Indo Article Breaks Desmond's Wrist?

Hey! Isn't this really something? A great article in yesterday's Sunday Independent entitled "Il Papa Ratzi's Secret Message". Was intending to add comments of my own, but got to like it too much in it's original form, so I'll just add it in complete.

Il Papa Ratzi's secret message
Sunday Independent April 24th 2005
NATURALLY the first question most people asked about the new Pope was, "when will he come to Ireland?" From France to the Philippines, from Lesotho to Laos, it was all anyone wanted to know.
Papa Razzi was barely settling into the fisherman's shoes before Bertie Ahern was inviting him around. And not in a half-hearted way. Inviting a pope to Ireland is in no way a casual, aspirational or formal invitation made for the sake of diplomacy. It is more a vague threat. "We'll see you now, Holy Father."
After Bertie says the word, the real business starts. The Irish priests who run Rome start working on it, essentially ensuring that anyone who tries to stand in the way of the Pope coming to Ireland will never eat lunch again in Vatican City. And this time we have the ultimate inducement to hang over Benedict's head. "JP2 was going to come only he died. I'm sure he would have wanted you to fulfil his last wish, his final deathbed desire, to come to Ireland."
You have to feel sorry for old Razzi. He's in the shoes of the fisherman and the shadow of a saint.
Desmond Connell is working on the visit too. He met the Pope on Wednesday last and apparently brought him greetings from the Irish people. Then it emerged that the Pope had responded. The Pope, just days into his tenure in the Vatican, had sent a message to the Irish people. It was a wonderful message, my friends. It was, in Desmond's own words, "so wonderful, so precious". So what was it?
This is where we run into a problem. We don't know what the message was. Desmond won't tell us. The Pope has a message for us and Desmond isn't telling. And do you know why Desmond won't tell us? He says we wouldn't understand. Desmond says the message was "so wonderful, so precious . . . you wouldn't understand" and he declined to reveal it.
He's teasing us with how good it is, mind you, but he won't tell us. Only he understands how good it is. It's like a fine wine or an adult joke. We wouldn't get it. Sometimes you have to wonder if these people have learnt anything from their past arrogance and subsequent humbling.
Unless, of course, the message is just too much and would blow our minds. Is Bono actually the Second Coming? Does the Pope know where Shergar is buried? Maybe he knows where the odd socks go. The Pope knows something and he wanted to tell us. Now Desmond knows something and he better tell us. Because if he doesn't, we're going to start thinking it's something about us.
Did the Pope say, "You Irish are thick and you smell like pigs"? Or maybe the Pope wants to save his message until he comes himself. You are coming, aren't you, Holy Father?