Date: April 20, 2005
Level: Harder (Try the easier lesson.)
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Listening (1:44 - 204.7 KB - 16kbps)

THE ARTICLE

Germany’s Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger has been elected as the 265th Pope and leader of the world’s 1.1 billion Roman Catholics. The 78-year-old ally of Pope John Paul II will be known as Pope Benedict XVI and is expected to continue the conservative tradition of his influential predecessor. He is strongly opposed to abortion, homosexuality, the marriage of either gays or priests, and women priests. Many in the Catholic Church had expressed the need for a more liberal leader, one who can meet the challenges posed by the twenty-first century. Although a staunch conservative, Pope Benedict XVI seems well equipped for his responsibility, having written over 40 books and being able to speak ten languages.

Soon after the white smoke billowed from the Vatican chimney, announcing his election, Pope Benedict gave his first address: “Dear brothers and sisters, After the Great Pope John Paul II, the cardinals have elected me, a simple, humble worker in the Lord’s vineyard. I am comforted by the fact that the Lord knows how to work and act even with insufficient instruments. And above all, I entrust myself to your prayers. With the joy of the risen Lord and confidence in his constant help, we will go forward. The Lord will help us, and Mary, his most holy mother, will be alongside us. Thank you.”

WARM UPS

1. CHAT: Talk in pairs or groups about: the 265^th Pope / 78-year-olds / Roman Catholicism / conservative tradition / homosexuality / gay marriage / abortion / speaking ten languages / brothers and sisters / prayers… For more conversation, change topics and partners frequently.

2. CATHOLIC BRAINSTORM: Spend one minute writing down all of the different words you associate with the Catholic Church. Share your words with your partner / group and talk about them.

3. MY RELIGIOUS LEADERS: Who is / are the leader (s) of your religion? Talk with your partner about their importance. How much are they respected? Do they do good work? Are they too conservative? Are they loved? Change partners / groups and inform your new partner(s) of what your previous partner told you. Ask the same questions to your new partner(s).

4. OPINIONS: In pairs / groups, talk about whether or not you agree with these opinions:

1. At 78, he’s too old.
2. I want him to follow Pope John Paul II’s strong stand against contraception, abortion and the death penalty.
3. I hope he continues John Paul’s work in talking to other religions and making peace with them. We need to accept and love everybody.
4. I expected a younger Pope who might be with us for 25 years or so.
5. Why elect a Pope who has twentieth-century thinking? He’s sure to lose the Catholic Church many young followers.
6. A disaster for Africa, overpopulation, AIDs sufferers, gay people in love…
7. Electing a traditionalist is great. The people should follow the Church, not the other way round. We need to stick to Christ’s teachings, not follow today’s trends.
8. This is God’s choice. He knows what’s best.
9. Give the guy a chance. He’s just got the job!
10. What a pity. Another European Pope.

5. WHEN I’M 78: In pairs / groups, talk about what you expect to be doing when you are 78 years old. Do you think you would want to take on new responsibilities such as leading 1.1 billion people?

PRE-READING IDEAS

1. WORD SEARCH: Use your dictionary / computer to find word partners (collocates), other meanings, synonyms or more information on the words ‘Roman’ and ‘Catholic’.

2. TRUE / FALSE: Look at the article’s headline and guess whether these sentences are true or false:

1. A non-European has been elected as the new Pope.  T / F
2. A young man has been elected as the new Pope.  T / F
3. The new Pope is expected to be very conservative.  T / F
4. The new Pope is a prolific author and linguist.  T / F
5. Red smoke billowed from a chimney to signify the new Pope’s arrival.  T / F
6. The new Pope gave everyone his home address in Rome.  T / F
7. The new Pope said he couldn’t play any musical instruments.  T / F
8. The new Pope said the Lord would help us.  T / F

3. SYNONYM MATCH: Match the following synonyms from the article:

(a)	elected	antecedent
(b)	conservative	speech
(c)	predecessor	rose
(d)	strongly	warmed
(e)	challenges	signifying
(f)	billowed	appointed
(g)	announcing	demands
(h)	address	conventional
(i)	comforted	everlasting
(j)	constant	vehemently

4. PHRASE MATCH: Match the following phrases from the article (sometimes more than one combination is possible):

(a)	elected as the	posed by the twenty-first century
(b)	ally of	billowed from the Vatican chimney
(c)	conservative	by the fact
(d)	influential	Pope John Paul II
(e)	meet the challenges	all
(f)	white smoke	to your prayers
(g)	gave his first	predecessor
(h)	I am comforted	265th Pope
(i)	And above	address
(j)	I entrust myself	tradition

 

WHILE READING ACTIVITIES

1. SYNONYM FILL: There are six gaps in the article. There are six groups of synonyms below the article. Place the number of the synonym group in the correct gap (It is not important to guess a correct word - any of the synonyms from each group could be put into the relevant gap).

New Pope chosen

Germany’s Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger has been ______ as the 265th Pope and leader of the world’s 1.1 billion Roman Catholics. The 78-year-old ally of Pope John Paul II will be known as Pope Benedict XVI and is expected to continue the conservative tradition of his ______ predecessor. He is strongly opposed to abortion, homosexuality, the marriage of either gays or priests, and women priests. Many in the Catholic Church had expressed the need for a more liberal leader, one who can meet the ______ posed by the twenty-first century. Although a staunch conservative, Pope Benedict XVI seems well equipped for his responsibility, having written over 40 books and being able to speak ten languages.

Soon after the white smoke billowed from the Vatican chimney, announcing his election, Pope Benedict gave his first ______: “Dear brothers and sisters, After the Great Pope John Paul II, the cardinals have elected me, a simple, ______ worker in the Lord’s vineyard. I am comforted by the fact that the Lord knows how to work and act even with insufficient instruments. And above all, I entrust myself to your prayers. With the joy of the risen Lord and confidence in his ______ help, we will go forward. The Lord will help us, and Mary, his most holy mother, will be alongside us. Thank you.”

1 humble lowly modest meek	2 challenges demands trials tests	3 elected appointed designated named
4 constant everlasting eternal around-the-clock	5 influential powerful potent prominent	6 address speech sermon talk

 

2. TRUE/FALSE: Check your answers to the T/F exercise.

3. SYNONYMS: Check your answers to the synonyms exercise.

4. PHRASE MATCH: Check your answers to the phrase match exercise.

5. QUESTIONS: Make notes for questions you would like to ask the class about the article.

6. VOCABULARY: Circle any words you do not understand. In groups, pool unknown words and use dictionaries to find their meanings.

POST READING IDEAS

1. SYNONYM FILL: Check your answers to this exercise. Can you add to the list of synonyms?

2. QUESTIONS: Ask the discussion questions you thought of above to your partner / group / class. Pool the questions for everyone to share.

3. VOCABULARY: As a class, go over the vocabulary students circled above.

4. STUDENT-GENERATED SURVEY: In pairs/groups write down 3 questions based on the article. Each student surveys class members independently and reports back to their original partner/ group to compare their findings.

5. ‘ROMAN’ / ‘CATHOLIC’: Make questions based on your findings from pre-reading activity #1. Ask your partner / group your questions.

6. DISCUSSION:

1. When did you first hear this news?
2. Was there anything in the story that surprised you?
3. Was there anything in the story that disappointed you?
4. What’s your verdict on the new Pope?
5. Do you think he’s too old?
6. People say he’s ultra-conservative. Is this good?
7. Do you think a non-European Pope would have been better?
8. Should the Church stick to its traditional teachings or change with the times?
9. Are you religious?
10. Do you believe in God?
11. Do you believe in the power of prayer?
12. Why do people stick to one religion so devotedly / fanatically?
13. Is one religion better than any other?
14. What are the good and bad points of the Roman Catholic Church or other religions?
15. Is religion a good or bad thing?
16. What are the major challenges for Pope Benedict XVI?
17. What can the new Pope do to keep young people going to church?
18. What changes would you like to see this Pope make?
19. Which languages would you like to be able to speak (and why)?
20. Did you like this discussion?
21. Teacher / Student additional questions.

7. PAPAL POLICIES: In pairs/groups. You are advisors for the Catholic Church working in the Vatican. You are desperately worried about the sharp falls in the number of people going to church. You need come up with some revolutionary ideas for the new Pope to increase the Church’s popularity. (1) Agree on a revolutionary idea for three of the topics below. (2) Present your ideas to the rest of the class. Be prepared to answer questions from those listening. The students watching the presentation should take notes on the ideas and appraise them. (3) Change partners and discuss the merits of each revolutionary idea. (4) Vote for the best / worst ideas.

Possible idea themes: contraception / the death penalty / overpopulation / gay marriage / abortion / the war on terror / women clergy / shortage of clergy / sex scandals / AIDs…

* In multi-faith classes brainstorm ideas to add to this list that are relevant to Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, Sikhism etc

The following assessment sheet might be useful (please resize):

PAPAL POLICIES ASSESSMENT SHEET
Team #	Policy	My opinion	My questions

 

HOMEWORK

1. VOCABULARY EXTENSION: Choose several of the words from the text. Use a dictionary or Google’s search field (or another search engine) to build up more associations / collocations of each word.

2. INTERNET: Search the Internet and find information on Pope Benedict XVI. Share your findings with your class next lesson.

3. NO RELIGION? Write a short article about the worth of religion. Does religion cause more harm than good or is it something that creates love and kindness in the world?

4. LETTER: Write a letter to Pope Benedict XVI outlining what you really want to see him do during his time as Pope. Read your letter in your next class and see how many people want the same things.

ANSWERS

TRUE / FALSE:

1. A non-European has been elected as the new Pope.  F
2. A young man has been elected as the new Pope.  F
3. The new Pope is expected to be very conservative.  T
4. The new Pope is a prolific author and linguist.  T
5. Red smoke billowed from a chimney to signify the new Pope’s arrival.  F
6. The new Pope gave everyone his home address in Rome.  F
7. The new Pope said he couldn’t play any musical instruments.  F
8. The new Pope said the Lord would help us.  T

SYNONYM MATCH:

(a)	elected	appointed
(b)	conservative	conventional
(c)	predecessor	antecedent
(d)	strongly	vehemently
(e)	challenges	demands
(f)	billowed	rose
(g)	announcing	signifying
(h)	address	speech
(i)	comforted	warmed
(j)	constant	everlasting

PHRASE MATCH:

(a)	elected as the	265th Pope
(b)	ally of	Pope John Paul II
(c)	conservative	tradition
(d)	influential	predecessor
(e)	meet the challenges	posed by the twenty-first century
(f)	white smoke	billowed from the Vatican chimney
(g)	gave his first	address
(h)	I am comforted	by the fact
(i)	And above	all
(j)	I entrust myself	to your prayers

SYNONYM FILL:

New Pope chosen

Germany’s Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger has been -----3----- as the 265th Pope and leader of the world’s 1.1 billion Roman Catholics. The 78-year-old ally of Pope John Paul II will be known as Pope Benedict XVI and is expected to continue the conservative tradition of his -----5----- predecessor. He is strongly opposed to abortion, homosexuality, the marriage of either gays or priests, and women priests. Many in the Catholic Church had expressed the need for a more liberal leader, one who can meet the -----2----- posed by the twenty-first century. Although a staunch conservative, Pope Benedict XVI seems well equipped for his responsibility, having written over 40 books and being able to speak ten languages.

Soon after the white smoke billowed from the Vatican chimney, announcing his election, Pope Benedict gave his first -----6-----: “Dear brothers and sisters, After the Great Pope John Paul II, the cardinals have elected me, a simple, -----1----- worker in the Lord’s vineyard. I am comforted by the fact that the Lord knows how to work and act even with insufficient instruments. And above all, I entrust myself to your prayers. With the joy of the risen Lord and confidence in his -----4----- help, we will go forward. The Lord will help us, and Mary, his most holy mother, will be alongside us. Thank you.”