22 April 2008

Is Benedict an Anglican?

Our Holy Father has abandoned the bent crucifix which his more recent predecessors carried in favour of a straight golden cross without a figure upon it. And 'traditionalist' RC bloggers explain this by pointing out that the Crucifixion was not the end of the story: i.e. the empty cross is a pointer to the Resurrection.
Dead right. But the whimsy of this is that such is exactly the reason 'modererate ' Anglicans used to give for having crosses rather than crucifixes on their altars. So perhaps Benedict is plummeting in what we Anglicans call 'Churchmanship'.
But stay. This very cross is the one which was used by that great pontiff, my hero Blessed Pius IX! Was Pio Nono also a crypto-Anglican? We should be told. Open the Vatican Archives.

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