18th Sunday after Pentecost at Savannah's Cathedral of Saint John the Baptist. The youngest altar boy is an Italian who speaks impeccable Italian and told me in Italian after Mass that Latin is like Italian.
In fact when I was growing up I thought the Mass was in Italian!
In fact when I was growing up I thought the Mass was in Italian!
5 comments:
Yes, you should change to a Benelli. So what is wrong with the biretta? In fact, you should also wear a saturno in the sunny Savana. You can call it a cappella romano if that suits your Italian sensibilities.
Yes, they do make a straw version of the saturno for warmer climes and seasons.
As to keeping hair neat, when I was a little boy, my parents put Vitalis hair tonic on my hair and parted and combed it for me. I continued this (at least when dressed up for church, etc.) until about age 14, when I changed to men's hair spray. I still use it to keep my remaining gray hair in place. I like to wear fedora hats, both felt and straw, depending on the season and temperature.
I like the biretta, it covers the bald spots! What a darling young boy. I was in Italy in 1974 and attended Mass at the Gesu. The Mass was in Italian and it struck me that what was the point of using the vernacular in Italy when to the untrained ear you would have thought you were hearing Mass in Latin?
When the National Workshop on Christian Unity was held in Oklahoma City a few years ago, I was able to meet again Paul Coakley who had been two year ahead of me in seminary. He was, by then, archbishop, having been made a bishop in Salina, KS, when he was 49, and archbishop in OKC when he was 55.
The "putting on" and "taking off" of the miter over a zucchetto can be problematic for some. When donning the miter the skull cap can be pushed down to the nape of the neck. Or when removing the miter, the skull cap can travel along with it, not infrequently requiring a quick catch and replacement.
I noticed that Paul had developed a very clever and almost undetectable maneuver that kept the zucchetto in place. Reaching up with two hands to remove the miter, the forefinger of his left hand was used to hold the skull cap in place while, with the right hand, the miter was removed. Worked like a charm every time. I congratulated him on his ingenuity.
See? It can be done.
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