Liturgical Jeckyll and Hyde or Bishop Marini and Mons. Marini
Before - with Bishop Piero Marini
After - with Monsignor Guido Marini.
VATICAN CITY - Pope Benedict XVI elevated 23 churchmen from around the world to the top ranks of the Catholic Church hierarchy Saturday, telling them they must be willing to shed their blood to spread the Christian faith.
Wearing resplendent golden robes and a 19th century gilded bishop's hat once worn by Pope Pius IX, Benedict presided over his second consistory, bringing to 120 the ranks of cardinals who will eventually choose his successor.
Known as 
Deo Gratias!
I'm no expert on liturgy, but that doesn't stop me from having opinions and I like the "new (old) look."
I can understand why the Pope might not like to have face to face confrontations with an archbishop. I assume he didn't like the "old (new) look" either.
Why didn't he just assign someone (Msgr Ganswein?) to order Abp Marini to cease and desist with the flashy modern vestments (and liturgies)?
Or, as often seems to be the case with the Curia, were there dozens of Marini allies in the Vatican that had to be taken care of first?
The Holy father looks great, he has done so much for the faith in his short but glorious tenure, much more than Pope JPII ever did as actions speak louder than words.
God bless him
Dear Pope Benedict,
Thank you for finally declaring the 60's over.
Lighten up, folks. I assume many of the more wacky vestments are gifts, or have many fans, and at the very least are the work of Catholic vestment makers whose work deserves at least a wearing. There's no harm in the Holy Father's wearing them from time to time, if only to make us more grateful for when he doesn't.
Of course the other one is better. But what is that mandarin hat Monsignior Guido Marini is wearing? It frightens me!
-But what is that mandarin hat Monsignior Guido Marini is wearing?-
Didn't Marilyn Quayle wear a hat just like that?
That's actually not the Monsignor, but Mar Emmanuel III. Delly, Patriarch of Babylon, head of the Chaldean-Catholic Church (=most of the much-suffering Christians in Iraq). So it's not "Latin" tenure.
Gall is right, the first one is a gift made by some Austrian artist. When pope goes somewhere abroad for a trip (or better said he accepts an invitation), the hosts do prepare everything, also the vestments. It's unpolite to refuse gifts just because they don't fit your aesthetical expectations or ...? Anyway I never saw pope dressed like that in Vatican (in the "vestments" style from the first pic.)
Well said, sldousek. I know first hand that THE POPE did NOT like the chasuble set out FOR HIM at WYD in Cologne (it was too big), and so HE decided that HE would not wear it (and HE chose one that Archbishop Marini had brought from Rome, specifically in case such a thing happened).
So if THE POPE did not want to wear the blue vestments in Austria, it's pretty obvious the HE would have refused, and it's preposterous to think that HE would have humbly submitted to the "demands" of the Papal MC that HE wear something HE didn't want to!
Rush Limbaugh often speaks of BUSH DERANGEMENT SYNDROME. It's amazing how many Church Queens have MARINI DERANGEMENT SYNDROME.
Get a life, girls. Turn off EWTN for a change and watch the Patriots - Eagles game tonight.
Albertusminor,
I appreciate beautiful vestments (afterall, God IS Beauty), AND I'll be watching my Pats tonight.
Problem solved.
The next thing that would be nice to see is the retirement of the pastoral staff inaugerated in the reign of Paul VI and the return of the real bishop's crozier -- after all, Benedict is the bishop of Rome. Bishop's use croziers -- like shepherds. There must be about 500 stored in the sacristy. I'm sure any would be more appealing and more appropriate to the office.
Aw, I was just thinking, "Cool red hat!"
OUR Pats, Thomas . . . but what happened to that 24-point favorite thing - and, on the other side, what must Donovan McNabb be thinking, the day after (his birthday AND that game)!!!???
Ah, to the question as to why the Pope just didn't replace Archbishop Marini with the likes of Msgr Ganswein, it is because the former was completing a 5 year stint in the job. He actually had completed 4 of those, starting in 1987, so had the job for 20 years.
Pope Benedict inherited him, but when this 5 years were up, he replaced the archbishop, with the younger and more traditional Msgr Guido Marini, a protege of the late Cardinal Giuseppe Siri of Genoa.
To bad so much time is wasted on liturgical vesture,
small liturgical matters and the like. The Church from bishops to priests to parishes really need to start addressing the circumstances of modern people or it is going to become more and more irrelevant. Plunging mass attendance figures should move everyone into the highest gear, but instead we have people rearranging deck chairs...
I don't know how anyone could claim that in a year, Pope Benedict has done more than Pope John Paul the Great did in his tenure. John Paul II did more to bring the faith to the young of the world, like myself, than anyone could have ever imagined.
Because of the work of the Polish Pope, the Church is young again. The Church thrives in ways that it never has before.
Pope Benedict is an exceptionally holy and blessed man, and surely qualified to be in the seat of Peter, but such a comparison this early on isn't fair to him or to John Paul II.
I grew up in the 30s and 40s and really dont like the Traditional Robes,do you? All these young seminarians and young priests will have to study Latin. Priests around 65 dont know Latin as well.
Never learned it in the seminary.
POPE BENEDICT.. DID YOU MAKE A MISTAKE...
SHOULD NEVER HAVE TAKEN AB PIERO MARINI OUT OF HIS POSITION. HE WAS SO DEVOTED TO HIS JOB.
GOD BLESS HIM.