...is the surname of the Pope on whose orders the current building was erected. These days the building is illuminated and featured across the world on TV and so, on an even more enormous scale than proud Paul V Borghese could have imagined, his grand surname is there for millions to see. Somehow, it massively misses the point. The desire to perpetuate a family lineage, rather than the spiritual lineage from Christ's call to St Peter meant an opportunity lost: as you pick out the words, you get a sort of bureaucratic feel rather than the pleasing discovery of a familiar prayer or piece of Scripture...
Some of the most notable Popes in recent centuries haven't come from grand families at all: nothing on the frontage of St Peter's notes the surname of Sarto, son of a village postman, or Woytila, son of a retired Polish Army officer.
When people want to be rude about the present Pope, they use his surname, Bergoglio, perhaps because it sounds faintly ridiculous to non-Latin ears, and emphasises that he comes from a family of Italian immigrants to South America.
Thoughts about all this arose when the news of Mother Teresa's canonisation was announced: an Albanian who studied in Ireland as a teenager, taught at a girls' school in India in the days of the British Raj, and then, following "a call within a call" set out to serve the poorest of the poor in the slums of Calcutta. At her canonisation, there will be Indian garlands and nuns in saris, along with formal representation from Albania, which not so long ago was an officially atheist state persecuting Catholics...
When Blessed John Henry Newman is canonised (oh, I do hope it's not too long now!) there will be the faintly absurd feeling of an Englishness about it all, words like Oxford, Littlemore, Birmingham echoing round St Peter's Square.
Years from now, there will be a Chinese Pope, and, well before that, one from the Indian sub-conitinent, and from Africa. The Borghese pretension is only a part of a long long history, after all.
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2 comments:
In all fairness the whole inscription- which follows the ancient and traditional Roman custom of inscribing public works- should be read. It tells us that it (i.e. the facade) is (erected) "in honour of the prince of the apostles" by this particular pope in the year 1612 being the seventh of his pontificate.
I agree, however, that it is unfortunate that, owing to its central placing the Borgesi family appear to get "top billing".
Yes, I am aware of the full wording. By the simple addition of Peter's name, preceded perhaps by his honoured title of Saint, these could have been the words highlighted at the centre of the facade. The name Borghese is in fact optional: one ceases to use one's surname on becoming Pope, and so it wasn't neccessary to put it there at all. But the Church and thw world will probably always be full of such vanities.
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