(05/14/13 12:00am)
I am a terrible storyteller. My friends will vouch for that. They have listened to my ramblings for four years, nodding along with patient interest and sometimes even laughing at the punch line when I finally get there. I actually find $5 at the end of all my stories now without their prompts. In the four years that my friends have listened to those long-winded stories, they have also starred in the stories that I will someday tell my coworkers and kids (as we sit around the TV watching the Irish crush some inconsequential team for a national championship and then celebrate my firstborn child's acceptance into Notre Dame). They will hear stories about Domerfest and "Ain't No Mountain High Enough." Stories about Justin Bieber and stealing gummy worms from the LaFun candy wall (I actually need to apologize to all the nice ladies who work in the Huddle). I will tell stories about gold body paint, about standing in the middle of the end zone drenched in the pouring rain and overwhelmed with joy. Stories about an administration that sometimes failed us and sometimes raised the bar for us even higher. Stories about the way the Grotto is the warmest place on campus, even in the cold of a South Bend winter, even in the cold of loss. They will hear stories about cookie monsters and breakup wine. Stories about the Lyons Hall storage closet (well, maybe not). They will hear stories about cigars on the bridge and Flat Tuesdays. I will tell stories about my favorite Observer coworker Cindy. Stories about 90s Night at Legends and stories about belting out Avril Lavigne songs on the stage at Finny's with reckless abandon. Stories about jumping into the lake naked with my best friends in the middle of the night ("Catherine, I saw your butt!"). Stories about probability. They will hear stories about the four women who have earned sainthood for living with my alarm clock. Stories about Aurora, who picked me up when I wiped out in front of Hot Brad From Dillon during our Frosh-O scavenger hunt, who has been picking me up ever since. Stories about Eileen, who will always be my all-time favorite romcom partner, who truly earned the Lyons Hall Spirit Award. Stories about Catherine, whose brain isn't wired for science like mine, but will someday deliver my babies. Stories about Lauren, who by some amazing miracle is still my friend after all these years, who can't ever use the correct form of "you're," but who always is my person anyway. Stories about these four women who put up with the thousands and thousands of words I wrote in this paper - and if this column has turned into more long-winded rambling about how much I love them, then so be it. They deserve all the words, all the world. I will leave this school with a degree (I think), and I'm pretty psyched about that (thanks, Mom and Dad). But I'm also leaving with four years of stories. I have many more than four years of stories ahead of me, stories that will star those coworkers and kids, stories that will change me even more than finally earning this degree will. I can only hope those years will make me a better storyteller as they continue to shape me, because these four years are a story I'm never going to stop telling, no matter how much I ramble or how badly I massacre the punch lines. (And then I found $5.) Megan Doyle is graduating with a degree in English, as well as a minor in the Gallivan Program in Journalism, Ethics and Democracy. She would like to thank Starbucks and Nutella for everything they both have done to get her here. Megan can be reached at megandoyle823@gmail.com.
(02/12/13 12:00am)
For the first time in nearly 600 years, the Pope will step down from the head of the Catholic Church. Pope Benedict XVI, leader in the Vatican since April 2005, announced he would step down at the end of February in a statement to the College of Cardinals on Monday. He delivered the announcement in Latin to a small gathering of cardinals at the Vatican on Monday morning. "After having repeatedly examined my conscience before God, I have come to the certainty that my strengths, due to an advanced age, are no longer suited to an adequate exercise of the Petrine ministry," Pope Benedict said. "In order to govern the barque of Saint Peter and proclaim the Gospel, both strength of mind and body are necessary, strength which in the last few months, has deteriorated in me to the extent that I have had to recognize my incapacity to adequately fulfill the ministry entrusted to me. For this reason, and well aware of the seriousness of this act, with full freedom I declare that I renounce the ministry of Bishop of Rome, Successor of Saint Peter." Pope Benedict's resignation will take effect at 8 p.m. Central European Time on Feb. 28, at which point the College of Cardinals will assemble in conclave to begin selecting the next Pontiff. University President Fr. John Jenkins released a statement Monday expressing deep gratitude for the pope's leadership. "As surprising as today's announcement is, it is apparent that Pope Benedict has made a decision that is motivated by his deep love for the Church," Father Jenkins said. "He has been a dedicated pastor to Catholics worldwide for the past eight years - and even before as a cardinal, bishop and priest. As a former university professor, he is a serious intellectual with an understanding of education and appreciation for the life of the mind, and that has been important to all of us in Catholic higher education. As the College of Cardinals considers a successor to Pope Benedict, I pray God will guide their deliberations." Jenkins met the pope on Feb. 1, 2006, following a general audience in the Vatican's Paul VI Auditorium, the release stated. At the time, Pope Benedict called Notre Dame "a great Catholic university." Nearly 50 Notre Dame Trustees, officers and their spouses were present at the papal audience, according to the release. Jenkins also attended an address by the pope in April 2008, when Benedict addressed more than 300 Catholic education leaders at the Catholic University of America in Washington D.C. The release recalled Jenkins' statements from that visit. "It was a warm and gracious address that emphasized the value of Catholic education," Jenkins said at the time. "It was a very positive experience. There was an expression of gratitude and appreciation for everyone in the room involved in Catholic education. He spoke of education as being central to the life of the Church, and, of course, that is what Notre Dame is all about. It was a great affirmation of our central mission." In the 1960s, University President Emeritus Fr. Theodore Hesburgh offered a faculty position to then Fr. Joseph Ratzinger, who was a German theologian before his election to the papacy, the release stated. "I was searching around the world for an up-and-coming theologian," Hesburgh said in an interview with the South Bend Tribune soon after Cardinal Ratzinger was elected pope. He wrote a letter of invitation to the young cleric, inviting him to join the faculty for a year or permanently, the release stated. "He wrote back, 'I'd love to come, but I don't think my English is good enough yet,'" Hesburgh said. University President Fr. Edward "Monk" Malloy said he did not know Benedict well, but he wished the departing Pontiff well nonetheless. "He was generous in his service of the Church as Pope and before," Malloy said. "I wish him well in his transition time. My hope and prayer is that the cardinals will survey well the needs of the world-wide Catholic Church and, in light of that, choose a worthy successor." Bishop Kevin Rhoades, of the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend, fondly recalled meeting Pope Benedict and expressed his prayers for the future of the Church in his statement. "It was just one year ago, on February 9, 2012, that Bishop D'Arcy, I, and the other bishops of Indiana met with Pope Benedict during our ad limina visit to Rome," he said. "I recall with joy and gratitude that meeting and the warmth and kindness of our Holy Father. His words to us were words of brotherly love. I was moved by the Pope's evident wisdom and holiness. "I invite all the faithful also to pray for the Cardinals as they prepare in the coming weeks to meet in Conclave for the election of a new Successor to the Apostle Peter." Cardinal Francis George, Archbishop of Chicago and one of 11 American cardinals who will help elect the next pope, expressed his gratitude for the way Pope Benedict led the Church. "Pope Benedict XVI has, in all circumstances, placed the will of God for the good of the Church before every other consideration. That same resoluteness of purpose speaks in his statement announcing his resignation from the Chair of Peter," George said. "He has now shown great courage in deciding, after prayer and soul-searching, to resign his office at the end of this month. "With the gratitude of sons and daughters in our hearts, we ask the Lord to bless him and give him strength, as we begin to pray now for the one who will succeed him as Bishop of Rome, Successor of Peter and Vicar of Christ."