In previous pontificates, prelates wearing a pectoral cross with their 'house clothes' used to suspend it from a dinky little hook which was inserted into one of the button-holes in the middle of the chest of their soutane. There was a chain round the neck, but what actually supported the cross, as well as keeping it in place, was the hook. That, at least, is my recollection.
Nowadays, photographs of prelates seem always to show the cross as simply dangling from the chain.
No dinky little hook.
This is our beloved Holy Father's own practice.
Is the prevalence of this new custom since 2013 analogous to the cultural tendency which led to so many German males wearing neatly trimmed little moustaches during the Hitler years?
Is there some connection with the fact that so many aged Italians, born in the 1930s, bear the name 'Benito'?
I intend to begin a rumour that the Sovereign Pontiff has started wearing a nose-ring, so as to see how long it is before nose-rings peep delightfully out of the elegant nostrils of our Most Eminent, Most Reverend, and Right Reverend Fathers in God.
Dear Father. ABS thinks you will love this vid which is linked to in a typically excellent post at Rad Trad. It is quite amusing to see the interviewer being disappointed this wonderful old priest does not publicly shame Mons Lefebvre.
ReplyDeletehttp://theradtrad.blogspot.com/2016/03/the-way-we-were.html
Pax tecum
Father,when I was serving the Sovereign as a young man,I noticed that if the Colonel drank whiskey ginger at lunchtime,so did his senior officers with him. If the Colonel ran at lunchtime,so did his entourage.That is the way of the world in hierarchical institutions.Her Majesty's Armed Forces,the Curia.The Ordinariate.
ReplyDeleteI am enjoying your posts, Father!
ReplyDeleteHow wonderful that someone else takes this bit of sycophancy seriously - I thought I was alone. Of all the irritating things of this pontificate this is among the most annoying, as it is a clear testimony to the lack of shepherds with backbone.
ReplyDeleteOn the question of episcopal style - pectoral crosses, etc., - Some Anglican bishops, who have had dangling pectorals for ages, have taken to wearing black clerical shirts in place of their variously coloured purple shirts. I take this to be an homage to Rowan Williams who was invariably seen in a black clerical shirt a la Latin Rite Catholic bishops. Rowan did, however, on occasion, appear in a purple cassock (not sutane) with the required 39 (article) buttons in Roman style arrangement as opposed to the practical Anglican three button job.
ReplyDeleteAll of this leads me to the observation (quickly becoming conviction) that Pope Francis really wants to be Archbishop of Canterbury.
Thank you for the ovidious commentary and jollity, Father.