To the left, the cardinals are shown processing into the mass in St Peter's Basilica this morning before gathering in the Sistine Chapel to begin the Papal Conclave.
To the right is the Sistine Chapel set up for the for the cardinals meeting in the Papal Conclave to elect the new pope.
The cardinals walk up the aisle toward Michangelo's "The Last Judgement" to place their ballots in the ballot box.
The picture of the cardinals in procession made me smile because in my Roman Catholic elementary school such a straggly line would not have been tolerated. We would have heard from the sister in charge, "Straighten that line!"
Well obviously there should be a few cardinal sisters.
ReplyDeleteObviously, Erp. Do you think no one told them?
DeleteIf everyone keeps voting for themselves it could take a long time.
ReplyDeleteOops, I'm sorry. Was I not being serious about the papal conclave?
Linda, you caught on quickly that there is to be no levity or sarcasm here in the comments to this very serious post.
DeleteIf everyone keeps voting for themselves it could take a long time.
ReplyDeleteOops, I'm sorry. Was I not being serious about the papal conclave?
And then you went ahead and said it twice to show that you were really, really, seriously sorry.
DeleteSeems Bernini's baldachino, through which we view the straggling cardinals, needs a good cleaning. When did they stop placing a white canopy - dropped on the election of a new pope - over the chair of each cardinal? Guess it was when there got to be so many of them that they needed to double-bank them on either side of the chapel.
ReplyDeleteLapin, that's a nice shot through the baldachino, even if the canopy needs cleaning and the cardinals can't walk in a straight line.
DeleteI have a vague memory of the little canopies. Maybe the Vatican is trying to save money. Was their purpose to keep the cardinals from gazing up at the ceiling where nudity abounds?
A very RC friend of mine once pointed out that discipline, like taxes (a la Leona Helmsley), is for little people, not the princes of the church ... she, having endured parochial school, both loved and loathed the nuns who inflicted perfect penmanship and an appreciation for scathing black humor about the hubris inherent in an all-male priestly class, chose to laugh or ignore most of what the hierarchy did, simply chalked it up to the nonsense of a certain strain of malformed DNA, and went on about the business of trying to be a decent human being without wasting energy on frills or format ... pomp, she said, was for hair, not the work of faith ... clearly, I agreed with her. Oh, and maybe the cardinals would have done better if they had come in two by two holding hands - works for pre-school groups!
DeleteTwo by two holding hands - what a picture! Please! The cardinals are funny enough already without adding the hand-holding to my imagination.
DeleteYour friend was right about the nuns. Although I've heard horror stories about "the sisters", my experience of having them as my teachers was, for the most part, very positive. They were smart, well-educated, and generally kind women, even as they held us to high standards. The nuns were often more intelligent and less full of themselves than parish priests.
Ah, but what fun would this be if I was not leading your imagination astray?!
DeleteCommunion with a sippy cup, anyone?
Scandalous! Actually, the little ones in my church can take a bit of the bread according to the wish of parents and children.
Delete