The City and the City

Although this blog is primarily about the themes expressed in Ezekiel’s introductory post, it will sometimes talk about other things we’re interested in as well (certainly an interest in theology which isn’t accompanied by a love of God’s good creation and the sub-creations of human beings should be suspect). One of these things I’m very fond of is board games, both for their elegance of design and as a social experience.

This post, however, isn’t a non-theological post. It’s about board games and the Pope at the same time! How could this be, you ask? Well, there’s a board game I like to play (and regularly lose at to my fiancee) called Thurn und Taxis, which in 2006 won the prestigious German Spiel des Jahres award, given to the best family-style game. The theme is this game is the building of the 16th century German postal network, which was done by the Thurn und Taxis family, who became and remain some of the wealthiest German aristocrats. The game’s manual notes that the current Prince of Thurn und Taxis is a student in theology and economics at Edinburgh, as well as being an accomplished race car driver.

A few months ago, I read a post on Fr. Z’s blog about an article written by one Elisabeth von Thurn und Taxis on the revival of traditional expressions of Catholicism among young people in France. It turns out she is the Prince’s sister, and that the whole family is quite devoutly Catholic. But a little more digging makes things even more interesting: apparently their mother, Gloria, was a notoriously wild socialite in the 1980s, nicknamed “Princess TNT.” However, she has since converted (reverted?) to the Catholic faith, and she became a good friend of Pope Benedict back when he was a Cardinal (as detailed in a 2006 Vanity Fair article).

And then I saw a few days ago that her best friend has written a book about her and Gloria visiting places associated with the Pope. And the expansion to the board game, designed as far as I know without her input, is about traveling to Rome to see the Pope.

The world is a strange place.