There sure is a lot of attention paid to Pope Benedict's clothes, shoes and hats. He certainly wears much fancier threads than JP II did, and people notice when you wear red leather Prada shoes. Whispers in the Loggia fears for what NYT's Robin Givhans will write when the Pope visits next week. Interesting discussion there (for some of us, anyway) of Gothic versus Roman garb. Father Steve offers this explanation from a Father Longnecker:
"Why does Benedict XVI wear all the old fancy gear? Does he just like dressing up? Does he like to display the power and pomp of his office? In fact, it is all part of his commitment to what he calls 'the hermeneutic of continuity' that is to say, that the Church today is built on the past, and what we do today, liturgically, pastorally, politically, spiritually, is empowered and enabled by our faithfulness to the past. This is not to turn the clock back. The Pope is not one of these arch traditionalists who want to return to the 1950s. Instead he believes that the past rightly informs the present, and that there must be a continuity in the tradition so that the faith that we have received from the apostles can continue to thrive. So, in wearing vestments and using a crozier from three earlier popes Benedict XVI makes visual the continuity of his office and the continuity of his teaching."
That sounds about right.
The Pope's "Message to the American People" available here.
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