UPDATE #2: It's not just me!!!
YESSSSSS!!!!!! Sehr Schon, Papa!
(The New York Times is good for something, anyway - ed.)
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6 comments:
I love his shoes. Really spices up his personality and makes him seem very approachable.
Love them!
OH MY GOSH!!! I was discussing this with my hairdresser today, and she laughed at me for being a fellow shoe freak...and then told me an adage she learned from her grandma: "Red shoes are for little children and hookers...and now Popes, apparently!" Of course, that cracked me up, but the more I thought about it, "and Popes" made a lot of sense. Christ loved little children, and showed great compassion and love for a...well...woman of dubious emplyment background who hailed from Magdala. I rocked her Presbyterian world with that one!
but why are they red? is there some meaning to it?
Yes, apparently it is adopted from the old tradition of the Popes wearing red. (As you know, the Pontiff is actually the Bishop of Rome, and wearing red is the sign of one being a bishop/cardinal, so all red was the ultimate statement, non?)
When Pope Pius the [5th or so?] was elected, he wore white, as he was a Dominican, and that's the color of their habit. That tradition stuck - white being a sign of purity and light, it certainly makes sense, and then you have the white and gold flag of the Holy See, of course.
But our Benedict XVI, being the quiet, brilliant, traditional scholar that he is, seems to have adopted the red shoes as a sign of respect, tradition, and linking of the current-day Pontificate to past ages. He's just awesome. And I think his visit changed a lot of misperceptions of his being a cold, mean, hardliner. He sure seemed genuinely happy and touched by his reception here, his addresses and homilies were both laser-sharp, spot-on, and yet fundamental and easy to understand. I think his detractors expected some sort of lofty uber-intellectual condescending cranky old guy with that slightly sinister German edge. Sorry to disappoint 'em, but I think this visit was beautifully and masterfully carried off.
I heard he also picked them to indicate martyrhood, but don't know this for certain.
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