“My Friend Benedict XVI”
On the Ignatius Press website (May 6), there was an interview with Fr. Joseph Fessio, the top dog at Ignatius Press, called “Fr. Fessio on Benedict XVI: My Friend, Benedict XVI.” On Michael S. Rose’s new website on Pope Benedict XVI, paparatzipost.com, Rose provides a snippet from the interview and then gives a link to the Ignatius Press website for the full interview. Rose’s website welcomes visitors, so readers can make comments online. Curiously, the readers weren’t interested in Fessio’s view of Benedict; rather, they were interested in Fessio himself.
The first comment was this: “Fr. Fessio’s total media saturation on ‘my friend Ratzinger’ is getting a bit annoying. I’m not much of a media hound, but I still can’t turn around without seeing Fr. Fessio. OK, you’re friends; we get it.”
Then OregonRN says: “Because the article [interview] does not identify a writer [interviewer], this appears to be another probing interview of Fr. Fessio by Fr. Fessio. I would like to read such an interview with Fr. Fessio on the subject of hubris.”
Then Gyrine says: “Have you folks considered that the ‘Big Fess’ might be making a big deal of ‘his friend’ Benedict because he has no other friends left?”
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