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Three Key Lessons King Charles III Can Learn from Pope Benedict XVI
They have more in common than you might think
As part of an answer to the recent writing prompt “100 Things in 20 Minutes,” I wrote that King Charles III has a lot in common with Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI. Writing 100 things in a mere 20 minutes is basically a stream of consciousness exercise (at best), and I threw that one out there simply because it had been bouncing around my head since just after the Queen’s passing. Immediately after writing that line, I wrote that it was the article I really should have been working on instead. Then I moved on.
Surprisingly (or maybe not, considering the massive coverage both the passing of the Queen and the ascension of the new King is receiving), this one line got more responses than the other 99 things combined. As is often the case, I shot off my mouth and now have to back it up the best I can. Thus, this article.
In watching King Charles III speak over the past week, two thoughts have come to mind. First, though he has been preparing for this moment his entire life, the enormous pressures he faces even as he mourns the death of his beloved mother Queen Elizabeth II only one week ago are such that there is no one on earth who can fully fathom them. My second thought was that, in a very different yet…