In one of his last major public appearances before his death, Pope Paul VI sat on a throne atop a platform carried on the shoulders of 12 men as he was brought into the funeral of assassinated Italian politician Aldo Moro at St. John Lateran Cathedral in 1978.
The basilica was crammed with Italian dignitaries shaken by the death of Moro at the hands of the Red Brigades terrorist gang, and I thought the frail pope looked uncomfortable as he was held aloft.
It was already an awkward situation for him.
He was under fire from the family who thought he didn’t do enough to save Moro despite making a public plea “on my knees” for his freedom.
The royal trappings earned him no points.
During his 15-year pontificate, Paul had sought to modernize the Vatican, including getting rid of scores of Italian nobles from the papal “court” who had privileges dating back centuries, but he never did away with the portable ceremonial throne that was used by popes for special occasions for at least a millennium.
Change comes slowly, hesitantly and inconsistently at the Vatican.
Upon Paul‘s death that August, the Venetian cardinal who succeeded him, Pope John I, declined to use the throne at his installation, also eschewing the papal tiara.
But the new pope was later persuaded by advisers that he needed to be seen above the crowds. And in subsequent events he used the “sedia gestatoria,” as the throne is called.
It took the athletic 58-year-old Pope John Paul II to definitively get rid of the throne when he took over from John Paul I, who died after only 33 days as pope.
Watching Pope Francis in his first papal appearances, he, too, doesn’t look the type to be carried around on a fancy chair. After all, he used to take the bus to work as a cardinal back in Buenos Aires, and he declined the chauffeur-driven Vatican limousine when he made his first outing, using a simple Vatican car.
Until John Paul II, popes used what is known as the “royal we.” They never spoke publicly in the first person, using “Noi” …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News