Funeral of Pope Francis

[cakeorwine]

Watching it now. I'm not religious - but it is a fascinating watch and a beautiful setting.

I saw plenty of nuns.

There was a group by the coffin when Prince William paid his respects.

Could be, but it seemed to be happening in free discussion rather than when translating stuff being broadcast - but goodness knows, they must all be feeling a bit turned around at this stage.

You and others seemed determined to make out that the King didn't go because of his health above anything else. This is made up/supposition. The King and Queen met Pope Francis on 9 April shortly after he was discharged from hospital. Given the age and infirmaty of Francis, seems to me (and I'm supposing this) Charles wanted to meet Francis whilst he was still alive.

One of the new potential popes described it as the clergy being male but the Church as female.

I was quite concerned that they might have an accident.

Surely they had enough time to practice in private with a coffin full of suitably weighed rocks ?

I agree that removing the coffin from the vehicle was an absolute mess. They didn't seem to know what they were doing. The vehicle didn't line up quite straight. There was a photographer faffing around in their faces while that was going on which didn't help. No one seemed to know what to do with this bars that go under the platform the coffin is on.

However, the rest of it was very good. The Requiem Mass ran smoothly. The music was excellent (I'm a church musician), there weren't any of the common mistakes that sometimes occur in church music. All the timings were correct.
Everyone seemed to know exactly what they had to do and when. The distribution of Communion was impressive. All of those priests knew exactly where they had to go.

It is a shame that that one thing ended up looking a mess. Maybe they thought it was pretty obvious how to get the coffin off the vehicle and that's why it wasn't rehearsed. Probably the instructions were something like: the car will reverse up to the platform where the pall bearers will be waiting. Mr. X will be responsible for helping the driver line up. Then the pall bearers will transfer the coffin to the platform. After this pall bearers will wait for a signal from the master of ceremonies (or whoever) before picking up the coffin.

They'd already transferred the coffin a couple of times, I think, so it should have worked ok, but it didn't, suddenly it was all chaotic.

No I didn't. I said he is having treatment for cancer so might not have been well enough to attend.

Meeting someone while they are alive doesn't mean you can't attend their funeral.

You can't seem to accept that you don't know what the King was thinking or feeling so I guess we are all expected to accept that you know exactly.

😁 Reminds me of Bobby Grant addressing the priest as "Your Holiness". 😅

@Flightofthegeese but a rehearsal wouldn't build up strength would it i think they need proper body builders at least one every other man

I'm not going to argue with you on this because you're determined not to understand a reason beyond what you think.

I don't pretend to have some insight - I've explained the role of protocol at these kinds of events, but you think that because he's the King he can upset the apple cart if he fancies going. It just doesn't work like that.

You need at least one minor cock-up at these events. At the installation of our last Bishop everything went swimmingly until his mitre was placed on his head.

Back to front.

He and the other blokes reverend dignitaries were baffled for at least two minutes as to WHY he had thick ribbons hanging down on either side of his nose.

That photo of Trump and Zelenskyy has brought to mind Alan Partridge at Tony Hayers funeral in his Castrol GTX jacket.

😂

I can remember Lady Di's funeral where they had 8 Guardsman to carry the coffin - very heavy as it was lead-lined - and they struggled.

"At Princess Diana's funeral, eight members of the Welsh Guards served as pallbearers, carrying her coffin from St. James's Palace to Westminster Abbey. The coffin was a lead-lined, quarter-tonne one, carried by these guards who were selected based on their height and fitness."

So you have a point.

Yes, I agree. Every time something happens.
I'm a church musician and somebody cocks something up every single time.
Sometimes priests will accidentally miss out a bit of a service or add an extra bit, nearly giving me a heart attack while I try to work out what to do next. Sometimes they'll realize they missed a bit out and go back and add it in.

One church I play in gets the same thing wrong, year in and year out, at a particular Mass that happens once a year. Every year I point it out to them before the Mass when we are planning. Every year they say yeah, yeah, that won't happen again. Every year, same mistake. They know it's wrong too but next year, same thing.

Sometimes a priest will randomly start singing a part of the Mass when it was supposed to be the choir or vice versa, wait and wait for the choir to start when he was supposed to be singing it.

It's amazing that the music went so well!

Private plane just left for RAF Northolt. Could he not at least stick around for the sandwiches ffs

Did you hear the female commentator on RTE refer to him as antisemitic. I sat up and was like, "Eh?". Then she corrected herself and said, "I meant the opposite". Oops! Áine Lawlor kindly said, "We knew what you meant".

I agree @jaytotbad
Im an atheist but do a lot of singing so spend more time in church than most vicars. Nobody really has the faintest clue what’s going to happen next in a service, even if it’s a daily one. Add in it not being home church for most of them and it’s a minefield! I sang in the Chrism Mass at Brecon Cathedral last week and there were unexpected things chucked at us because ‘we always do it this way in Brecon’ so nobody felt they needed to tell the choir (we had some very complex singing to do - Allegri’s Misereri - so that was enough on it’s own!). You need your wits about you.
I think the funeral went off very smoothly indeed.

Who cares, he did what he needed to do, the Vatican are probably glad to get rid of those folk ASAP, think of the security issues with all those heads of states in the one place.

Let the people who actually knew the Pope have time to themselves.

Do you think all the international folks who were at the Queens funeral hung around for sandwiches and sausage rolls?

I watched the second half and the drive through the streets. Tuned in at a seemingly endless 2-line chant/song that just went on and on and on...

I agree about the pallbearers. I get it's REALLY heavy, but it just looked really messy and teetering on the edge of disaster the whole time. It reminded me of the Queen's funeral, and what a vastly superior job her pallbearers did.

Plans were for Trump to sit at the third row. I have no idea who he swapped with. Probably had some tantrum. For him to wear the same navy suit as he flew in at a major funeral was insulting.

AS I understand it Popes of old were antisemetic, in that they blamed the Jews for the death of Christ.
It wasn't until Pope Benny came along and modernised everything with Vatican 2 that this belief was removed from doctrine in 1965.*

That reporter on RTE needs to educate herself

*I could have this wrong and will gladly be corrected.

Oh right. Clearly every other world leader got it wrong then and Trump was the only one correct.

Or you know, the complete actual fucking opposite applies. 🤔

Pope John 23rd and Nostra Aetate I think. He had also been involved in saving Jewish lives during WW2.

I'm just glad Trump didn't turn up in a red frock and hat and insist the conclave elect him. Then rally right wing nutters to launch an attack on the Vatican if the vote doesn't go his way.

Though there's still time yet 😂