Extraordinary Form of the Roman Pontiff

Mitre, belonging to Pope Pius IX


Cope, with elements from 15th century vestments


Throne, belonging to Pope Leo XIII


Effect, timeless.

I think Pope Benedict's hermeneutic of continuity had moved to include sartorial continuity as well and emphasizes the part that truly noble vestments play in re-orienting the liturgy. Not only the Mass that our forefathers regarded as sacred but the vestments they celebrated those sacred mysteries in as well cannot be discarded.

With the Tridentine Mass now dubbed the Extraordinary Form of the Mass, are we in fact now seeing the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Pontiff? =)

Kudos to Msgr. Marini (Guido, not the other one) on his excellent taste. I caught the consistory and the Mass on EWTN and I have to admit that the flow was a little shaky at times. For example, there was a delay in Cardinal Patriarch Delly's reading of the Roman Canon in the concelebration as his part was not pointed out to him.

Papa Ratzi himself raised an eye. But Cardinal Delly has superb Latin pronunciation. Very very Roman, compared to Cardinal Foley's very Americanized Latin. I laughed out loud!

Cardinal Patriach Emmanuel III Delly is the prelate on the extreme left wearing vestments proper to the Chaldean Rite as canon law dictates when celebrating a Rite that is not one's own.

But I'm sure all of us are willing, more than willing to overlook whatever faults and teething problems the new Papal MC has in his new job in exchange for his adherence to Catholic tradition.



It is as it was ... and should be.

The Cardinal Deacons are back, in dalmatics. One of them being traddie Darío Cardinal Castrillón Hoyos, Protodeacon of the College of Cardinals.



Note that the Altar Cross is oriented towards the celebrant, even when the says Mass facing the people. And they even got the altar candlesticks correct as the old rubrics state that the candles should gradually slope upwards towards the Crucifix. Most of us simply trim the candles but this set has candlesticks of varying heights.


Long live the Pope and long live Msgr. Guido Marini and may his tribe increase.

Photographs with watermarks are from FotografiaFelici while the others were sourced from Yahoo News.