Tuesday, March 20, 2007

The last years of Pius XII (Eugenio Pacelli 1951-58)

Following the interesting collection of videos of Pope John XXIII celebrating Mass currently on Valle Adurni, I did a search on Youtube and found this rather interesting film about the last years of Pius XII. Apologies if you have seen it before. I found the Pastor Angelicus clip particularly interesting as I don`t think I`d seen him speaking apart from from the balcony of St Peter`s and was surprised how theatrical it was. I liked the goldfinch too. At least he was `allowed` it unlike Benedict XVI and his cats

8 comments:

John said...

A great Pope and a saintly man.

Pope Pius for canonisation!!

Lover of Futility said...

I've watched this. The footage is excellent. Of course the editing is meant to convey a particular interpretation, however - God forgive me for saying this - Pacelli comes across as a bit, well, mad (certainly eccentric).

There's another piece on Pius XI on youtube. I must say he came across as totally different from what I would have expected - whatever that was.

Peter said...

I've seen this clip as well, but nevertheless, thank you for your post, Fater.

We should all remember what the world was like before Vatican II; it gives a greater perspective on things.

Anonymous said...

Talk about charismatic popes, I really don't think JPII commanded this much respect!

Btw: there are some excellent video segments(and more coming) of the papal coronation of John XXIII from the Valle Adurni blog.

Anonymous said...

Gosh ,I didn't know Papal funerals could be this exciting.....I'm really looking foreward to Benedict XVI's !

Anonymous said...

Golly, it makes one glad to be an Anglican.

Thank God that the Second Vatican Council has taken the Roman Church from this nonsense!

Fr Michael Brown said...

Anonymous, if you are glad to be an Anglican why should you be so happy that the Catholic Church has changed?

Anonymous said...

One has to be glad that the Roman church is at least moving towards Christianity rather than the idol (=pope) worship of its past. Jesus Christ saves - not the pretensions of the pope of Rome.