Monday 13 April 2009

Uplifting?

Archbishop Vincent Nichols is to be “installed” (as for some reason his enthronement is being termed) as Archbishop of Westminster on Ascension Day. The real one. Forty days after Easter. And therefore on a Thursday, not a Sunday. Dare we hope…?

4 comments:

  1. Surely he is just following the example of Pope John Paul I, John Paul 2 and Pope Beedict.
    As I understand it, none of these have been "crowned".
    I cannot imagine a future Pope turning back the clock.
    As I understand it our current Pope has rather wisely set a precedent of dispensing with the tiara in his coat of arms.
    Cardinal O'Fiach would have been proud :)

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  2. They no longer have a crown. Whereas he does still have a throne, and will indeed be put in it on Ascension Day.

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  3. Even in the early 1960s when I was an altar boy , the bishops "Chair" was referred to as the "Bishops Chair".
    I suppose a different tradition.

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  4. In fact, 'cathedra' does simply mean "chair", and corresponds to a professorial chair, because the Episcopate is above all a teaching office.

    But they have been fashioned as thrones for a very long time, and the one in Westminster Cathedral certianly is. They are even called "thrones" liturgically.

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