Saturday 12 June 2010

So I share two things with the pope?

There are days like this. I discovered that I have two things in common with the current pope. Reading about his interests in the Wikipedia page, I discovered that he loves classical music, particularly Mozart, who is by far is favourite composer, and that he loves cats! More about it here. On Mozart, you can read here.

I know that had to be expected from a man of his generation, but still, I was shocked. I should not, personal tastes are after all not exclusive tastes. And there is something both divinely and devilishly ironic about such an austere man admiring a musician who was as a person very vulgar, fond of scatological humour and as far as we know pretty similar to Shaffer's "obscene child". Sure, Mozart was also a good little Catholic, but that changes nothing to his vulgarity, or the very sensual nature of a lot of his music. So pope Benedict admires the composer of Don Giovanni, an opera where you root for its anti-hero, who is a murderous libertine, unrepenting even when threatened of eternal torments. I am suddenly wondering if the pope might not be a bit of a Salieri...

As for his love for cats, I just hope it can help him see animals in a more respectful way than many religious people do. At least he must have proper respect for felines. And he should, as they are superior creatures. But I guess Benedict would not go that far.

2 comments:

The Artful Gypsy aka Wendy the Very Good Witch said...

Who would have thought that the Pope would be a cat lover...ha! What a funny vision to think of him sitting in his Pope-mobile with a black cat sitting in his lap...ha!

Guillaume said...

Hmmm, maybe the Pope is a bit like Ernst Stavro Blofeld, come to think of it.