In the thick of the solemn majesty, three coffins steal the moment during a given papal burial rites. Mother church during papal burial performs what is termed as the "The Ritual of Three Coffins". For non-Catholics, it is too mysterious a tradition, and for some Catholics, the process is yet to be understood. Here's just a little trip with you into one of the rich traditions of the Church this Catechetical Season shedding light on the ritual surrounding a papal burial. After the death of a Pope is confirmed by the Papal Chamberlain , (the one in charge after the Pope’s death), several rituals take place before and after the burial of the Pope. Usually, the Pope’s actual internment takes place between the fourth and sixth day after his death. This begins a nine-day period of mourning. The burial follows a funeral Mass, presided over by the Dean of the College of Cardinals. When it comes to the actual burial, the pope is entombed in three different coffins, a ri...
Why the pope wears red shoes and why Pope Francis decided not to wear them?. Perhaps many recall Pope John Paul II with his red shoes or wonder why Pope Francis doesn’t wear them. But did you know that these shoes are as ancient as the Church itself? Or that they have a highly significant meaning? Before starting with history, we have to clarify that most popes wore three types of shoes: red silk shoes for inside the Vatican, episcopal sandals to celebrate Mass (until 1969) according to the liturgical colors, and red leather shoes for outside. It is the latter shoes that we’re talking about today. Red shoes are associated with power, and not only within the Church. Pre-Roman Etruscan kings wore them as a symbol of status, because the red (which they called “royal purple”) was a costly dye obtained from rare sea snails. The Roman emperors continued with the tradition of red shoes indicating high status. The great aristocrats also wore them. Shutterstock-jorisvo ...
When he was a cardinal, Pope Benedict said Freemasonry is the greatest danger to the Church The conversation happened 'a few years before he became pope.' D r. Robert Moynihan, the editor-in-chief of the Catholic journal Inside the Vatican , revealed on April 23 that he once had a conversation with then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (who later became Pope Benedict XVI) about the “greatest danger to the Church,” and he recounts that Ratzinger said: “It is Freemasonry.” These words have a special importance in light of Pope Benedict's recent words about the “world-wide dictatorship of seemingly humanistic ideologies” that are fostering a “fear of the spiritual power of the Anti-Christ.” Let us first consider here Moynihan's own full report on that memorable conversation. “I recall a conversation that I had with then Cardinal Ratzinger a few years before he became pope,” Moynihan writes on his website. “We were in his apartment, not far from S...
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