Saturday, January 22, 2011

Pope Benedict's Only Official Portrait Has A Big Problem

CNS has a nice feature on Pope Benedict one and only official portrait.

However as is pointed out on this page commenting on this story there is problem.:

IT'S BEEN ALMOST SIX YEARS: TIME TO CHANGE THE POPE'S 'OFFICIAL' PORTRAIT!

Here's an interesting sidelight about what turns out to be Benedict XVI's one and only 'official portrait' - Most interesting, except that no one at the Vatican seems to have considered that it has one obvious 'flaw' as an official portrait of the Pope - he is still wearing his cardinal's ring. As we learn in the story below, it was taken the day after his election, and he did not get to wear the Fisherman's Ring until the Mass that formally inaugurated his Petrine ministry.

One would think the brilliant brains at the Secretariat of State who made this initial choice would have recognized their mistake soon afterwards and chosen a picture where the Pope already wears the Fisherman's Ring! But no, they obviously went ahead and ordered hundreds, perhaps thousands, of copies to be sent everywhere around the world without waiting one week until he got the Fisherman's Ring.

It will be almost six years since then, and it's high time they replaced the portrait which is displayed in all the Nunciatures in the world - as well as most dioceses and parishes, for all we know!

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