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Of the Pope’s mozzetta…
What Does the Prayer Really Say ^ | 3/19/2013 | Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Posted on 03/19/2013 10:34:13 AM PDT by LovedSinner

I read on an Italian blog (and so this is at the level of rumor for now) that the Roman ecclesiastical tailor shop Gammarelli sent a mozzetta over the the Apostolic Palace. A mozzetta is the elbow length red cape, often trimmed in ermine, worn by the Roman Pontiff over his white cassock.

Tuesday, today, is the Mass of the “inauguration” of Francis’ pontificate. Tomorrow the Pope has an audience with delegations of Christian ‘churches’. Were the Pope to put on the mozzetta, that would be a good occasion. That would be the apt thing to do. It would be a sign of respect. The Pope will also soon have an audience with the diplomatic corps. The Pope, a head of state, should dress his part. The rest of the diplomats will.

This leads to “the point”, in case some of the enthusiasts run to the combox having missed it.

Remember, a mozzetta, in itself, is nothing. Popes don’t have to wear a mozzetta all the time. There are, however, occasions in which such trappings and signs of office, solemn and traditional, have their proper place. They send signals. The non-use of these symbols also sends signals.

People who say that these things are not important, or are bad, or that they should be eliminated are just plain wrong. That is a naive, shallow, approach to who we are. Catholics are not “either/or” when it comes to the dynamic interplay of the humble and the lofty. We are “both/and”, in proper measure, time and place.


TOPICS: Catholic; Religion & Culture
KEYWORDS: popefrancis
The article was written before the installation Mass, and Fr. Z hoped for Pope Francis to wear mozzetta and the red shoes, but neither showed up.

By themselves, they are relatively unimportant, but they are not great signs that Pope Francis to focus on the Liturgy, which has gone neglected at many Catholic parishes. Also church buildings and music have gone neglected, and these unfortunately may not get a lot of attention from the new Pope.

Still, we must pray for him.

Related article from Fr. Z: I am thinking about those red shoes.

1 posted on 03/19/2013 10:34:13 AM PDT by LovedSinner
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To: LovedSinner

I read the above rather differently than you. It sounds to me as if Father Z was actually hoping the pope would wear the mozzetta tomorrow when meeting with a delegation of Christian churches as a sign of his respect. I didn’t really get a sense he was expressing any opinion about the installation Mass itself in regard to the mozzetta.


2 posted on 03/19/2013 12:27:22 PM PDT by cothrige
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To: LovedSinner
Fr. Z hoped for Pope Francis to wear mozzetta and the red shoes, but neither showed up.

I didn't read it that way. The mozzetta is not traditionally worn to/for Mass. It is usually worn to certain audiences and other events.

Tomorrow the Pope has an audience with delegations of Christian ‘churches’. Were the Pope to put on the mozzetta, that would be a good occasion. That would be the apt thing to do. It would be a sign of respect. The Pope will also soon have an audience with the diplomatic corps. The Pope, a head of state, should dress his part. The rest of the diplomats will.

Fr. Z. is hoping that the Holy Father will wear the mozzetta when he meets with representatives of Christian 'churches' and with the diplomatic corps.

3 posted on 03/19/2013 12:27:45 PM PDT by ELS
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To: cothrige

You beat me by 23 seconds!


4 posted on 03/19/2013 12:28:56 PM PDT by ELS
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To: LovedSinner
Bishop Jerome Racozonus of Venice at the Council of Trent:

Since such is the nature of man that he cannot easily without external means be raised to meditation on divine things, on that account holy Mother Church has instituted certain rites, namely that certain things be pronounced in a subdued tone (canon and words of consecration) and others in a louder tone; she has likewise made use of ceremonies such as mystical blessings, lights, incense, vestments, and many other things of this kind in accordance with apostolic teaching and tradition, whereby both the majesty of so great a sacrifice might be commended, and the minds of the faithful excited by these visible signs of religion and piety to the contemplation of the most sublime matters which are hidden in this sacrifice.

But the New Theology revolutionaries who massacred the Mass had other ideas and we Catholics had imposed upon us by Pope Paul Vl a Lil' Licit Liturgy that had been constructed via destruction of Tradition in a pattern eerily reminiscent of the same destructive actions of the protestants which the great Dom Prosper Gueranger condemned in his Anti-Liturgical Heresies.

http://catholicapologetics.info/modernproblems/newmass/antigy.htm

The Brick By Brick Bund, and other communicants in the conservative catholic coterie, can only make appeals to their personal preferences because it is conceded by all - or at least it should be - that with the new law about the Lil' Licit Liturgy,

"The Lord's Supper or Mass is a sacred meeting or assembly of the People of God, met together under the presidency of the priest, to celebrate the memorial of the Lord. Thus the promise of Christ, "where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them", is eminently true of the local community in the Church

with its nearly endless options, is now but the playground of personality, preference, and prejudice and it is only in the Real Mass that Tradition has been preserved; and that is why it is so hated by modernists and members of the new theology (but I repeat myself).

Those who mistakenly think they will learn about Catholic Tradition in the conservative Brick By Brick Bund will awaken one day to find they are practical protestants.

5 posted on 03/19/2013 12:35:35 PM PDT by Vermont Crank (Invisible yet are signs of the force of Tradition that'll act upon our inertia into Indifferentism)
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To: LovedSinner

I don’t care if he wears mozzetta or mozzarella. Looks like he ditched the red shoes, and that’s a good thing.


6 posted on 03/19/2013 1:04:01 PM PDT by I want the USA back (Liberalism is due to a breakdown of the thinking apparatus.)
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To: I want the USA back

You don’t like the red shoes? Why not? I have to say, just as a matter of taste, I don’t think the black trousers and black shoes poking out from under the white are quite my cup of tea aesthetically speaking. It just doesn’t look quite right. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think the red looked really good either, but since they were such an odd color it helped remind me that they were clearly not a style choice but rather represented something in regard to the office. For that reason I found it easier to look past the style issue and see them for what they were. The black just looks kind of gauche.


7 posted on 03/19/2013 6:46:55 PM PDT by cothrige
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To: LovedSinner
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8 posted on 03/24/2013 4:44:22 PM PDT by Salvation ("With God all things are possible." Matthew 19:26)
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