At the Copacabana
26/07/13 05:27
The story goes that Barry Manilow and Bruce Sussman stayed at the Copacabana Hotel in Rio de Janeiro. While they were there, they had a conversation about whether or not there had ever been a song called “Copacabana.” The conversation gave rise to the story/song with the title. Sussman collaborated with Jack Feldman to write the lyrics about Lola and her lover Tony, his rival Rico, the fight and the three shots that were fired. Manilow wrote the music for the lyrics and the song became a hit, released in 1978.
The song, however, isn’t about the Copacabana Hotel in Rio. It is about the Copacabana nightclub in New York City: “at the Copa, Copacabana, the hottest spot north of Havana.”
There might not have been a song with the title “Copacabana” prior to the 1978 hit, but there was a movie staring Groucho Marx and Carmen Miranda released in 1947 with that name. A musical, written by Manilow came from the song and was later made into a movie with the same name.
So much for trivia. The name Copacabana might refer to several different places. There is a city with that name in Bolivia, another in Columbia, and even one in New South Wales in Australia. There is a Copacabana Beach in Dubrovnik, Croatia. And Rio de Janerio has a nightclub, a fort and a beach with that name.
It was the beach that made the news yesterday, however. With a blasting medley of bossa nova music as a prelude, Pope Francis celebrated mass and addressed a crowd of about a million worshippers on Copacabana beach in Rio de Janeiro. “Bota Fe” – put on faith – was his message to the crowd, which included a large number of youth.
The people of South America know that this Pope is different from his predecessors. The first pope from South America is less enamored with the traditional pomp and ceremony of the office, less likely to indulge in the luxury and privilege afforded his position. Before addressing the crowd on the beach, Francis walked the muddy streets of the Varginha slum. This neighborhood is known for drug sales and other crimes. It has been rainy in Brazil during the pontiff’s visit.
I am not a member of the Roman Catholic Church and I am not current with the nuances of its latest theological statements. But the Pope’s visit to Brazil has resulted in some news stories that are a bit misleading if not outright incorrect. A couple of comics had picked up on the headlines and pretty soon there is a full-blown media rumor that the faithful can obtain indulgences for following the Pope on Twitter. If that were true, it would be silly, not to mention bad theology. But, of course, things are rarely the way they get reported by the popular press.
For the record, you can’t shorten your time in purgatory by re-tweeting the Pope. It is fairly common for the Vatican to issue a document that promises an indulgence for making a spiritual pilgrimage. Such a document was released in advance of the Pope’s visit to Brazil. The basic theological concept is that sinners are punished after the end of their lives. The punishment, however, can be lessened or shortened by acts of faith. When the faithful are truly repentant and do good deeds to make amends for their sins, these deeds do not go unnoticed. The practice of the institutional church having the ability to judge who does and who does not receive credit for good deeds is controversial and was one of the big issues at the center of the Protestant reformation. Whether or not the church is able to issue a full indulgence and essentially wipe the slate clean remains an area of disagreement among Christians.
At any rate, it is common for faithful members of the Roman Catholic Church to make pilgrimages to shrines and other holy places, offer prayers, and engage in acts of faith to demonstrate their repentance and intentions to live a better life.
The Vatican encouraged people to come to see the Pope in Brazil by issuing a document that proclaimed that such a pilgrimage would be an acceptable way of demonstrating repentance. It wasn’t offering a “get out of hell free” card for those who came.
Then, in the spirit of the new Pope, it occurred to Vatican officials that the benefits of faith shouldn’t be restricted to those who are affluent and able to travel. At the end of the official document, the Vatican noted that it was not just pilgrims who could demonstrate their penance, but also those who might participate “with devotion, via the new means of social communication.” The intent, I think, was to widen the description of the ways that the faithful could participate in the Pope’s visit and to broaden the ways of thinking about pilgrimage and penance.
The whole thing got blown out of proportion in the media coverage. What the Vatican meant to say was that for those who cannot travel to Brazil because of a lack of financial resources or ill health, they are welcome to participate through social media. I don’t think that there are any serious Roman Catholic theologians who believe that the amount of punishment one receives in the afterlife can be shortened by reading the Pope’s Twitter feed.
But then I don’t follow the Pope on Twitter. Frankly, I’m surprised that the Pope has a Twitter feed. I signed up for Twitter a few years ago, and I can’t figure out how to use it in a meaningful manner other than to announce the availability of the newsletter or offer links to other web sites. As a tool for proclaiming the Gospel, it seems to not work at all well for me. It reduces serious faith to aphorisms. It reminds me of the pithy statements that get put up on changeable letter boards at churches. The sayings might be clever – they might attract attention – but they aren’t a very good way of communicating the messages of faith.
But that might be a good reason to follow the Pope on Twitter. It might provide some good slogans that could be used when one has to be succinct. His message at Copacabana Beach yesterday wasn’t bad: “Bota Fe” – put on faith.
The song, however, isn’t about the Copacabana Hotel in Rio. It is about the Copacabana nightclub in New York City: “at the Copa, Copacabana, the hottest spot north of Havana.”
There might not have been a song with the title “Copacabana” prior to the 1978 hit, but there was a movie staring Groucho Marx and Carmen Miranda released in 1947 with that name. A musical, written by Manilow came from the song and was later made into a movie with the same name.
So much for trivia. The name Copacabana might refer to several different places. There is a city with that name in Bolivia, another in Columbia, and even one in New South Wales in Australia. There is a Copacabana Beach in Dubrovnik, Croatia. And Rio de Janerio has a nightclub, a fort and a beach with that name.
It was the beach that made the news yesterday, however. With a blasting medley of bossa nova music as a prelude, Pope Francis celebrated mass and addressed a crowd of about a million worshippers on Copacabana beach in Rio de Janeiro. “Bota Fe” – put on faith – was his message to the crowd, which included a large number of youth.
The people of South America know that this Pope is different from his predecessors. The first pope from South America is less enamored with the traditional pomp and ceremony of the office, less likely to indulge in the luxury and privilege afforded his position. Before addressing the crowd on the beach, Francis walked the muddy streets of the Varginha slum. This neighborhood is known for drug sales and other crimes. It has been rainy in Brazil during the pontiff’s visit.
I am not a member of the Roman Catholic Church and I am not current with the nuances of its latest theological statements. But the Pope’s visit to Brazil has resulted in some news stories that are a bit misleading if not outright incorrect. A couple of comics had picked up on the headlines and pretty soon there is a full-blown media rumor that the faithful can obtain indulgences for following the Pope on Twitter. If that were true, it would be silly, not to mention bad theology. But, of course, things are rarely the way they get reported by the popular press.
For the record, you can’t shorten your time in purgatory by re-tweeting the Pope. It is fairly common for the Vatican to issue a document that promises an indulgence for making a spiritual pilgrimage. Such a document was released in advance of the Pope’s visit to Brazil. The basic theological concept is that sinners are punished after the end of their lives. The punishment, however, can be lessened or shortened by acts of faith. When the faithful are truly repentant and do good deeds to make amends for their sins, these deeds do not go unnoticed. The practice of the institutional church having the ability to judge who does and who does not receive credit for good deeds is controversial and was one of the big issues at the center of the Protestant reformation. Whether or not the church is able to issue a full indulgence and essentially wipe the slate clean remains an area of disagreement among Christians.
At any rate, it is common for faithful members of the Roman Catholic Church to make pilgrimages to shrines and other holy places, offer prayers, and engage in acts of faith to demonstrate their repentance and intentions to live a better life.
The Vatican encouraged people to come to see the Pope in Brazil by issuing a document that proclaimed that such a pilgrimage would be an acceptable way of demonstrating repentance. It wasn’t offering a “get out of hell free” card for those who came.
Then, in the spirit of the new Pope, it occurred to Vatican officials that the benefits of faith shouldn’t be restricted to those who are affluent and able to travel. At the end of the official document, the Vatican noted that it was not just pilgrims who could demonstrate their penance, but also those who might participate “with devotion, via the new means of social communication.” The intent, I think, was to widen the description of the ways that the faithful could participate in the Pope’s visit and to broaden the ways of thinking about pilgrimage and penance.
The whole thing got blown out of proportion in the media coverage. What the Vatican meant to say was that for those who cannot travel to Brazil because of a lack of financial resources or ill health, they are welcome to participate through social media. I don’t think that there are any serious Roman Catholic theologians who believe that the amount of punishment one receives in the afterlife can be shortened by reading the Pope’s Twitter feed.
But then I don’t follow the Pope on Twitter. Frankly, I’m surprised that the Pope has a Twitter feed. I signed up for Twitter a few years ago, and I can’t figure out how to use it in a meaningful manner other than to announce the availability of the newsletter or offer links to other web sites. As a tool for proclaiming the Gospel, it seems to not work at all well for me. It reduces serious faith to aphorisms. It reminds me of the pithy statements that get put up on changeable letter boards at churches. The sayings might be clever – they might attract attention – but they aren’t a very good way of communicating the messages of faith.
But that might be a good reason to follow the Pope on Twitter. It might provide some good slogans that could be used when one has to be succinct. His message at Copacabana Beach yesterday wasn’t bad: “Bota Fe” – put on faith.