Simple Pageantry

The Pope's funeral was held yesterday, and images were televised around the world. On the front page of today's Sydney's Daily Telegraph is one of the images. Gathered around the Pope's simple wooden coffin was row after row of Catholic Church leaders - all ornately-dressed in flowing red and white cassocks (and not a younger person or woman in sight). This was one of the paradoxes of the occasion - the humility and the pageantry; the solemnity and the rock-concert feel; and the saying goodbye to a Man of God, and a Man of the People.