I was watching the interreligious gathering at the John Paul II center at Catholic University and the giving of gifts to Pope Benedict when it occurred to me what a good personal secretary Msgr. Georg is. I realize this is a sidenote from the main event, of course. But, think of all the people who are involved in the planning and details of a visit such as this... One small detail in a sea of details jumped out at me...
As they were getting ready for this gift presentation portion of the meeting, a man in a suit came forward carrying a tray with (I assume) papal medals to be presented to the gift bearers. The man came and stood with his tray right next to Pope Benedict. Then, when the first gift was presented, I noticed that Msgr. Georg moved in to assist. The gift looked to be a bit heavy... not a good idea to expect Pope Benedict to stand there holding it ad infinitum. Georg smoothly moved in, carried the gift away and put the medal to be presented close at hand for Pope Benedict. (This seemed to greatly annoy the tray bearer, from my perception).
The point is... Pope Benedict, with Georg's help, was able to focus all his attention on the person who was in front of him. He didn't need to wonder what he was going to do with the gift and "where the heck are those darn coins?" . Georg's quiet assistance allows Pope Benedict to be unconcerned with the details and focus on the bigger things...
My husband and I had a few good-humored musings in German about what type of exchange could (only in our minds, of course) take place should there turn out not to be enough coins...
All right... who took two coins???
1 comment:
I have read about him and it was something watching him
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