation chock-full of them. It’s a bit like Clarice Starling going to see Hannibal Lector in ‘Silence of the Lambs’ to gain some insight into the mind of a serial killer…and a serial overactor in the form of Anthony Hopkins.
The Pope apparently blessed a picture of the little girl. What this is supposed to achieve I’m not sure - it smacks of sympathetic magic straight out of the dark ages. If they are resorting to that, are they also visiting a voodoo priest who is jamming nails into the photofit of the suspected abductor?
* The family are at pains to call the little girl by her full name, the tab tabbie tabloids prefer to use the abbreviated form - possibly because they can save space to put it in bigger print, possibly because they can save space to advertise their ‘save three tokens and get a free can of lager’ promotion. Probably because they realise that their readers will only hear family members addressed by their full names on rare occasions - christenings, weddings and court appearances. For funerals the shortened version is preferred, as it’s far more economical to have a wreath spelling out ‘nan’ than ‘beloved grandmother’.
Labels: Media, Pope, Religion, Superstition, Tabloids
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