Thousands e-mail greetings to new pontiff
VATICAN CITY – Father George, of Suceava City, Romania, wrote simply “habemus papam!” – Latin for “we have a pope.”
Carmen, an employee at the University of Navarra, in Spain, told Pope Benedict XVI not to be afraid, and then asked for two favors: a prayer for her family and a rosary blessed by him “if it’s not too much trouble.”
Shane, 17, from Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, signed off his e-mail: “P.S. When are you coming to Canada?”
They were just a few of 56,191 e-mails sent in the first 48 hours that Benedict’s Vatican e-mail has been operational, the Vatican said Friday.
Of the e-mails received so far, the bulk have been messages of congratulations written in English – 30,844 at last count. Italian well-wishers were next on the list with 12,621, followed by 6,024 messages in Spanish, 2,961 in Benedict’s native tongue, German, 2,286 in Portuguese and 1,455 in French.
The Vatican released a handful of the messages on Friday – all of them positive and welcoming of Benedict’s election Tuesday as the 265th leader of the Roman Catholic Church. It didn’t release any negative comments, and blacked out the sender’s e-mail address and last names.
“I’m not so naive as to think that you’ll respond, much less read this, but I have to thank you for having accepted this fabulous job,” Damien wrote in French.
Someone by the name of Kurt wrote from the Philippines that he hoped Benedict would pray for his family – that his father gets out of a court case he’s in, that his mother can focus on her job, “and that I may find the right girl who will love me and care for me and live my life with me.”
He added that he hoped the girl’s initials were “AC.” “I hope that you may show me signs that she’s the one.”
The address is benedictxvi@vatican .va