Tributary Empires: Towards a Global and Comparative History

TY - CHAP

T1 - Tributary Empires: Towards a Global and Comparative History

AU - Bang, Peter Fibiger

AU - Bayly, C. A.

PY - 2011

Y1 - 2011

N2 - It was Friday and the month was April, Anno Domini 2005, when these words sounded from the platform in front of St Peter’s. Myriads of faithful mourners had massed into Rome and now crowded the Square and the broad avenues leading up to the Vatican to participate in the funeral of Pope John Paul II. Unprecedented numbers were listening in on radio or watching television broadcasts around the globe. Spoken in sombre, dignified, yet slightly artificial Italian by Cardinal Ratzinger, soon-to-be Pope Benedict and leading the service, this prayer initiated a carefully orchestrated series of commendations of the deceased bishop of Rome to his Heavenly Father. Alternating with rhythmically repeated chants of the Latin phrase te rogamus, audi nos (‘we beg you, hear us’), were select representatives of the congregation praising the virtues and good offices of the former pope, each in his or her own tongue. French, Swahili, Philippino, Polish, German and Portuguese accumulated into a virtual cacophony of voices. Earlier during the mass, sections had already been heard in English and Spanish in addition to the leading languages of Latin and Italian. No one was to doubt that the Catholic Church was truly universal.2

AB - It was Friday and the month was April, Anno Domini 2005, when these words sounded from the platform in front of St Peter’s. Myriads of faithful mourners had massed into Rome and now crowded the Square and the broad avenues leading up to the Vatican to participate in the funeral of Pope John Paul II. Unprecedented numbers were listening in on radio or watching television broadcasts around the globe. Spoken in sombre, dignified, yet slightly artificial Italian by Cardinal Ratzinger, soon-to-be Pope Benedict and leading the service, this prayer initiated a carefully orchestrated series of commendations of the deceased bishop of Rome to his Heavenly Father. Alternating with rhythmically repeated chants of the Latin phrase te rogamus, audi nos (‘we beg you, hear us’), were select representatives of the congregation praising the virtues and good offices of the former pope, each in his or her own tongue. French, Swahili, Philippino, Polish, German and Portuguese accumulated into a virtual cacophony of voices. Earlier during the mass, sections had already been heard in English and Spanish in addition to the leading languages of Latin and Italian. No one was to doubt that the Catholic Church was truly universal.2

KW - Faculty of Humanities

KW - History

KW - Imperialism

M3 - Book chapter

SN - 978-0-230-30841-1

SP - 1

EP - 17

BT - Tributary Empires in Global History

PB - Palgrave Macmillan

ER -