Smockmomma at Summa Mamas has the best caption for this photo "there’s no place like rome, there’s no place like rome" Her title doesn’t say it three times and possibly like me doesn’t want him clicking those shoes together three times. I want him to stick around for a bit. Papabile now blogging at Romanitas has some background information about the red shoes. Fr. Tucker also has some interesting questions about Pope Benedict’s Pallium.
Though the red shoes do beg the question about where he got them. Did the papal apartment land on some wicked witch somewhere? (Insert your own Sister Chittister joke here) Maybe though the Wizard of Oz comparison can be illustrative about Pope Benedict XVI. Like the Wizard of Oz the media has built a false and terrifying image of then Cardinal Ratzinger that was meant to scare people with his power. "Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain" is what the media has tried to do. Though in this case it was them that put the false curtain around him in the first place.
You could hear them chanting "Ratzinger head of the CDF, oh my" The media has built up a straw man, only in this case it is them that have been lacking in brains. With all of the Wizard of Oz comparisons could his motto be Toto Tuus?
16 comments
Or Toto Tuo?
“Insert your own Sister Chittister joke here.”
That was naughty.
I loved it!!!!
I collected a few more sources on the papal shoes here ( http://cnytr.blogspot.com/2005/04/ruby-slippers.html ).
(Also, “Toto tuus”? *groan* ;))
I switched back to CBS after a brief dose of ABC’s editorializing… but I winced when Roberts and Robichaud kept calling the pallium “the pallia”.
Actually, the first thing that caught my attention in this picture wasn’t the shoes, but the hair– someone managed to cut or style or something his hair down to a more appropriate proportion to his papal beanie (the official name of which escapes me at the moment…)
Toto Tuus! That’s great.
We’re off to see the wizard!
Follow the new road to Rome!
That’s “zuchetto”
The wizard said to the tin man, “Remember my friend, love is not measured by how much you love, but by how much you are loved by others.”
Looks like he’s been stomping on too many dissidents in his lifetime…
Nate
The Pope always wears red shoes at official functions. When Pope John Paul II came, I was suprised and a good friend (a priest) said popes always wear red shoes – part of their outfit. Wish I had my cute shoes picked out for me!
Come to think of it…I saw Sr. Joan on TV recently and she did look a bit on the greenish side. I can imagine her the reacting to “Habemus Papam…” announcement with, “I’m melting…”
The red shoes went with his cardinal regalia, silly. He’s a thrifty, practical German, and if he only bought them recently he’d naturally want to keep using them.
really chic shoes, papa ben.
I guess he knows he’s not in Kansas anymore.
More photos of the papal red shoes can be found at
http://www.thepopesfanclub.com
Hope this helps and God bless.
Yes! It is papal protocol to wear red shoes at formal functions, although B16’s are a particularly “loud” scarlet, and they have a bit of that 70’s “Stayin Alive” disco look. Check out the http://www.vatican.va site under JPII’s “Travels” section and you’ll see him hiking in his Reeboks. I love my popes… but I’m really glad a uniform comes with the job!