Editor’s Note: I have lived in Italy, off and on, since 2004, and I have met many clergy, several Bishops, and even have a second cousin who is a priest. So I have seen something of which I have never been told during all my years in the United States.

You see, when Italian clergy, priests or Bishops, hold a meeting with anyone, they often change the things on their desk or shelves, to suit their visitor. They remove certain things and add others.

I knew one Bishop, who changed the statue on his desk. I was asked by others which statue was on his desk during my meeting. I thought it was a bizarre question. But I was told that the specific statue he placed, signified a specific disposition of his, toward his visitor.

Pope Francis for some years has had a statue of Saint Joseph on his desk. But in this picture, of his meeting with the superiors of the Fraternity of Saint Peter, a priestly society which formerly celebrated only the ancient Roman Rite according to the Missale Romanum of John XXIII, we see a clock and a crucifix.

Verbum sapientibus.

UPDATE:  Pope Francis has asked the priests of this society to transgress their dedication to God, since concelebration is not envisioned or permitted in the Ancient Roman Rite missals during the last 5 centuries.

(Concelebration is when several priests pray the same Mass. While normal in the Byzantine Rites, it fell out of usage in the West some time in the Middle Ages. Even theologians of great repute held that priests can refuse concelebration, so as to avoid publicly consenting to celebrate the mass with a person or persons who are public or secret sinners. This is especially important for priests who are confessors, so that penitents not be able to exploit their reputations by claiming that they approve of their sins by concelebrating with them.)

But it is absolute bizarre and a denial of the dignity of a priest, that he be asked to receive Communion at the mass of another priest or bishop, when he is not concelebrating, since having the duty to celebrate daily and being in good health, a priest has no need to do such a thing. Acts of religion are not for show. What pope Francis is asking is thus totally absurd and contrary to religion.

Finally, when the Roman Pontiff asks something without imposing it as an obligation, it nevertheless remains a form of abuse when the thing asked for is abusive, because the relationship of a pope to a priest is an extremely unbalanced and unequal one. Like pedophiles who use their dignity as a priest to solicit a boy for sex, a pope should not make such requests to inferiors since it is an inducement to being abused and exploited by his whims.