Creating Cardinals

I was interested to read this piece on Zenit:

VATICAN CITY, JAN. 10, 2012 (Zenit.org).- When those to be made cardinals gather for the consistory on Feb. 18, the ceremony will be different than it has been in recent decades.

The Vatican announced that there will be a number of changes in the rite, which was last modified in the post-Vatican II changes to the liturgy.

Pope Benedict XVI confers the red biretta on Archbishop Dziwisz of Cracow

Image: 30giorni.it

According to the Office of Liturgical Celebrations of the Supreme Pontiff the rite will be simpler, in part to avoid the impression that the ceremony of creating cardinals has any kind of sacramental meaning.

Instead of having the consistory and then the following day a Mass celebrated by the Pope in which he consigns a ring to each new cardinal, there will be just one ceremony in which the traditional three elements -- the imposition of the biretta, the consignment of the ring and the assignation of their titular churches -- will take place.

As well, both the collect and the concluding prayer have been modified, returning to the texts used prior to Vatican II: The two prayers speak of the powers the Lord gave to the Church, in particular that of Peter. The Pope also prays directly for himself, that he may carry out his duties well.

Insofar as the Scripture texts used, there will only be a Gospel reading, omitting the first reading. The Gospel text used will be that of Mark 10: 32-45, in which Jesus announces his death and subsequent resurrection to the disciples and also tells them they must not seek to dominate others, but to be servants to all.

The following day the new cardinals will still concelebrate Mass with the Pope.

This appears to be a conservative reform in that it makes the nature of the elevation clear, and the return to the previous Collects is consistent with a return to a traditional understanding of the event and the Papal and cardinalate ministry. This would appear welcome, and very much in the mainstream of the Benedictine reforms.

What would be more welcome still would be a return to the full traditional ceremonial and the full attributes of the dignity of a Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church. So not just the red biretta, first given by Pope Paul II (1464-71) - and hence its earlier form than that of lesser ranking clergy - but also of the more ancient galero, and instead of its use merely in heraldry and on notepaper, but its official reception and use at the proper times.

Not that some Cardinals at least do not acquire the symbols of their rank:

Cardinal Burke - a recent photograph

Image: Renegade Trad blog

In All Hats Are Silly , which has some rather fine illustrations, the author from Renegade Trad makes good points about the haphazard way in which senior figures wear one item and not another. Like the author, if I read him or her aright, I would be a wholehearted favourer of tradional usage - if you are going to do something, do it properly.

Bring back the galero - now!

Cardinal Wolsey's red hat

Today being St Cecilia's day reminds me that Cardinal Wolsey's titular church in Rome was that of Sta Cecilia in Trastevere.

Here in Oxford in his foundation which eventually became Christ Church is what is said to be his Cardinal's hat or galero, which he received in 1515 from Pope Leo X. The hat was carried in solemn procession through London on November 15th that year and on November 18th Wolsey received it from the hands of the Archbishops of Canterbury, Armagh and Dublin at the conclusion of Mass in Westminster abbey. The scene is depicted in a rather florid nineteenth century painting reproduced on the cover of Schofield and Skinner' s excellent The English Cardinals (2007) :

Image:romanmiscellany.blogspot

The hat now at Christ Church was found in the Great Wardrobe in London by Bishop Burnet in 1710 and eventually passed into the hands of Horace Walpole. From his collection it passed to taht of Charles Kean and in 1898 it was given to Christ Church and is kept in a specially made case in the Library - which is not open to visitors. Expert opinion considers the rabbit fur fabric and silk as well as the design to be of the early sixteenth century. The hat is missing its cords and tassels, but the holes for them can clearly be seen.

If it is actually Wolsey's hat one wonders whose hands it passed through after his arrest and death in November 1530 - did it at one point rest over his grave in Leicester abbey before it was dissolved, or was it left at Cawood when he was arrested?

The Frith logo will not appear on your prints (except for genealogy prints).

The logo in this photo is for online copy-protection only.
Also note, this is a content sample only. It does not represent the guaranteed superb quality of Frith photo prints.

This photo has not yet been digitally restored by Frith archivists. It will be restored before any prints are made from the photo.

Close this message

Christ Church Library, Cardinal Wolsey's Hat 1912, Oxford

Image:Francis Frith Ref: 64075

The college does not make much of this link with its founder, and this photograph from 1912 was the only one I could find online.

However the hat was lent on display to New Haven in 2010 to the Paul Mellon Center for British Art at Yale's exhibition on Horace Walpole at Strawberry Hill. There is an article, complete with illustrations of the hat, by the Curator of the Christ Church Picture Gallery in Christ Church Matters 2010 about transporting the hat to the USA and entitled The travels of a hat.