Word: halberds
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Talk about divine inspiration. Twenty-eight army recruits stood at attention at a swearing-in ceremony on May 6, each holding his weapon - a combination of spear and battle ax called a halberd - and listening intently to the boss' pep talk. "I hope that despite the heaviness of your service you will live this time of mission as a deepening of your faith," he said. Of course, not many armies can boast that their commander is Pope John Paul II, the peace-loving head of the Roman Catholic Church. And in an era of drab, utilitarian uniforms, few recruits start...
...Pope's order leaves only the plumed, halberd-bearing Swiss Guards, a favorite of picture-snapping tourists, to patrol the venerable streets of the Vatican. Even the Guards, all Swiss Catholics and veterans of Switzerland's army, are a pale shadow of what they used to be. Founded in 1505 by Julius II, "the fighting Pope," 147 of the 189 Guards once died defending Pope Clement VII against 10,000 of Charles V's mercenaries. Because of recruiting problems, their numbers have dwindled to 59, and their functions have become largely ceremonial. In case of any real...
...hear the West German generals tell it, their soldiers are so inept and so lacking in morale that they would scarcely be a match for the Beefeaters in the Tower of London or the halberd-bearing papal guard. Speaking to a closed session of officers at the Leadership Academy near Hamburg, Major General Helmuth Grashey complained that the Bundeswehr (literally, Federal Defense Force) is burdened with too much civilian bureaucracy and hounded by an ombudsman who undermines officers' authority by listening sympathetically to soldiers' gripes...
Like a Pope Should. As St. Peter's bells clanged out the hour, a cheer started at the door of Santa Marta, gradually filling the church. Surrounded by halberd-bearing Swiss Guards, borne high above the crowd on a portable chair, Pope Paul VI bobbed toward the high altar. He looked small and frail beneath his white robes and heavy red stole; his soft, graceful gestures reminded many of Pius XII. "I was very fond of John, but Paul looks more like a Pope should," an Italian student said...
...American Mercury (1924-33), and the short-lived American Spectator (1932-35), the slim, elegant Nathan and hulking, tousled Mencken battered at boneheads and "dingdoodles" (Nathan's pet epithet for self-satisfied know-nothings). When Mencken died two years ago, his meat ax seemed as anachronistic as a halberd. But Critic Nathan-though the day had passed when he could kill a play with a quip-remained an acute and acidulous observer of the theater whose only visible sign of mellowing was his decision last year to enter the Roman Catholic Church...