News from the Catholic Front

[Mark Feit]

Ratzinger was not the Cardinals' first choice to replace John Paul II
as pope.  That was, interestingly, Cardinal Hans Grapje.

Grapje was raised 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 bombers 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
allied 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 rites 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.