Various Bloggers on Papal Trip

I have not yet had the opportunity to watch most of the video I taped during the papal visit, and since Himself has been as insanely busy as I the past week or so, he has some watching to catch up on as well, leaving me TV-less, so rather than commenting on the thing itself I am going to comment on the comments, or at least link to them.
A side benefit of having ones own interested and passions taking center stage in the public consciousness for even a short time, is that by looking into commentary one is led to numerous fascinating new, (to me,) blogs and bloggers.
And reminded that we are all individuals, and likely, however delightfully another seems to put my own sentiments into words, to disagree on as many issues as those on which we agree.
(You read a post and think, foolishly, Ah, a SOUL mate! only to read the very next and mutter, What a dithering idiot/unrepentant Nazi wingnut/insipid new age lunatic/ostio-cranieite...)
Anyway, a few posts and bloggers (to whom I apologize if my shallow reading has given me a wrong impression of their identities, and I have mischaracterized them.)
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From a pro-life non-Catholic

http://www.anglican-mainstream.net/index.php/2008/04/22/benedict-xvi-concludes-visit-with-triumphal-mass-in-yankee-stadium-for-57000/

One of the most extraordinary moments during Sunday’s Mass occurred when the Holy Father encouraged the young people present to "find the courage to proclaim Christ…and the unchanging truths which have their foundation in him."
"These are the truths that set us free!" he said. "They are the truths which alone can guarantee respect for the inalienable dignity and rights of each man, woman and child in our world - including the most defenseless of all human beings, the unborn child in the mother’s womb."
With the mention of the unborn child, the until-then-silent and attentive congregation of 60,000 burst into spontaneous applause.
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http://misskelly.typepad.com/miss_kelly_/2008/04/papal-mass-at-y.html

There were a number of short chants or songs in Latin that we all sang, and they sounded great! I'm sure most people who attended this Mass had never sung these words before, and it sounded wonderful. OK, we had a papal choir and orchestra leading things, not to mention a great cantor, but also that's the beauty of these.....chants. They are musically simple, with few notes and not much difference between notes (it's not a reach going from low notes to high notes, as in some songs). That 57,000 people who've never sung together in their lives managed to sound pretty damn good singing these short pieces. Which should dispel the idea that Gregorian chants are too difficult and ordinary church-goers can't sing them. Yes, we can!! We did it at Yankee Stadium! Thank you, Pope Benedict and New York Archdiocese, for a wonderful selection of songs and chants. Listening to this Mass, you'd swear you were in a cathedral. ...
Although I could barely see Pope Benedict, I feel honored and blessed to have been there today. There truly was an abundance of grace there today.
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From a middle-America newsman:
http://rappvoice.com/2008/04/20/benedict/
As moving and spectacular as John Paul’s visit [was]... Benedict’s pilgrimage to the United States was even more necessary, significant, and important ...
Benedict came, at the age of 81, as a lesser-known quantity, [than John Paul II] a somewhat shy German scholar who had acquired a cartoonish image as “God’s Rottweiler,” the enforcer of orthodox doctrine in his previous Vatican job as Defender of the Faith.
If he had come to lecture and scold America for its wayward ways, nobody would have been particularly surprised. But he came instead as a healer, with a message of hope. It was precisely the message needed in the American Catholic Church, delivered with humility, compassion and a plea for forgiveness of the church’s own sins.
The Church in America has walked through the valley of the shadow of death ...since the scandal of sexual abuse .... Benedict knew that this was the boil he must lance–that the only way to deal with a great evil is to face it squarely...
By honestly addressing this scandal ... Benedict practiced what the Church preaches...
His healing gestures continued during his visit, as when he personally greeted victims of the September 11 tragedy at Ground Zero in Manhattan on Sunday morning and when he met with representatives of other faiths including Muslims who were offended by one of his speeches, and when he became the first Pope to attend a Jewish synagogue in America.
In his reaching out to people and his evident joy at his enthusiastic reception, Benedict destroyed the caricature of him as a stern enforcer of Vatican doctrine. He came across as a shepherd keenly aware of a flock that has been distressed and wandering. He came with words of hope, perhaps the most desperately needed virtue in the Church today.
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A media analyst who thinks the press missed the boat, (I think he's talking about LD, whom I maligned below):
http://newsbusters.org/blogs/tim-graham/2008/04/19/did-press-miss-boat-d-c-mass
Several friends and co-workers have asked me what it was like to attend the Papal Mass at Nationals Park in DC. It certainly didn’t seem reflected in many news media accounts. The standard AP template was largely secular and [one reporter] summarized that Pope Benedict focused on "decrying that the nation's promise has been left unfulfilled for some."...
It was a joy to be present and inspiring to attend a mass in which your humble, wonderful parish priest is actually the Pope. He is not a charismatic television figure .... But to read the [his] works is to recognize that his thought carries a charisma all its own. [LOVE those last seven words!]
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Not exactly an obscure 'blog, but I love that Rocco had the photo and caption from the inimitable NYPost -- Come to Papa! -- in a post succinctly titled, The Triumph of B16
http://whispersintheloggia.blogspot.com/2008/04/triumph-of-b16.html