White outfit, wrong occasion, Cherie (Cherie Blair didn't wear black to meet the Pope)

UK Telegraph ^ | 4/29/06 | Malcolm Moore and Jonathan Petre

[wagglebee]

Cherie Blair provoked surprise in the Vatican and the ire of a Roman Catholic MP yesterday by wearing all-white to meet the Pope, a privilege normally reserved for Catholic Queens.

The Vatican convention is that females meeting the Pontiff should wear black, preferably with a black veil, or mantilla.

	Cherie Blair with Pope Benedict

When the Queen met Pope John Paul II six years ago, she observed the code meticulously.

Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, wore black, but omitted the veil.

By contrast, Mrs Blair, a staunch Catholic, chose to exercise the "privilege du blanc", usually granted only to the wives of Catholic monarchs.

Her breach of the protocol was surprising, since she has kept closely to the Church's dress code in the past.

Mrs Blair may not have worn a hat to the funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales but she mourned the passing of John Paul II in a mantilla.

Technically, only three women should wear white in the presence of the Pope.

They are Queen Sofia of Spain, Queen Paola of Belgium and Josephine Charlotte, the wife of Grand Duke Jean of Luxembourg. Queen Sofia exercised her privilege in a meeting with the previous Pope in 2003.

Ann Widdecombe, the former Tory minister and a convert to Catholicism, was scathing about Mrs Blair.

"Even the Queen wore black to meet the Pope," she said. "This shows that she has a very grand idea of herself.

"She is a Catholic. She knows what the tradition is when meeting the Pope.

"She obviously thinks she is the first lady.

"My message to her is 'You are not a Catholic Queen, my dear, and you never will be.' "

Mrs Blair was in Rome for a Church-organised conference entitled "Vanishing Youth? Solidarity with Children and Young People in an Age of Turbulence".

She was invited as an expert and remained afterwards for a private meeting with the Pope. A spokesman for the Vatican declined to reveal what they had discussed.

[Mr Rogers]

I'm not calling Catholics Pharisees.

I merely note the obvious - that Jesus often had 'poor manners'.

[Ladysmith]

Oh yeah, I don't deny it one little bit! I didn't see God in my church, only rank hypocrisy, and became an unapologetic atheist for the next 23 years. He led me back to Him after I made terrible decisions and now I don't want to live without Him in every facet of my life.

One of the first things I learned was He doesn't care what's on the outside. It's what's inside that matters. What good is being a witness for Christ if you've got a heart of stone?

[Ladysmith]

Christ in the Cross - My bad. Typo.

When I was a kid, I wanted to know more about Jesus in the worst way. But all we ever did was get ready for "rituals": First Communion, Confirmation, the like. I was totally dead inside.

A lot of this is from personal experience and may easily not be representative of the Catholic Church as a whole. But Blair not wearing the "appropriate" colors when in audience with the Pope is an issue, it validates what I've been through. It's not just Catholics. I've seen this in other churches now, too.

As for sound doctrine, WAY too many churches are falling for the New Age and political correctness crap at the expense of the Truth. I've gone through too much to let myself fall into that trap again and risk my relationship with my Lord and Savior.

No "proof" to offer you. My apologies for that. All I have to offer is my testimony of God's gift of grace and forgiveness.

Take care.

[baa39]

I'm surprised the article doesn't mention Mrs. Bush's visit to the Holy Father with her daughter. Laura looked very nice in a black dress and a classic-style black lace veil. Miss Bush (I think the elder one) wore black, but no veil. Being a maiden (presumably), I can see how she might skip the matronly long black veil, but she should have had some sort of modest head covering.

[baa39]

The Pope is the Vicar of Christ on earth.

[Conservative til I die]

It seems to me that some in the Vatican and the holier than thou crowd are more concerned with silly appearances of technical adherance to things than to what is actually in the heart.

I don't think anyone's freaking out about this. The only reason for so much chatter is the usual idiots using it as an excuse to pummel the Church some more.

Sounds to me like you're just jaded because you were turned away. Don't worry, your salvation doesn't depend on it.

[wagglebee]

Well, she is Catholic and she is the British equivalent of "First Lady"

The tradition is that a Catholic QUEEN can wear white, this applies to either the regent or the Catholic wife of a Catholic king.

Mrs. Blair is the wife of the Prime Minister, equivalencies are irrelevant as his very office is that of PRIME Minister to a king or queen. The argument may have worked with an American first lady; however, John F. Kennedys was the only Catholic president and Mrs. Kennedy (also a Catholic) wore the traditional black when meeting Pope John XXII.

[hoosierham]

Do you know which killed more people while insisting it was in the name of God, the KKK or the RCC?

Do you deny the exitence of the socialist priests who are more attuned to Marx than Jesus?

Jesus taught to pray :"Our Father,who art in heaven....;and "ask of the Father in My Name" but He did not teach praying to anyone else. By the way,after years and in some cases centuries the RCC told the people the saint they had been praying to never really existed! OOOPS.

I was sent to Catholic school in my younger days,where I was treated better by the lay women teachers than the bitter nun who ridiculed my family's lack of wealth evidenced in my clothing,no TV at home to watch the assigned show for a report ,etc.

It remains my opinion that Jesus is abouting God's love,not who can build the biggest,fanciest church building.That kind of vanity belongs to man.

For too many years the RCC confused rituals with faith,and felt free to condemn non-members.

It is still my view that temporal power seekers wormed their way into the early Church and adopted various pagan rituals when expedient.I doubt the One who threw the moneychangers from the temple would be pleased with the blatant commercialism and selling of charms we see today.

God's gift of free will precludes Him from excluding all error from the RCC or any other church,though at times His patience must be sorely tried.

Tell you what,I'll just let Him decide the judgment and not concern myself with your slanders.

[drhogan]

"wearing all-white to meet the Pope, a privilege normally reserved for Catholic Queens."
___________________________________________

it sounds like only Queens who are Catholic have the "privilege" (not my words) to wear white. so queens who happen to be protestant or muslim don't get that privilege.
since white is often associated with purity in Christianity, and the color black is often symbolic of sin or death, i think this privilege speaks for itself.

[baa39]

I think he has by his graciousness and acceptance of the many "dignitaries" who visit him and dress and behave inappropriately.

[wagglebee]

Do you know which killed more people while insisting it was in the name of God, the KKK or the RCC?

Would you like to discuss the Peasants Revolt in Germany in the 1520's that was begun by followers of Martin Luther and resulted in upwards of 300,000 deaths?

Or perhaps the Nazis who were also Lutherans who caused upwards of 20 million deaths? Of course it was Martin Luther himself who in 1545 first suggested burning all of the synagogues in "The Jews and Their Lies."

If you are referring to the Crusades, you might want to recall that all Christians in Europe were Catholic at that time.

I will be the first to acknowledge that BOTH Catholics and Protestants were responsible for bloodshed during the Reformation, but to attempt to assign any blame for this to Pope Benedict is insultingly ignorant.

[drhogan]

the article seems to say that only Catholic queens get the privilege of wearing white. it's not just an issue of being a queen, but of being a Catholic queen.
heads of state can set up whatever protocol they want, and discriminate against people of different religions if they want to. it is protocol; but i wouldn't like to be color-coded on the basis of my religion.

[lastchance]

Really? I was always taught that white shoes were to be worn only between Memorial Day and Labor Day. But that might just be the American custom. Course I break the rules all the time since I live in Florida and it is pretty much summer 88% of the year.