Posted on 08/30/2013 10:39:56 PM PDT by bimboeruption
As head of state at the Vatican, not to mention the leader of the world's 1.2 billion Catholics, protocol requires visitors to bow to him when they meet him at the Holy See.
But Francis, who has made the forgetting of formalities a trademark of his papacy, bowed when he met a smiling Rania as she visited the Vatican with her husband King Abdullah II on Thursday.
"Up until the 19th century visitors would kiss the pope's shoes, and the tradition is still that all visitors, women included, bow to him, but Francis behaves as he did before he became pope and is not interested in protocol," a senior Vatican official told The Daily Telegraph.
It is not the first time the Pope has eschewed formality when receiving visitors.
When Cristina Kirchner, Argentina's president, met him in March, a day before his formal inauguration, he gave her a kiss after she presented him with a gourd for mate, the traditional Argentine tea.
"Never in my life has a Pope kissed me!", Mrs Kirchner said afterwards.
When she met the pope in July, Brazilian's first female president, Dilma Rousseff took the initiative, kissing Francis on both cheeks.
Francis' bow was just the latest in a series of signs the pope has no time for ceremony.
On Wednesday he showed up in central Rome for a religious ceremony in an unmarked Ford, without the papal flag or number plate, driven by a Vatican gendarme.
He then entered the church carrying his folded mitre tucked under one arm. The incident recalled his carrying a personal briefcase up the steps to the plane on which he flew to Brazil in July.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
Hey, you bow at his feet if you wish to. If he thinks he is a humble person and rather do some bowing himself, then so be it.
I don’t bow to anyone.
Why is he bowing to a raghead?
Two things bothered me about this story.
One was his bowing, thrown in with the President’s bowing, one has to ask what the heck is going on with all this bowing, and why now, to Islam?
The other was that the writer implied that everyone bows to the Catholic Pope, I can see Catholics and Europeans doing that, but do Americans, would Reagan, or Rick Perry, or Billy Graham, or the squirrel hunting guy on the Walking Dead bow, to anyone?
Someday he will bow at the feet of Jesus and try to explain this.
freakin muslim president bows to muslims. now the pope. Christ can’t get back here fast enough.
I admire Pope Francis, but this could have come from The Onion.
Amen!
I’m with ya.
I think he is bowing with respect to the wife of a leader of the country as a gentleman.
Christ didn’t act from what we read in the Gospels like he was on a throne here on earth either.
I open doors for women, maybe nod to people and greet them with a “good day”. Showing signs of accessibility and respect isn’t the worst in life IMO.
She is bow worthy.
Right, we have no King but Jesus and EVERY knee will bow before Him.
Not to me.
Amen and again I say, amen.
Obozo strikes again!!! Err, oh wait, Francis bowed to a Muslim? Uhhh, errrr, huh?
I’ll defer to the Pope on this one.
You’re right...Why would a head of state or a head of a church bow to a raghead?
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