Monday, September 15, 2025
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To kiss pope’s hand or not; enter the Catholic culture wars
VATICAN CITY: To kiss the ring on the pope’s hand or not to – that is the question. On Monday, when Pope Francis visited a Catholic shrine in Loreto, he repeatedly withdrew his right hand as a long line of people bowed and tried to kiss the ring on it. The footage went viral and the pope’s refusal quickly entered what are known as the Catholic cultural wars between conservatives and progressives. LifeSiteNews, a conservative Catholic website that often criticises the pope, called the episode “disturbing” in the headline of an article that included a long history of the rings pope’s wear and their significance. Rorate Caeli, a website read by Catholic traditionalists, Tweeted: “Francis, If you don’t want to be the Vicar of Christ, then get out of there!” Papal biographer Austen Ivereigh, a supporter of Francis, countered by Tweeting: “He’s making sure that they engage with him, not treat him like a sacred relic. He’s the Vicar of Christ, not a Roman emperor.” “It’s high time kissing bishops’ rings disappears altogether. It’s just ridiculous and has nothing to do with tradition. It’s an import from monarchies. Much of the pomp around bishops should be ditched,” Tweeted Jesuit priest Russell Pollitt. Some Vatican watchers noted that even former Pope Benedict, a hero to nostalgic conservatives, and his predecessor John Paul, did not like having their hands kissed – at least not by long lines of people, for the sake of expediency. (Reuters)

Louvre’s glass pyramid set for interactive performance
PARIS: The courtyard around the Louvre Museum’s famed glass pyramid is to become the stage for a giant interactive performance orchestrated by French visual artist JR as part of celebrations for the structure’s 30th anniversary. An army of volunteers on Tuesday started pasting a colossal 160,000 square feet paper image over the courtyard to prepare for the trompe l’oeil. The image will create the illusion of a larger pyramid emerging from rocks as if it had been discovered by an archaeological excavation. The 70-foot-high glass-and-steel pyramid, designed by Chinese-American architect I.M. Pei, now aged 101 has since become a beloved Paris landmark. (Reuters)

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