Indulgences and the ‘Fisherman’s Rod’
Q:Many years ago, as a young priest traveling in Europe, I encountered an unusual ceremony and have never seen it since. Outside the confessional, in a semicircular formation, knelt the penitents, one after the other, as they came from receiving absolution. A long, slender pole was affixed to the confessor’s Dutch door. Periodically his hand would take the pole and move it randomly over the heads of the kneeling penitents, finally tapping one of them on the shoulder. With that, the selected penitent blessed himself and departed.
This procedure continued until all had been tapped and thereby dismissed. I was told that the pole was called the “Fisherman’s Rod” and served to indicate that an indulgence had been granted to the penitent, having performed his penance on his knees and patiently waited for the Rod to send him on his way.
Can you tell me where and when this practice was commonly in vogue?
A: To answer your question, I called Father Cyprian Berens, O.F.M., who spent some years as a confessor at the Basilica of St. John Lateran in Rome.
Father Cyprian told me that until the time of Pope Paul VI, there was attached to the doors of all the confessionals in the four major basilicas a rod that looked something like a fishing pole.
Confessors in these basilicas have their faculties from the Apostolic Penitentiary which has charge of all matters of the internal forum—both sacramental and non-sacramental. Among its responsibilities is directing things concerning the usage and granting of indulgences.
Confessors in these basilicas were able to grant an indulgence to anyone who asked for it by kneeling outside the confessional and waiting for a tap on the head or shoulders with the rod.
Among explanations of the practices were ideas that the one asking the indulgence sought a kind of spiritual knighthood or wanted to offer himself or herself to God in the spirit of sacrifice.
Under Pope Paul VI, there was a complete revision of indulgences and a new Enchiridion of Indulgences was published.
Father Cyprian speculated that this practice in the basilicas had become a kind of curiosity or novelty and that this became a reason for eliminating it.
This procedure continued until all had been tapped and thereby dismissed. I was told that the pole was called the “Fisherman’s Rod” and served to indicate that an indulgence had been granted to the penitent, having performed his penance on his knees and patiently waited for the Rod to send him on his way.
Can you tell me where and when this practice was commonly in vogue?
A: To answer your question, I called Father Cyprian Berens, O.F.M., who spent some years as a confessor at the Basilica of St. John Lateran in Rome.
Father Cyprian told me that until the time of Pope Paul VI, there was attached to the doors of all the confessionals in the four major basilicas a rod that looked something like a fishing pole.
Confessors in these basilicas have their faculties from the Apostolic Penitentiary which has charge of all matters of the internal forum—both sacramental and non-sacramental. Among its responsibilities is directing things concerning the usage and granting of indulgences.
Confessors in these basilicas were able to grant an indulgence to anyone who asked for it by kneeling outside the confessional and waiting for a tap on the head or shoulders with the rod.
Among explanations of the practices were ideas that the one asking the indulgence sought a kind of spiritual knighthood or wanted to offer himself or herself to God in the spirit of sacrifice.
Under Pope Paul VI, there was a complete revision of indulgences and a new Enchiridion of Indulgences was published.
Father Cyprian speculated that this practice in the basilicas had become a kind of curiosity or novelty and that this became a reason for eliminating it.
posted by See Tho Zhang Jacob at
8:40 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home