Who's the real Benny? Yes, I'm the real Benny, all you other Pope Bennies are just imitating. So if you're the real Benny then please stand up, please stand up.
Okay, forgive me the awful knock-off of the illustrious rapper Eminem, but I couldn't help think of it when I saw the title that Godspy gave this interview between Msgr. Albacete and Charlie Rose:
CHARLIE ROSE: Monsignor Lorenzo Albacete was a friend of Pope John Paul II and I am especially pleased to have him at this table to help us understand the selection of the new pope and what it means for the church. Welcome.
LORENZO ALBACETE: Thank you very much.
CHARLIE ROSE: Tell me, you expected this selection?
LORENZO ALBACETE: Yes. Like everyone else. Certainly Cardinal Ratzinger was a leading candidate. But frankly, I was not too sure that he would be elected. Because you've got to admit that he doesn't have a very good image. He has a serious image problem around—among certain segments of the church. And after the triumphant gestures of John Paul II—so many people seemed attracted by him—I thought maybe the cardinals would worry about this image problem.
CHARLIE ROSE: What kind of image problem did he have?
LORENZO ALBACETE: Well, he's a reactionary, closed-minded, intolerant. You name it. You know, he's a monster, and against free thinking. His homily, his last homily, which was the one before the conclave was, was said to be a blunt statement of the need to cut down newness, to find refuge in the old tradition, et cetera, which is completely false. This is not this man. This is not this man at all.
CHARLIE ROSE: Joseph Ratzinger is not that way.
LORENZO ALBACETE: No, Joseph Ratzinger is not that way. He had a job, though, that required attention to tradition, because the office that he headed in the Vatican is not exactly there to inspire new and imaginative thinking.
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