The Soviet Union is dead and buried but part of
that world is still alive.
Certain attitudes in particular.
This is
because as the late Fr. Józef Tischner, a chaplain and Solidarnosk
theorist said, the “homo sovieticus” is a diehard.
Not just on the other
side of the former iron curtain but on our turf as well.
The story about bishops apparently refusing to
shake Ratzinger's hand during one of his visits to Germany, reminds
me of one of the so-called Radio Yerevan jokes.
These are short stories
based on questions and answers exchanged between listeners and the
imaginary Armenian capital-based radio station.
Here is an example: “Is
it true they’re giving out free Mercs in Moscow’s Red Square? – It’s
absolutely true, but allow us to make one small clarification: they’re
not being given out, they’re being stolen.”
The little story about the Mercedes cars is very
similar to the one about the bishops apparently not shaking Ratzinger’s
hand when he was Pope.
The story has been going round on Facebook and
YouTube. A scene broadcast on Polish television during Benedict XVI’s
visit to Germany on 22 September 2011, shows Pope Benedict XVI with a
group of bishops who are “stepping back, refusing to shake his hand.”
Is
this true?
The internauts ask themselves in amazement. “Of course it
is,” they are told by those who have uploaded the video, acting just
like Radio Yereva did.
But this is not the case at all.
Because what is
lacking are those small clarifications that change the meaning of the
tale the Soviets believed.
As was confirmed, the Pope was not stretching his
hand out to the prelates but was introducing them to the German
president.
If the bishops were going to shake someone’s hand it was the
president’s, not Benedict XVI’s.
As Italian news agency AGI rightly
reports, the bishops in the video (produced by the Vatican Television
Centre, not by the Polish television station) were not snubbing Pope
Benedict at all” because during that part of the ceremony they were
supposed to shake the German president’s hand; so it was the prelates
who shook the Pope’s hand who made a mistake, not those who “refused” to
shake his hand.
The “homo sovieticus” strikes again.