(COMTEX) B: Benedict Prefers to Write Own Speeches ( AP Online )
VATICAN CITY, Jun 02, 2005 (AP Online via COMTEX) -- No ghostwriter needed
here. By most accounts, Pope Benedict XVI has been busy writing his own speeches
as he grows into his new role as pastor of the world's Roman Catholics.
That hands-on approach by the former Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who was a
theology lecturer at German universities before becoming a Vatican insider,
sharply contrasts with his predecessor, John Paul II, who gave so many speeches
he needed an assembly line of wordsmiths to produce them.
John Paul often delivered several speeches a day to audiences ranging from
garbage collectors in Rome to Aborigines in Australia, and the Vatican "had to
create an office to write them," said former Vatican diplomat John-Peter Pham.
The skills of diplomats and other Holy See officials and consultants were tapped
in the process.
"John Paul wrote very few of his speeches," although he occasionally "changed a
phrase here or there," according to Pham.
The late pope chose as his speechwriter an Italian archbishop in the Secretariat
of State, Archbishop Paolo Sardi, Pham said. Sardi's official title is apostolic
nuncio with special tasks.
Sardi declined to be interviewed about the Vatican's speechwriting system, but
another official in the Secretariat of State said Benedict has kept the job to
himself.
The 78-year-old Benedict writes his own speeches, though that might change as
the papal workload grows, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity
because of the sensitivity of his position.
That Benedict is a man of his own words seemed clear from his first speech as
pontiff, a long discourse in Latin, delivered to cardinals on April 20 in the
Sistine Chapel where he had been elected less than 24 hours before.
"I'd hate to put it this way, but there would be very few people capable of
writing that speech in Latin, just on that criterion alone," said Pham.
The speechwriting flair of the former Cardinal Ratzinger started drawing the
general public's attention a few weeks before he was elected pope.
At John Paul's request, he composed the brief meditations and prayers that were
read aloud at the Good Friday Way of the Cross procession at the Colosseum on
March 25.
Ratzinger, a theologian more accustomed to lecturing to doctoral students than
preaching to pilgrims, came up with several sound bites in a vivid, plain talk.
The words of one of the prayers he penned floated on a sea of metaphors drawn
from everyday life: "Lord, your church often seems like a boat about to sink, a
boat taking in water on every side. In your field we see more weeds than wheat.
The soiled garments and face of your church throw us into confusion."
In one meditation, Ratzinger, who had served since 1981 as the Vatican's
guardian of doctrinal orthodoxy, denounced "filth" in the Church, including in
the priesthood, in an apparent reference to the sex abuse scandals that shook
faithful around the world.
Ratzinger, in his years in Germany as a theology professor, was renowned for his
writings. But one of his former students, the Rev. Vincent Twomey, observed that
many were lectures that had been recorded and then transcribed.
A professor of moral theology at the Pontifical University, St. Patrick's
College, in Maynooth, Ireland, Twomey said that a Ratzinger lecture stood out
for "its clarity, its logical progression and the quality of its expression."
"When he speaks, the Germans have a word for it - 'Druckreif' - it's ready for
publication," he said.
Twomey said it wasn't surprising Benedict would write his own speeches.
"He's an original thinker. He's not dependent on other people's thoughts," said
Twomey, who studied under the theologian in the 1970s at the University of
Regensburg.
Papal speeches to the rank-and-file public are a relatively modern phenomenon,
said Pham, who teaches at James Madison University in Virginia.
Pham contended that a seasoned papal speech reader could spy a bit of Sardi's
hand in some of Benedict's first speeches, but that there was "very clear"
evidence of the new pope's style, especially in references to lesser-known
Biblical passages.
Twomey predicted that if Benedict's schedule becomes too hectic, he will "say
less" - but still pen his own speeches.
By FRANCES D'EMILIO
Associated Press Writer
Copyright 2005 Associated Press, All rights reserved
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