Saturday, August 28, 2010

POPE BENEDICT AND FRIEND



Lapin strikes again.

UPDATE LAGNIAPPE:



Pope Benedict's brother, Monsignor Georg Ratzinger

UPDATE 2:

From Colm Tóibín in the London Review of Books:

When I listed the reasons homosexuals might be attracted to the Church and might want to become priests, I did not mention the most obvious one: you get to wear funny bright clothes; you get to dress up all the time in what are essentially women’s clothes. As part of the training to be an altar boy I had to learn, and still remember, what a priest puts on to say Mass: the amice, the alb, the girdle, the stole, the maniple and the chasuble. Watching them robing themselves was like watching Mary Queen of Scots getting ready for her execution.

Priests prance around in elaborately fashioned costumes. Bishops and cardinals have even more colourful vestments. This ‘overt behaviour’ on their part has to be examined carefully. Since it is part of the rule of the Church, part of the norm, it has to be emphasised that many of them do not dress up as a matter of choice. Indeed, the vestments in all their glory might make some of them wince. But others seem to enjoy it. Among those who seem to enjoy it is Ratzinger. Quattrocchi draws our attention to the amount of care, since his election, Ratzinger has taken with his accessories, wearing designer sunglasses, for example, or gold cufflinks, and different sorts of funny hats and a pair of red shoes from Prada that would take the eyes out of you. He has also been having fun with his robes. On Ash Wednesday 2006, for example, he wore a robe of ‘Valentino red’ – called after the fashion designer – with ‘showy gold embroidery’ and soon afterwards changed into a blue associated with another fashion designer, Renato Balestra. In March 2007, for a visit to the juvenile prison at Casal del Marno, he wore an extraordinary tea-rose-coloured costume.

Thanks to Ann V. for the link.

11 comments:

  1. Incredible, but true. Read the second update.

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  2. Ah, w/ Beautiful Georg (Gay-org! ;-p)

    I think I'm going to start calling B16 "Pope Ken Mehlman" (I'm sure y'all get the reference).

    But I think Ratzi will/would die, before he comes out.

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  3. Mary Daly in Beyond God the Father believes the wearing of women's clothes by male clergy - tells women you will never be a good as we are - as baptism is now the real birth - real birth by women is stripped of power by the church

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  4. JCF, I get the reference.

    The subject of Lapin's email was "Walking granny". I didn't say it. Lapin did. I've read that the red shoes are not Prada but are rather fashioned by the pope's personal cobbler.

    Ann, I go along with Daly about the clothing, which is based on Roman temple garments, or so I've heard, but I don't understand how baptism as spiritual birth diminishes women actually giving birth.

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  5. According to Dom Gregory Dix, the alb was the normal attire for both men & women in Roman Late Antiquity & the Chasuble the poncho like cloak that both wore outdoors -- he references a mosaic (I have seen the engraved reproduction) of Pope Gregory the Great with his parents -- all are dressed the same in alb & chasuble (although his mother is wearing a sort of turban or Phrygian cap which Dom Gregory speculates might have been the precursor of the miter).
    Which is not to say that there are not a lot of gays in the Roman clergy (which is not the same as pedophiles -- I know everyone here already knows this).

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  6. These priests and their frocks.

    I wouldn't mind having a personal cobbler. Is it having a personal cobbler that makes Benedict feel it's okay to talk a load of old cobblers?

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  7. Hi Prior Aelred! Thanks for weighing in with Dom Gregory's wisdom.

    Which is not to say that there are not a lot of gays in the Roman clergy (which is not the same as pedophiles -- I know everyone here already knows this).

    Thanks for the reminder. ;-)

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  8. Lapin, the entire article is well worth reading. It sums up well the state of the RCC today. What is the hierarchy thinking?

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  9. Mimi...

    Th hierarchy isn't thinking and when did they ever think.

    They toe the line from on high.

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  10. ...when did they ever think.

    Gerry, too true.

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