Today's consistory

This morning saw the public consistory in St Peter's basilica at which Pope Benedict created 23 new cardinals. Here are some photos from Fotografia Felici, gathered by the ever-reliable collectors of papal photographs at the Papa Ratzinger Forum. First, an overview of the "assembly."

I wonder if they are singing a "Gathering Song"? You could try setting something like "Ree-ed hat of love/Giv'n to us for WIT-ness" - OK, perhaps not.

Here is a shot in which you can see the mitre which belonged to Pope Pius IX, and the cope, with 16th century orphrey, last worn by Pope Paul VI:

And here is the throne used for today's ceremony (I think I read that it was from the time of Pope Leo XIII):

It could be said that all of these items have been seen in the relatively recent past so there is nothing essentially new going on here. I'm not so sure and would agree with Zadok the Roman who suggests in his excellent post Consistory Notes that this is Mgr Marini making his mark in terms of the style of celebration. The Curt Jester puts it bluntly with his amusing juxtaposition of two photographs: Liturgical Jeckyll and Hyde or Bishop Marini and Mons. Marini.

Fr Z has a list of the Roman Titles of the new Cardinals.

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