The Pine cone is back in the Papacy!

For those that didn’t notice it, I was trying to get a close up of what Pope Benedict XVI had cope bearers.

Nicola De Grandi has posted a good article on The penitential Papal Formale (it’s back. Here I thought I’d be breaking new ground and it’s already been on the net today. A good book on vestments and protocal is The Church Visible for those with an interest. Shouts In The Piazza also has a few excellent comments as well.

As a cradle Catholic and old fart, it may be informative to say that the cope while appearing to the world as simply more pomp, the theological underpinnings as I understood them is that the bishop does not act on his own during the liturgy, he is dependent on someone else even the wearing of ones cloths. It’s an act of humility or at least thats the intent.

Other touches made by Fr Guido Marini (new Vatican director of Liturgy) are the Pope’s mitre belonged to Pope Pius IX, and the gilded throne was used by Leo XIII.

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