Friday 2 August 2013

The Papal Coat of Arms: Why Did the Vatican Change It?


Does anyone know why the Papal coat of arms were suddenly changed by the Vatican from a five-pointed star to an eight-pointed star?

I'm sure there is a perfectly logical explanation but so far I've only found one article examining the mystery in depth to which a reader kindly drew my attention.

The Catholic Herald today reports that the theme for World Peace Day set by His Holiness will be 'fraternity'. It is wonderful that Pope Francis is reclaiming this word from the atheist communists, revolutionaries, socialists and of course Freemasons with which we associate it.

We must be brothers and sisters of our Heavenly Father, revealed by the One Whom the Father sent, Our Lord Jesus Christ, in Whose Church alone can we attain to Salvation. The Eternal Father, who created us all to love Him and worship Him in this life and be happy with Him forever in the next loves us and we long to bring the good news of Salvation to all.

Of course, I'll be freaked out if the next WPD theme is 'liberty' and the one after that 'equality'. As if we don't have enough 'equality' already at the expense of 'liberty'. By the time the Lord returns, the whole World will have had it 'up to here' with 'equality'!

Our Lady Star of the Sea, ora pro nobis.

8 comments:

pelerin said...

Can't we just accept the new papal coat of arms and stop trying to ask questions on it? If it's not the star it's the bunch of grapes which are now thought to be the spikenard flower.

Richard Collins said...

There is another explanation here Laurence http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/1301407.htm

Martina Katholik said...

2014: liberty
2015: equality
2016: social justice
2017: the three dark days

Martina Katholik said...

In Germany we had only two articles examining this change.
They said that there had been irritations because this five pointed star is a symbol of freemasonry and - in red - had been one of the main symbols of communism.

http://www.katholisches.info/2013/03/15/das-papstwappen-von-franziskus-i-wird-er-sein-kardinalswappen-beibehalten/
http://www.katholisches.info/2013/03/27/wappen-von-papst-franziskus-korrigiert-kein-funfzackiger-stern-mehr-im-papstwappen/

Eccles said...

Future themes will be equality and diversity, followed by health and safety.

umblepie said...

It seems that this change is not recent, for on googling this topic I found that the change was made in March this year.At the same time the spikenard flower was re-designed to look as it should, rather than as a bunch of grapes. Seems there is nothing here to get alarmed about- I think no need to escape to the allotment!

Physiocrat said...

Isn't the 5-pointed star the Pentacle? And the 666 was a London trolleybus route from Edgware to Hammersmith via Edgware (Station Road) and Hammersmith Broadway via Burnt Oak, Colindale, West Hendon, Staples Corners, Cricklewood, Willesden, Church Road, Harlesden, North Acton, Acton, Acton Vale and Starch Green, which goes to show that one should be careful about reading too much into symbolism.

Robert said...

Physiocrat is right. Symbolism and numbers used to be an extreme protestant obsession. The British Israelites believed the lion and unicorn proved that King George V was descended from King David and that the British were the 10 lost tribes. They believed that the second coming would be in George's son's reign as he was known as David (Edward VIII). They held that the Israel returned to Jerusalem in 1917 when General Allenby rode into the city on horseback. "I shall bear you up on eagles wings" was a prophecy of the Royal Flying Cord. I am sure readers can come up with other potty prophetic stuff.
As for liberty, I would go with that. Liberty is now supported by the right as surveillance and constant batty policies emanate from lefty bureaucrats.

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