Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Papal Court of 1967

Gloria TV recently put up this video of the Palm Sunday Liturgy of 1967 in the Sistine Chapel. It shows a glimpse of the Papal Court before it was hit by a tsunami of radical change. What is so striking is the age of the participants.

4 comments:

old believer said...

It would have been interesting to see the same ceremonies fifteen or so years earlier before some of the changes to prelatial dress etc. started to be rolled out.

The age of the participants is very striking as Fr. Ray comments. It almost has the appearance of some sort of retirement home for clergy which, in a sense, it was a younger Cardinals would have been Metropolitans and Archbishops of Dioceses.

Unknown said...

I hope everyone has noticed the wonderful presence of Enrico Cardinal Dante (apparently a few months before his death). My all time hero. A most wondeful Papal MC. It is a marvel to see recordings of, say, the Coronation of Blessed John XXIII, and his admirable ability to control either proximately or remotely the whole glory of the Papal Court and Chapel in the nost intricate of ceremonies, as if calmly directing the traffic in the Piazza Venezia (well, it is Italy after all!). I believe that, sadly, the Piazza is now pedestrianised, rather like the Liturgy. The good Cardonal died just in time. RIP
Fr Christopher Back

Michael Noel said...

Did you see the interesting thread that resulted from posting this dvd on the NLM website? Several were intrigued by the age of the cardinals and functionaries present. Given the period when the film was made, c1967 seems the favoured date, I have a sneaking feeling that the concentration on the old men, rather than the ceremonies, might have been a deliberate ploy to push for a younger hierarchy. After all, the Church in France at that time was one of the most progressive in Europe. Beautiful though the film is, it suggeste decay to me and the need for change. A sense of gloom predominates. Wasn't the papal court dissolved in the following year?

Edward P. Walton said...

Did you notice His Beatitude Josyf Cardinal Slipyi, Patriarch of the Ukrainian Catholic Church?

He survived years of hard labor in a Siberian Gulag. He died in 1984.

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