Do you think the Papal Crucifix (the Paul VI to John Paul II crosier) will disappear?

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PazzoGrande

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It seems it only got popularised because of its connection to the Pope. Frankly I never found it to be a very attractive or dignified design. Since the Holy Father has reverted back to the more traditional one, and if his successors do the same, do you think that Paul VI design will disappear from catalogues and religious shops?

Just curious, because you folks into liturgical items and papal trends know this well.
 
I think it’s rather ghastly and undignified. However, I understand the sentimental attachment some people have to it in that it reminds them of JP II especially. I’m sure it’s made of precious, inviolate materials, and I think it’s worth retaining it if for no other reason than to preserve history, but I am glad it has been cased in favor of the more traditional gold cross.

I’m not sure what you mean when you refer to the catalogues and religious shops. Do you mean to say that places sell replicas of the cross?
 
I think a lot of folks for a long time to come will have an extreme fondness (to put it mildly) for Blessed Pope John Paul II, and by extension for things like the crucifix associated so closely with him.

As an aside, I have a souvenir Rosary from a Papal visit to Australia by JPII in the 1980s. Not that he blessed it or anything, but even the tangential association with him makes me fond of it.
 
I’m not sure what you mean when you refer to the catalogues and religious shops. Do you mean to say that places sell replicas of the cross?
Yeah, but not as crosiers. They’d sell them as pendants, wall crucifixes, attached to rosaries, things like that. I have all three.

And you guys are right – I only bought them in the first place because of their connection to the then-Pope, so I guess people still would buy them for that reason.
 
Some people have a devotion to the passion of Christ and reflect on the suffering Christ. I think the Pope John Paul II crucifix will be around for a long time.
 
I suspect that the design goes back to how Pope Paul VI felt upon his election.

In his journal he wrote the following

“The post is unique. It brings great solitude. I was solitary before, but now my solitariness becomes complete and awesome. Jesus was alone on the cross. . . . My solitude will grow. I need have no fears; I should not seek outside help to absolve me from my duty. My duty is to plan, decide, assume every responsibility for guiding others, even when it seems illogical and perhaps absurd. And to suffer alone . . . me and God. The colloquy must be full and endless.”

Knowing this, the crosier that both he and John Paul carried make sense. They are alone, at the foot of the cross, with God. They carried it, styled as it was, as a reminder.
 
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