Pope’s Peace Doves Mugged by Bird Thugs

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A dove which was freed by children flanked by Pope Francis during the Angelus prayer, is attacked by a seagull in St. Peter's Square, at the Vatican, Sunday, Jan. 26, 2014.  (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)
A dove which was freed by children flanked by Pope Francis during the Angelus prayer, is attacked by a seagull in St. Peter’s Square, at the Vatican, Sunday, Jan. 26, 2014.
(AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

It was a beautiful day in Rome and all was well in Vatican City, as a smiling Pope Francis embraced two beautiful young children from the Papal Balcony and helped them release two white doves representing peace in our time.

This was supposed to be a nice moment: Pope Francis, in the course of calling for calm in the Ukraine today, had a couple of little kids release two doves over St. Peter’s Square in a gesture of peace. But apparently in the animal world, as in the human world, we can’t have nice moments: As tens of thousands of the faithful watched the birds take flight, a black crow and a seagull attacked the purportedly peaceful pair, with one losing some feathers and the other getting pecked repeatedly. As the AP notes, “It was not clear what happened to the doves as they flew off.”

At this writing the disposition and health of the doves is unknown.

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10 years ago

This is indeed very funny. We think a bird could be a symbol but they have their own ways of living and surviving.

10 years ago

My kinda birds!!!

10 years ago

bitcodavid,
As legend goes, Noah exploited doves in an attempt to see if there was dry land nearby. The first doves left and returned empty-beaked. Eventually, Noah’s avian emissaries are alleged to have returned bearing an olive branch…indicating not only dry land but peace. Since there has been little or no peace since Noah’s time, perhaps the interpretation needs to be reevaluated.

In some versions, however, Noah is alleged (after all, Genesis, like all of the Bible was written long after the “fact” by people who were not eyewitnesses) to have sent a raven and a dove, and according to scripture, the dove didn’t return, which was taken to mean that the dove had found dry land.

Perhaps today’s episode with the crow (raven) and seagull merely shows us that Noah got lucky, because it’s just as likely that the raven attacked and ate the dove, and the two didn’t return, because the raven’s murderous behavior surely would have garnered no favor from Noah.

And then there’s the small matter of Noah having to rely on a dove to determine whether there might be dry land. Was it a mystery that once the rains stopped, things might dry out a bit? Just sayin’.

Reply to  Jim Moore
10 years ago

Yeah, I suppose he could also have tried looking out a window.

Jess
10 years ago

So does this mean there will be an extra few weeks in winter or what? I didn’t see that talked about in the story. I wonder what the cardinals thought of this bird on bird violence also too. Silly pope guy, doves aren’t for peace, that is up to the humans, next time throw some of them out the windows. Contact me and I will give you names.

10 years ago

Symbolic of one thing only. Everybody and everything likes squab, and these airborne rats are near the bottom of the food chain. Don’t let anyone fool you…there weren’t just two doves on Noah’s Ark. They were on the menu.

Reply to  Jim Moore
10 years ago

Hahahaha! LOL! And just 1 more of my many issues with the Noah mythology. What kept the 2 tigers from eating the 2 gazelles? Maybe you’ve answered that age old question. They all had chicken. It might explain the affinity Jews have for that particular food source.What Forest Gump’s friend Bubba had for shrimp, that’s what Jews have for chicken.

Reply to  bitcodavid
10 years ago

Actually, wasn’t it a dove that Noah sent out from Mt. Ararat after the flood?

Reply to  Professor Mike
10 years ago

Yep. Those little blue pills are amazing! 🙂

10 years ago

It occurs to me that there is another way to look at this. From what I gather from the piece, the doves survived the attacks. This could be viewed, symbolically, to state that peace doesn’t come without a price, but in the end it will endure.

Just a thought.

BD

10 years ago

What Joe said.

But it’s irony tempered in schadenfreude, which is unfair to the birds. If this event had involved anybody but the Pope, we probably wouldn’t be laughing so hard.

Reply to  Professor Mike
10 years ago

Reading the 19th century Naturalists – Jack London for example – you can really grok nature’s paradox. Sure, it is cruel for the wolf to kill rabbits, but it’s equally cruel for the wolf to starve by failing to do so. Naturalists had an acute understanding of the Godlessness of the world, and if you dig deep enough into the philosophy, you can see a kind of stark beauty in it. The fairness of injustice – the kindness of cruelty.

So, yes, we can feel for the doves, and at the same time respect the crow and gull.

But the real point, the real irony didn’t involve the birds at all, but rather the Pope. All I’m saying – and it’s not a judgement, merely a statement of fact – is that if a member of the Sierra Club had done the same stunt, with the same outcome, we’d all be saddened and disheartened. But since it was the Pope – we can all have a good laugh.

😀

Joe Hagstrom
10 years ago

How can anyone not appreciate the irony?

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