Two popes, two Palm Sundays—UPDATED

An interesting study in contrasts.

UPDATE: A reader asks: “Where are Francis’ deacons?” I found this shot below. The reader wondered about why deacons shown above with Benedict were wearing mitres. I suspect they are cardinals (or bishops) serving as deacons for the liturgy.  However, the deacon proclaiming the gospel below is most likely a seminarian.

UPDATE II:  To those who might wonder why there don’t appear to be an permanent deacons serving the pope, Deacon Bill Ditewig notes in an e-mail:  “They often DO use (permanent) deacons from Rome (and from other dioceses). Very, very often, they use one permanent deacon and one transitional deacon. In THIS case: these are two of the Roman Cardinal Deacons (who are also bishops, which explains the miters.) This is NOT the normal routine. Usually they use ‘real’ deacons!” 🙂