Pope Francis Holds A Cross During A Meeting With Cardinals
Abstracted image, abstract faith. It is impossible to preach the Cross and Him Crucified and convert anyone using such a Cross.
More recently, the Pope has taken to carrying a new Ferula.
The type of image on the ferula is symptomatic of the Paschal Mystery theology of Odo Casel, which believes that Redemption was not wrought on the Cross but during the whole Pascal Mystery (analogous to the whole canon being consecratory rather than the words of consecration). Pascal Mystery theology itself was derived from his belief, for anti-semitic reasons, that the liturgy does not derive from the Temple sacrifice but from Greek myth. These crosses became popular in the 70s and were approved by Rome providing they had wounds. This one does not- which can so easily lead to a fideism detached from history.
"One would be straying from the straight path were he to wish the altar restored to its primitive table form; were he to want black excluded as a color for the liturgical vestments; were he to forbid the use of sacred images and statues in Churches; were he to order the crucifix so designed that the divine Redeemer's body shows no trace of His cruel sufferings..."
- Pope Pius XII, Mediator Dei § 62
Abstracted image, abstract faith. It is impossible to preach the Cross and Him Crucified and convert anyone using such a Cross.
More recently, the Pope has taken to carrying a new Ferula.
The type of image on the ferula is symptomatic of the Paschal Mystery theology of Odo Casel, which believes that Redemption was not wrought on the Cross but during the whole Pascal Mystery (analogous to the whole canon being consecratory rather than the words of consecration). Pascal Mystery theology itself was derived from his belief, for anti-semitic reasons, that the liturgy does not derive from the Temple sacrifice but from Greek myth. These crosses became popular in the 70s and were approved by Rome providing they had wounds. This one does not- which can so easily lead to a fideism detached from history.
"One would be straying from the straight path were he to wish the altar restored to its primitive table form; were he to want black excluded as a color for the liturgical vestments; were he to forbid the use of sacred images and statues in Churches; were he to order the crucifix so designed that the divine Redeemer's body shows no trace of His cruel sufferings..."
- Pope Pius XII, Mediator Dei § 62
_-_WGA18406.jpg)
