Pope Benedict Receives "Holy Grail" of Gifts: Beer.

Of course, it took an Anglican to have enough guts (and circumspection) to go through with the idea. Shame on us papists for not thinking of it first!

It could have been the moment the world was waiting for - the Holy Grail being hand-delivered to the Pope.

But that is exactly what the Archbishop of York did when he made his historic visit to Pope Benedict XVI in the Vatican.

Dr John Sentamu took the Pontiff some quintessentially Yorkshire gifts - including a bottle of Holy Grail beer and Black Sheep Ale from the Black Sheep Brewery.

The Archbishop also presented the Pope with an illustrated history of York Minster, and a cut-glass beer tankard from the Minster. He said the gifts were chosen to reflect the Pope's appreciation of Bavarian beer. - UK York Press

The UK Daily Mail adds more:

Following their 15-minute chat in the Basilica di San Paolo Fuori le Mura, believed to be the burial place of St Paul, Sentamu said: "I told the brewery I was meeting the Pope and they made a special brew for him. I heard he'd been given some Black Sheep ale and liked it. So I brought that and the Holy Grail."

The gifts pleased the Pope, who is Bavarian by birth and prefers beer to wine and water.

"I was very impressed by the Pope," Sentamu said. "He cares about human beings. He is such a deep theologian, it drives him to compassion. He is not a starchy person, but people look at his writings, they are very precise, and think he is like that ... but he is very warm."

... no doubt. In case you were wondering, "The Archbishop of York is the second-highest-ranking prelate in the Church of England, second only to the Archbishop of Canterbury", says CNA.

I'm guessing this must have been a nice change of pace from the usual dignitary gift exchange.

Pope Benedict, of course, as Cardinal Ratzinger, was no stranger to the suds:

In fact, not only is there an (unofficial) German Papst-Bier ("Pope Beer"), there is an (official) blessing for beer in the Roman Rite of Blessings .... prost!

This episode got me thinking that it would be nice to have a one-stop web source for all the captured images of Cardinal Ratzinger/Pope Benedict enjoying the lesser-known fruit of human hands....: Voila!

(Submissions welcome. While you must be over 21 to drink in the U.S., all ages can enjoy the photos.)

And finally, while we're ostensibly on the topics of beer and ecumenical dialogue, I submit for your consideration the following Facebook group: "Evangelicals and Catholics [Drinking] Together"

I'm a member.