Francis Has a New Crozier

“I Can’t Believe It’s Not Catholic”…

Francis Has a New Crozier

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Apparently the old ferula, or crozier, introduced by “Pope” Paul VI, wasn’t hideous enough. On November 1, the feast of All Saints, “Pope” Francis showed off his new pastoral staff, with a “Risen Christ” figure that some have said resembles a millipede more than the Incarnate Son of God.

You can view more photos with greater detail of this irreverent “art” at this blog here, where you will also find out where this ferula comes from. In 1947, Pope Pius XII had condemned crucifixes which display a Risen Christ (so-called “Resurrexifixes”), though, granted, His Holiness didn’t address the question of liturgical millipedes: “…one would be straying from the straight path … were he to order the crucifix so designed that the divine Redeemer’s body shows no trace of His cruel sufferings” (Pius XII, Encyclical Mediator Dei, n. 62).

Like Paul VI, Francis seems to have a love for everything that is ugly. It was in the 1960s that Paul VI received from creator Lello Scorzelli the ugly Bent Cross Crozier (see here), which has been used by every single Vatican II Antipope, despite (or rather, because of) its repulsive and sinister portrayal of the Crucifixion. It is only fair that a famous portrait depicting Paul VI himself should be just as ugly and sinister-looking. Paul VI had it put up inside the Vatican halls, of course.

Draw your own conclusions.