From CNA (Catholic News Agency):
Journalist who broke news of resignation recalls her 'panic'
Vatican City, Feb 11, 2014 / 14:02 pm
Vatican journalist Giovanna Chirri remembers her shock at Benedict XVI's resignation last year, and how she broke the news before he finished his announcement because she could understand Latin.
"He said it in Latin and I was panicking. I was short of breath, my legs were trembling. I was sitting and my legs trembled like this…it was a very violent reaction. It was a reaction to shock," Chirri told CNA in a Feb. 10 interview.
Chirri is a journalist for Italian news agency Ansa and was sitting in the Holy See press office listening to a consistory meeting between the former Pope and the cardinals on her computer. Her sole aim was to publish the canonization date of martyrs that are highly venerated in Puglia, a region of Southern Italy.
"It was a calm day with hardly anyone around because there was an event of little importance taking place without much media attention," she explained, noting that the only reason she was present was because of the strong devotion to the martyrs of Puglia.
"So I was listening with just one ear. But what helped me was that when the consistory was over, the Pope was supposed to leave but he stayed seated and continued to talk in Latin."
Chirri noted that at that moment "I must have thought 'what is going on? Why isn't he leaving?' and I became more alert," observing that "he spoke in Latin and I was lucky with that, too," because she could understand the language perfectly.
"The first two things he said shocked me because he told the cardinals that he had gathered them for the consistory, but that he had something important to tell them for the Church," she said....
....MUCH MORE
She knew Latin, but couldn't be sure what she had just heard.
HT: Reddit's TIL
It's like I told ya:
"The Hittites Lived in Interesting Times"
You never know when the flight attendant is going to get on the speaker and ask "Does anyone onboard know anything about the Hittites?"
And should that time come, you will be ready....
And finally:
June 2017
Yesterday I Learned About ATMs
It started with Paul Murphy at Alphaville's Markets Live:...
...Which of course lead to the question "Do the Vatican Bank ATM's really have instructions in Latin?"
(I had heard that from a less-than-reliable-source)....
