I wonder if you know, sinkspur, that there used to be a gesture of profound affection and admiration, by which eminent men, upon their arrival at a city desirous of paying its respects, would find the young men of the city unhitching the horses of his carriage so that they could draw it themselves. It was a sign, sinkspur -- something rooted in the created world and the public acts of men -- a way to show loyalty and render service. It's a cultural memory that revives every time a victorious team hoists its coach or MVP to their shoulders and bears him aloft in honor of his authorship of their triumph -- an honor you'd never forget or disparage if you'd ever received it.
I grieve that you disparage the survival of this honorable custom in the sedia gestatoria, by which Catholic men are permitted to render physical homage to the Petrine office. I hope this is only an American sickness of the spirit that causes you to recoil from the natural impulse to render honor, and not a hatred of the office itself that you recoil from seeing it honored.
Well, lift yourself up, man!
The sedia was put to pasture by Paul VI, and has not been revived under JPII.
The "sickness of spirit" is in lifting up men who don't want it, men who realize, finally, that they wear the shoes of Him who had nowhere to lay His Head.