I kinda like these Santa Clothes

Julie at Happy Catholic has Benedict all poped-out in traditional papal habidashery.

Dappled Things has more and links to a slide show.

It’s nice, the special clothes and festooning…but I don’t get hung up on it, and doubt that Benedict will, either. I loved JPII – he was so outsized, so larger than life, that he didn’t need all the trappings, and kept his wardrobe simple and rather modern, and I liked that, too.

Balance. St. Benedict’s whole Rule was about finding balance. This Benedict will too, I hope, be balanced about these externals.

I see that Pope John XXIII (“Good Pope John”) was buried wearing the camauro, the red hat with white trim which popes had worn from the 12th century on, although John was the last to wear it until Benedict.

Perhaps Benedict is trying to signal something?

Btw – John, disinterred when his cause for sainthood was opened, was discovered to be incorruptible. He’s in the crystal reliquary, now, and John Paul the Great has his old burial spot.

Or, more correctly, his remains are in the reliquary, etc…

Gerald has more thoughts.