I have only two points to make today.
First, what is that box thing on the table? Other pics show it is not the box the gifted icon was in. So what is it?
Two: priests, bishops, and popes (active or emeritus) should always wear a fascia/sash with their cassock. It should not be interpreted as a sign of jurisdiction or anything. It should just be considered an essential part of the outfit, like a belt with pants. Cassocks (unless covered by a surplice or something) which are not cinched at the waist and broken visually by a horizontal feature...just look really bad and unfinished and unshapely. I think it looks really incomplete and even sort of effete, like it's some sort of weird mumu.
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Apparently the Italian papers are also speculating about the contents of the mystery box.
It's probably too big to be the Vatileaks dossier. John Thavis' guess is that it contains all the thank you letters and emails Benedict has received since he left office.
Another theory is that he was handing over documents about his unfinished projects, e.g. negotiations with the SSPX and the encyclical on faith.
http://www.johnthavis.com/what-was-in-the-box#.UU8d6ElFBjo
The box contains the lost Ark of the Covenant.... ;)
i.e. details about the wife of Jesus, St. Mary Magdalene and her family lineage
Define "effete."
Actually, I rather think Francis is wearing a sash (one can see its gold trim) and dear Benedict might well be, his position is such that he may be visually obscuring it. In any event, I think Benedict has earned the right to loosen up and discard it in his reclusement.
Francis is wearing his. Benedict is not. Without a sash (and without the shoulder-cape, though that represents jurisdiction allegedly) it looks like the man wearing it has no waist.
The La Reppublica footage of Pope Benedict and Pope Francis at Castelgandolfo shows our beloved pontiff emeritus as emaciated, barely able to walk, and perhaps nearly blind. At the presentation of the icon Pope Francis literally had to shout in order for Pope Benedict to understand him. I suspect that Pope Benedict doesn't have the strength to even stand up and say Low Mass (I guess a monsignor says Mass and Pope Benedict whispers the responses.) I have a suspicion/hope that Pope Benedict is hearing/serving the 1962 Missal :-)))))
Pope Benedict's dress is a bit disheveled, but that is not relevant now. Pray that Pope Benedict is blessed with a reverent and peaceful death. He is our beloved pope who had restored eight years of great majestas and gravitas to the papacy.
His health does seem in rapid decline in only a month! I wondered, when he resigned, if it might have been the case he got a terminal diagnosis (or "just knew" the end was near, as old people seem to be able to do). But that raises questions too. If he was only planning to be around for 6 more months, why NOT just ride things out to the end at that point? A resignation might suggest that the end is near, but not SO near that you might as well stick it out. Unless it was a deliberate final "point" he was making about the papacy not being a cult of personality (which is a very good point to make!)
He seems to have failed in making any point at all except that the Cardinal electors didn't really like him and that Holy Mother Church doesn't suffer for our sins, she just plans an early retirement.
"I have a suspicion/hope that Pope Benedict is hearing/serving the 1962 Missal"
Very possible. Msgr. Ganswein was ordained an SSPX priest before he joined the Catholic Church and Benedict's side.
He does strike me as very ill. I always said that I thought the ermine mozzetta and the camauro were more for warmth, since he struck me as being cold most of the time, than for tradition or show. If you notice the photos of their meeting outside, Benedict has an extremely heavy quilted white vest on over his cassock, which you can tell from the side view has at least two or three other layers under it. That, and his stooped stance, were enough without even seeing the video to make me think he's in bad shape. Indeed, we should all pray for him, as he spends his days now praying for all of us.
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