Pope Francis puts on a medallion with an icon of the Virgin Mary and child given to him by Coptic Orthodox Church of Egypt’s Pope Tawadros II when they exchanged gifts during their private audience in the pontiff’s library, at the Vatican, Friday, May 10, 2013. (AP Photo/Andreas Solaro, pool)
It is never just a symbol. It is never merely a story. It is never only a ritual…
Receive a gift – put it on.
Wash feet.
Take the bus.
It makes a difference.
We saw what happened when an American couple wanted to give Pope Francis a new zucchetto. Cardinal Donald Wuerl, Archbishop of Washington, DC, tells them, “You can’t do that.” The Pope has other ideas.
This might start a veritable Vatican meme:
I was in Seattle attending seminary when Wuerl was an auxillary bishop in the Archdiocese of Seattle. I have nothing that I can say good about the man! He unfortunately is also a symbol.
Are you saying that what the pope is doing is correct or incorrect?
You are very welcome to comment here “GB”, but please use your ordinary name here. The “correctness” of some of the pope’s actions is another thread, and debating whether they are correct, I suggested, might be better discussed on other blog sites devoted to such things. For this post it is sufficient to notice Pope Francis is doing things differently – and the impact that has, and relating that to the power of symbols, etc. Blessings.
Ahh I see, I was just trying to figure out the tone you were writing in. Thanks for explaining it.
Very interesting point, Gordon. I must work on a blog post about the difficulty of interpreting tone on the internet. Did you think I was being critical of Pope Francis? Blessings.
The line:
It is never just a symbol. It is never merely a story. It is never only a ritual…
was confusing to me. It wasn’t overtly criticising but I couldn’t place the tone. Plus I’m new to watching the pope’s actions and I think it’s great he is doing things differently. Thanks to people like you I can understand what his actions mean.
Grace and Peace 🙂
Thanks, Gordon. And blessings.
How sweet it is! :-*