On Popes Dining Alone

Much ridiculous commentary last week centered on the fact that Pope Benedict would not be attending a White House dinner held in his honor on Wednesday. As I said then, it was a non-story.

Hugh McNichol provides some of the background on the protocol regarding papal dining.

"The fact that the Holy Father does not dine in public is often an issue that is more deeply rooted in traditions associated with a monarchial papacy," writes McNichol. "John-Paul II during his papacy often dined with people outside of the well-insulated Papal Household, but he chooses always to be the polite host and not the guest at the table. Such is the same with the present Holy Father. One needs to understand that for Catholics, Benedict XVI is the embodiment of temporal and spiritual authority in the Church, and as a result, wherever he goes, he brings the presence of the Church with him. Popes until John-Paul II usually dined alone. Blessed John XXIII compared this unique aspect of papal behavior as something compared to being punished."

It's well known that Pope John Paul II frequently had other non-Vatican guests join him for lunch or dinner. It's been reported that Pope Benedict does not.

Yet, I could't help but think of the couple of times where the Pope will "dine" in public during his visit.

At Nationals Park and Yankee Stadium, Pope Benedict, surrounded by hundreds of bishops and priests, and tens of thousands of faithful Catholics will join together in the Supper of the Lamb. Pope Benedict will publicly break bread, and together, for all the world to see, they will take the Sacramental Presence of Jesus Christ - Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity into their very bodies. Now that's Communion!

During his December 22, 2005 Christmas Address to the Cardinals and members of the Roman Curia, Pope Benedict XVI had this to say about the Eucharist:

“It is moving for me to see how everywhere in the Church the joy of Eucharistic adoration is reawakening and being fruitful. In the period of liturgical reform, Mass and adoration outside it were often seen as in opposition to one another: it was thought that the Eucharistic Bread had not been given to be contemplated, but to be eaten, as a widespread objection claimed at that time. The experience of the prayer of the Church has already shown how nonsensical this antithesis was. Augustine had formerly said: “...No one should eat this flesh without first adoring it ... we should sin were we not to adore it.”