Thursday, March 28, AD 2024 7:03am

PopeWatch: Ring Wrath

 

The Pope apparently doesn’t like it when Catholics attempt to kiss his ring:

 

ROME, March 25, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) — Pope Francis today made it clear that he doesn’t want the faithful to kiss his papal ring, as he repeatedly pulled his hand away from pilgrims who were lined up to greet him reverently during his one-day visit to the Holy House of Loreto.

A disturbing video from the Italian news site TGCOM 24 captured the Pope’s insistence that the laity not show him such reverence.

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According to the Council of Nicaea, a bishop was not to be moved from his diocese due to the nuptial meaning of the episcopacy. Deserting the church to which he was consecrated and transferring himself to another diocese was regarded as tantamount to “adultery.” 

St. John Fisher (1469-1535), the only cardinal to ever die for the faith, repeatedly refused to be translated to another diocese, even though he had been entrusted with the diocese of Rochester, one of the poorest in England. He said he “would not leave his poor old wife,” (the Rochester diocese) “for the richest widow (other diocese) in England.” Fisher in fact refused to abandon his diocese and was imprisoned and martyred for refusing to accept the king’s abandonment of his wife.

The gesture of kissing the episcopal ring (called the baciamano in Italian) is a way of reminding the bishop of his promises to his people and their loyalty to him. It is a reminder of the unbreakable nuptial bond between him and his people, and the affection and loyalty for each other. Clergy and laity who kiss a bishop’s ring therefore remind him of his undertakings when he was consecrated to the episcopate.

The Bishop of Rome’s ring — the “Ring of the Fisherman” — is a sign of his husband-father relation to the Church as a whole and is smashed upon the death of a pope. It is also the symbol of the Pope’s investiture of his office. To kiss the “Ring of the Fisherman” therefore alludes to the dignity and office and is an expression of loyalty to him as the Successor of St. Peter.

Go here to read the rest.  Well, we already knew that the Pope has a distaste for many Catholic traditions.  What is sad about this latest example is that for most people they meet and greet a Pope once in their life.  For a faithful Catholic it is a red letter day.  Pope Francis, jerking his hand, spoils it for them and makes it appear to them as if they have done something wrong.  In the current Holy Father, Catholics have a petulant parent, quite ready to humiliate the humblest of his sheep.  No Pope has been more arrogant than Francis the Humble.

 

 

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David WS
David WS
Wednesday, March 27, AD 2019 4:44am

The background music is inappropriate, something like this perhaps:

Philip Nachazel
Philip Nachazel
Wednesday, March 27, AD 2019 5:15am

False mercy and false humility go hand in hand…best not to kiss his ring. Wait until a Catholic Pope regains the chair.
The Protestant one can’t hold it forever.

Ernst Schreiber
Ernst Schreiber
Wednesday, March 27, AD 2019 6:22am

Is there a single bishop in this country who wouldn’t react the same way? At least inwardly?

Mary De Voe
Mary De Voe
Wednesday, March 27, AD 2019 6:54am

Very well written. I find it difficult to believe that bergoglio is so absolutely ignorant.

Ernst Schreiber
Ernst Schreiber
Wednesday, March 27, AD 2019 7:22am

The “Apostle of Common Sense”, G. K. Chesteron:

“Becket wore a hair shirt under his gold and crimson, and there is much to be said for the combination; for Becket got the benefit of the hair shirt while the people in the street got the benefit of the crimson and gold. It is at least better than the manner of the modern millionaire, who has the black and the drab outwardly for others, and the gold next his heart.”

Seems apropos.

Don L
Don L
Wednesday, March 27, AD 2019 7:24am

This goes along with his public chastisement of that poor alter boy who dared to fold his hands in prayer a bit too piously for this pope. It was not his to interfere with, since the poor boy wasn’t praying to him.

OrdinaryCatholic
OrdinaryCatholic
Wednesday, March 27, AD 2019 7:28am

We have to remember, it is the ring of the Seat of Peter, not the man. It is showing respect to the dignity of the office no matter who holds it at present. We may not like a president of the USA but we respect the office he holds at the moment.

Morenowthanever
Morenowthanever
Wednesday, March 27, AD 2019 7:33am

That’s our Frank! “He’ll” show just how wrong all these Catholics have been all these years. “He’s” part of the newly enlightened crowd and you all better darn-well better appreciate “him”. Look at any liberal you know, they scoff, sneer, ridicule “those” who have note been enlightened as they along with all their silly little traditions, dogmas & laws.

Mary De Voe
Mary De Voe
Wednesday, March 27, AD 2019 7:36am

“It was not his to interfere with, since the poor boy wasn’t praying to him.”
Thomas More said that we hold our life in our hands. The altar boy was holding his life in his hands.
Thomas Aquinas said that truth is the mind embracing reality.
How hideous is truth and life to the demons.

Mary De Voe
Mary De Voe
Wednesday, March 27, AD 2019 7:39am

Got that backwards: Thomas Aquinas said that reality is the mind embracing the truth. In any event reality and truth are anathema to the devil.

Mary De Voe
Mary De Voe
Wednesday, March 27, AD 2019 7:42am

All I have ever seen is a buffoon.

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