[Moo] Interesting Information About Choosing the Pope

[Jeanne]

 As I understand it, Ratzinger was not the Cardinals' first choice.  That
was Cardinal Hans Grapje.  Grapje was educated in a Catholic school in The
Hague and, as a young man, aspired to become a priest.  But was drafted into
the Army during WWII and spent two years co-piloting B17s until his aircraft
was shot down in 1943 and he lost his left arm.  Captain Grapje spent the
rest of the war as a chaplain, giving spiritual aid to soldiers, both allies
and enemy.  After the war, he became a priest, serving as a missionary in
Africa, piloting his own plane (in spite of his handicap) to villages across
the continent.

 In 1997, Father Grapje was serving in Zimbabwe when an explosion in a
silver mine caused a cave-in.  Archbishop Grapje went down into the mine to
administer last rights to those too severely injured to move.  Another shaft
collapsed, and he was buried for three days, suffering multiple injuries,
including the loss of his right eye.  The high silver content in the mine's
air gave him Purpura, a life-long condition characterized by purplish skin
blotches.

 Although Cardinal Grapje devoted his life to the service of God as a
scholar, mentor, and holy man, church leaders felt that he should never
ascend to the Papacy.

They felt that the Church would never accept a one-eyed, one-armed,
flying, purple Papal leader.