25 Benedicts

May/June 2008 Issue | Posted by Tom and April Hoopes in Features

“The Church is young! The Church is alive!” What Pope Benedict XVI said in his first message as Pope is literally true, as these 25 Benedicts show — one Pope and 24 babies. In honor of his U.S. visit and World Youth Day, we present the Holy Father’s youthful legacy.

Log on to our sister site Pope2008.com for Tim Drake’s live coverage of papal events, and U.S. video feed courtesy of EWTN.

Benedict Lonergan’s mother went into labor on the way to Easter Sunday Mass, April 16 (which is Pope Benedict’s birthday) in Lancashire, England. He was born in the car on Easter Sunday.

Benedict Wood of Laramie, Wyo., was in utero when his parents traveled to Toronto for John Paul’s World Youth Day in 2003. His mother wanted to name the child after the Pope. Her husband vetoed the idea. But God didn’t. The couple named him Benedict, and then the new Pope took the same name!­

Benedict Rossini and his mother suffered medical complications. After an ultrasound, his mother was fingering her St. Benedict medal and thinking of naming her child after the saint. “Then, my husband came running down the stairs telling me to turn the TV on. ‘There’s white smoke coming from the Vatican!’” The rest is history. (Benedict’s big brother John Paul was featured in Faith & Family’s 2003 feature “25 John Pauls.”)

Benedict John-Paul Pio Squire is named not after Pope Benedict XVI, but after Pope Benedict XV — and all the other popes of the 20th century!

Benedict Valle of Rome, Italy, was just a hope in his mother’s heart when “Pope Benedict Married Us!” ran in our Summer 2005 issue.

Benedict Treacy is from St. Paul, Minn. His cousin Carolyn was a Faith & Family Everyday Apostle once: “U.S. Olympic biathlete Carolyn Treacy found calm and inner strength for her grueling race by praying a novena to the Infant of Prague.”

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