Order of Rituals by Hans-Georg Soeffner

Author:Hans-Georg Soeffner [Soeffner, Hans-Georg]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, Customs & Traditions, Sociology, General
ISBN: 9781351293747
Google: 6yBWDwAAQBAJ
Barnesnoble:
Goodreads: 2077806
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 1995-03-31T00:00:00+00:00

IV

When Pope John Paul II goes traveling—one of his trademark activities—the photographers in the countries he visits wait for every move, every gesture, a description of which I leave to one of his chroniclers:

The airplane “Ciudad de Mexico” has landed. At the door near the cockpit a figure all in white appears. The representatively composed group of people (emphasis added) that has been waiting for hours on the airport grandstands cheers: Viva el Papa. The pope greets them smilingly, descends the stairs, kneels on the red carpet, kisses the ground, sways as he gets up again because his mazetta has been blown forward into his face, obscuring his vision and orientation for a moment. Then he is standing again.

(Liming, 26)

Wasn’t the pope perhaps already robbed of “vision and orientation” in his choice of the ritualistic ground-kissing as a form of greeting, long before that particular visit to Mexico? By making this ritual his individual trademark [“Near Eastern people kissed the hands, feet, and clothing of sacred images. Pope John Paul II kisses the ground of the countries he visits” (Eliade, 1987: 463)] he probably had the best of intentions, but not the insight into its potential range and structure of meaning. I have no idea whether he believed himself to be treading the firm ground of Roman Catholic ritual15 in his choice. But the context into which he placed this ritual and which it seems to answer to is well-known: the voyage.

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