Lookin' cool

According to this article, the Pope is wearing Serengeti sunglasses, also favored by actor Val Kilmer; his normal reading glasses are by Cartier.

Further paragraphs from the story:

Other sharp accessories include a stylish but simple wristwatch, with black hands, a black face and a black strap. So far no one has identified the make or the model but it has been described as “retro”. Occasionally, the Pope wears swish black and gold cufflinks.

“Ratzinger’s like that,” Vittorio Zincone, a commentator with Corriere della Sera, said. “He’ll slip up with a black sleeve and then come back a few weeks later with the best starched shirt cuffs in the history of Christianity, held together with perfect cufflinks.”

The article also says that Papa's private secretary, Fr. Georg Gaenswein "looks like the star of a 1980s TV serial about a gorgeous-looking priest tempted away from his vows." Ugh. Okay, I won't deny it, Fr. Gaenswein is very attractive. (See the fellow on the right, below)



But so what. There have been plenty of beautiful women over the course of the centuries, and in our own day, who have given themselves to God by choosing either the cloister or the vowed apostolic life; yet I think most everyone would agree that it would be in poor taste to stir up conversation about how Sister So-and-So is drool-worthy. Poor men, I think they have the worst lot. Maybe I should cut the reporter some more slack; he was probably just trying to be clever and ended up channeling The Thornbirds. Although it really is awful to refer to a priest, any priest, as "one other smart and stylish accessory" in the papal retinue.

Hat tip to White Around the Collar for the first picture.