Missing Crozier

Have you seen this crozier?

From the Gallup Independent:

Officials with the Roman Catholic Diocese of Gallup are asking for the public’s help in the return of a historical ceremonial item that was stolen in Gallup earlier this week.


A gold-plated crosier — a pastoral staff that symbolizes the governing office of a bishop — was apparently stolen from an unlocked pickup owned by one of Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted’s assistants sometime between Sunday and Wednesday evening, according to Lee Lamb, the communications director for the diocese.


On Thursday, Lamb released information about the theft with the expressed hope that publicity would result in the crosier’s return or recovery. The crosier is about 6 feet in length and is decorated with gold-plating and jewels, which Lamb believes are glass stones. The metal crosier, which resembles a shepherd’s staff with an ornate spiral crook, is very heavy and can be dismantled into several smaller sections for storage in a black carrying case. The crosier was taken in its case.


Lamb said he didn’t know the actual value of the crosier but estimated it would cost the diocese between $3,000 and $5,000 to replace it. However, its greater value may be rooted in it its history.


“Bishop Olmsted’s crosier dates back to 1940 when Pope Pius XII named Fr. Bernard T. Espelage, OFM, the Diocese of Gallup’s first bishop,” Lamb said in an e-mail....

Deacon or Cardinal?

I was looking through some pictures from the Mass of the Rings and I came across two very interesting pictures. It seems that the two "deacons" at the Mass were wearing red zuchettos and miters.

I am guessing that they were not deacons, but were serving as deacons. Who are they? I also don't recall this being allowed. Going to check the GIRM now.

Anyway, click here for the pictures.

Gives a new meaning to Cardinal-Deacon.

Update: I have checked this out and cardinal-deacons do wear the dalmatic at pontifical events. How did I miss this before?

Archbishop Lipscomb Gets New Pallium

From the Press Register:

Mobile Catholic Archbishop Oscar H. Lipscomb said he received a new pallium Thursday night from the Vatican to replace the one stolen from his car on Christmas Eve.

The pallium was taken from Lipscomb's Mercedes about 6:30 p.m. Christmas Eve in front of a home on Spring Bank Road in Mobile's Spring Hill neighborhood. Several other religious items also were stolen.

Lipscomb said he had planned to petition church officials in the Vatican for a new pallium while he was there for work next month. A pallium, worn around the neck, chest and shoulders, is a white, woolen circular band, 2 inches wide, ornamented with six small black crosses and weighted pendants in the front and back, according to the Maryknoll Catholic Dictionary.

Lipscomb said he returned from Montgomery on Thursday night to find a packet sent to him by the pope's representative in Washington, D.C., who had apparently asked the Vatican for the new pallium.

"I didn't even have to ask for one," Lipscomb said Friday.

Two of the items stolen from his car, a pectoral cross and his crosier, or ceremonial shepherd's staff, have been recovered by two separate thrift store shoppers.

Both items were found at America's Thrift Stores at 312 Schillinger Road in west Mobile near Airport Boulevard. The pectoral cross was bought for $6, the crosier for $10.96.

My advice to all thrift shop managers: the average Catholic does not have a crozier in his house. Now, where is that pallium?

Archbishop Cremona and the Papal Alb

Archbishop-elect Paul Cremona will be ordained a bishop on January 26th. At his ordination, he may be wearing a very interesting alb.

From Malta Star:

Archbishop-elect, Mgr Paul Cremona’s life long devotion and admiration for the pope of his childhood, Blessed John XXIII (Angelo Roncalli), has led to him being informed that he will be presented with the late pope’s alb for his Episcopal ordination later this month. maltastar.com is informed that the alb will then be kept at the Cathedral museum in Mdina.

The idea of having a memento of the man known as “Il Papa buono”, the good Pope, is the brainchild of Franciscan friar, Fr Anton Farrugia OFM. Fr Farrugia, who is a liturgy specialist, is currently posted at the Franciscan convent and church of Sacre Couer in Sliema, apart from assisting in the Maltese Curia’s Commission for the liturgy. Fr Farrugia is also a personal friend of Archbishop Loris Capovilla who is presently the Pontificial Prelate for the shrine of Our Lady of Loreto in Italy and, more importantly, was the private secretary of the Blessed John XXIII.

Fr Farrugia wrote to Mgr Capovilla, now 91 years old, after the announcement that Fr Paul Cremona had been nominated to succeed Mgr Mercieca as archbishop of Malta and informed him of the new archbishop’s devotion and admiration for the late Papa Roncalli, so much so that Fr Cremona’s doctoral thesis was entitled The Concept of Peace in Pope John XXIII. Fr Farrugia suggested that Mgr Capovilla find a suitable memento of the late Pope to present to Malta’s archbishop elect. For some reason, Mgr Capovilla took some time to answer and Fr Farrugia asked a lay friend of his, Mr Joseph Mifsud of Sliema and who communicates with the Italian prelate regularly by phone, being himself also a devotee of the John XXIII, to check and see whether Bishop Capovilla had received his letter.

After this, Bishop Capovilla contacted Fr Farrugia and told him that he had decided to present Mgr Cremona with an alb, the white vestment priests dress when celebrating mass, which the Blessed Pope John XXIII used to wear when he was known Angelo, Cardinal, Archbishop Roncalli, Patriarch of Venice. Archbishop Capovilla said that the alb had been given to him by the late pope himself but that he would gladly let the new Maltese archbishop have it seeing how devoted he is to John XXIII. It was agreed that Bishop Capovilla would send the alb to the Roman convent of the Franciscan Friars Minor where Fr Farrugia would be attending a seminar this week and he would then bring it over to Malta with him to present to Mgr Cremona.

maltastar.com is informed that it was Fr Farrugia who informed the Archbishop-Elect of the news. We are also informed that Fr Cremona was overjoyed and visibly moved with the news and that he insists that, if he does not wear it during his ordination, it should be put somewhere prominent in St John’s Co-Cathedral because the archbishop elect regards the alb of the late pope as a holy relic.

No, it's not a Santa hat

Here is Pope Benedict at his weekly audience last Wednesday. He is wearing a camauro, not a santa hat. A British reporter said on tv that he was wearing a santa hat in preparation for Christmas.

The camauro is the traditional winter hat worn by popes. However, it fell out of use after the papacy of Blessed John XXIII. Blessed Pope John XXIII can be seen wearing a camauro as he lies in state in his glass coffin.

Looking at the hat it isn't hard to figure out where the inspiration for the santa hat came from. After all, St. Nicholas was a bishop.