{"id":3898,"date":"2010-01-14T15:47:33","date_gmt":"2010-01-14T15:47:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/deaconsbench\/2010\/01\/the-pope-must-think-ah-those-were-the-days.html"},"modified":"2010-01-14T15:47:33","modified_gmt":"2010-01-14T15:47:33","slug":"the-pope-must-think-ah-those-were-the-days","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2010\/01\/the-pope-must-think-ah-those-were-the-days.html","title":{"rendered":"The pope must think, &#8220;Ah, those were the days&#8230;&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Someone recently posted <a href=\"http:\/\/singulare-ingenium.blogspot.com\/2010\/01\/lovely-photo.html\">this charming picture<\/a> of the former Cardinal Ratzinger enjoying a brewski.<\/p>\n<p>It made me think that he probably misses the days when he could hoist a stein and kick back with his pals and let forth with a pre-papal belch as he wondered if there was a pub open late where he could play darts.&nbsp; And it reminded me of the two pictures below, when the gentleman-cleric could dress in civies and act like a relatively normal human being. (Not the vicar of Christ!  Not the successor to Peter!)&nbsp;&nbsp; The only thing infallible was his sense of fashion.&nbsp; (Nice double-breasted suit, Joe!) <\/p>\n<p>Below, the man who would be pope is shown tickling the ivories with his brother.  Just beneath that, he&#8217;s photographed with Karl Rahner.&nbsp; <\/p>\n<p><span class=\"mt-enclosure mt-enclosure-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"168_Ratz_Suit.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/212\/import\/168_Ratz_Suit.jpg\" class=\"mt-image-center\" style=\"margin: 0pt auto 20px;text-align: center\" height=\"402\" width=\"550\" \/><\/span><br \/>\n<span class=\"mt-enclosure mt-enclosure-image\"><a href=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/deaconsbench\/168_Ratz_Suit02.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"168_Ratz_Suit02.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/212\/import\/assets_c\/2010\/01\/168_Ratz_Suit02-thumb-400x416-10745.jpg\" class=\"mt-image-center\" style=\"margin: 0pt auto 20px;text-align: center\" height=\"416\" width=\"400\" \/><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Someone recently posted this charming picture of the former Cardinal Ratzinger enjoying a brewski. It made me think that he probably misses the days when he could hoist a stein and kick back with his pals and let forth with a pre-papal belch as he wondered if there was a pub open late where he&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3898","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The pope must think, &quot;Ah, those were the days...&quot; - The Deacon&#039;s Bench<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2010\/01\/the-pope-must-think-ah-those-were-the-days.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The pope must think, &quot;Ah, those were the days...&quot; - The Deacon&#039;s Bench\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Someone recently posted this charming picture of the former Cardinal Ratzinger enjoying a brewski. It made me think that he probably misses the days when he could hoist a stein and kick back with his pals and let forth with a pre-papal belch as he wondered if there was a pub open late where he&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2010\/01\/the-pope-must-think-ah-those-were-the-days.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Deacon&#039;s Bench\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-01-14T15:47:33+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/deaconsbench\/files\/import\/168_Ratz_Suit.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"jmcgee\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The pope must think, \"Ah, those were the days...\" - The Deacon&#039;s Bench","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2010\/01\/the-pope-must-think-ah-those-were-the-days.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The pope must think, \"Ah, those were the days...\" - The Deacon&#039;s Bench","og_description":"Someone recently posted this charming picture of the former Cardinal Ratzinger enjoying a brewski. It made me think that he probably misses the days when he could hoist a stein and kick back with his pals and let forth with a pre-papal belch as he wondered if there was a pub open late where he&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2010\/01\/the-pope-must-think-ah-those-were-the-days.html","og_site_name":"The Deacon&#039;s Bench","article_published_time":"2010-01-14T15:47:33+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/deaconsbench\/files\/import\/168_Ratz_Suit.jpg"}],"author":"jmcgee","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2010\/01\/the-pope-must-think-ah-those-were-the-days.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2010\/01\/the-pope-must-think-ah-those-were-the-days.html","name":"The pope must think, \"Ah, those were the days...\" - The Deacon&#039;s 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