Sedia Gestatoria comeback?
J P Sonnen at Orbis Catholicus suggests that the Sedia Gestatoria may be coming back. It was last used for Pope John Paul I; Pope John Paul II preferred to walk around. He was thus much closer to the people who were in the front row at the General Audience but, as J P Sonnen points out, could not be seen by most of the other people.
It would have been difficult to reinstate the Sedia Gestatoria before now because of the inevitable outcry about "going back". I think that the mood has now changed in the Church. Most Catholics nowadays don't automatically presume that things from the past are baaaad just because they are from the past; Summorum Pontificum has seen to that.
There would certainly be spiteful comments from some secularists and liberal Catholics about the Pope being given too much respect but I think that ordinary Catholics would quite like to see the Sedia Gestatoria back again: someone should start up a Facebook Group... Come to that, I'm sure that many people would love to see the flabelli brought back - the large fans with the ostrich feathers as seen in this photo:
It would have been difficult to reinstate the Sedia Gestatoria before now because of the inevitable outcry about "going back". I think that the mood has now changed in the Church. Most Catholics nowadays don't automatically presume that things from the past are baaaad just because they are from the past; Summorum Pontificum has seen to that.
There would certainly be spiteful comments from some secularists and liberal Catholics about the Pope being given too much respect but I think that ordinary Catholics would quite like to see the Sedia Gestatoria back again: someone should start up a Facebook Group... Come to that, I'm sure that many people would love to see the flabelli brought back - the large fans with the ostrich feathers as seen in this photo: