Some Ballsy Passive-Aggression!

I've been surprised to find that several readers consider it one of their favorite statements of mine when I said that if I were elected Pope, I'd dig up all the intervening Popes who hadn't had a proper coronation and shockingly crown their rotting corpses before accepting my own coronation.

So, with that being re-emphasized, I don't know if you all saw this story in the blogosphere or on New Liturgical Movement.

Some German businessman commissioned some Bulgarian Orthodox firm to make a tiara for Pope Benedict and then presented it to him as a gift!


Unfortunately, he didn't try it on, though I'm sure that was the intent; to at least get a foot in the door for the tiara's normalization by taking the passive-aggressive approach.

As someone in the comments on the original post said:

Having seen photos of His Holiness put on several hats given him by various groups as gifts -- a policeman's hat, a fireman's hat, a baseball cap, an Alpine hat -- too bad he didn't try on the tiara!

It's sort of a double-standard, no, to wear all those and not wear one type of hat that would be appropriate on a Pope? As the Liturgical Pimpernel said:

It's not polite to accept a gift and never use it, is it? Especially not if it could cause ecumenical offense.

Again, getting the Orthodox involved and having an "ecumenical delegation" present it thus seems like a brilliant strategic move too in terms of passive-aggressive manipulation.

But, the Pope did not try it on "in the spur of the moment" so I doubt now, sadly, he ever will (a "spontaneous" photo-op was really the only chance we ever had).

Still, to even see this making an appearance, however marginalized or minor, is heartening. It's a nice one too. Certainly better than that unworn tiara the Hungarians gave John Paul: