Tradition is pope's best protection
I am not making this up.
Writing in this week's Catholic Herald, the U.K. weekly, security expert Dominic Scarborough urges the Vatican "to draw on tradition to prevent a repeat of the Midnight Mass attack on Benedict XVI." He says that bringing back the sedia gestatoria would protect the pope. He means the pope should be carried around on a portable throne.
The Catholic Encyclopedia offers this description of the sedia gestatoria
Scarborough writes:
While there are bound to be some who would see the return of the sedia as yet another example of this Pope "turning the clock back", in fact not only would it save an elderly man's tired legs but it would allow more of the crowd to see him. Most importantly, it would actually insulate him from the kind of physical assault we saw at Christmas ...
Presumably, in Scarborough's security scenerio the flabella would be optional.
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