A few weeks ago, my wife and I took a trip to Chicago. We visited the Holy Name Cathedral for Mass on Sunday morning and, strangely enough, there was no traffic and we arrived early.
We sat in the front pew and gazed at the beautiful artwork, the striking architecture, and all but lost ourselves in the ambiance of the place.
Then, we looked above the altar and saw what looked like dangling remains of art hanging from the ceiling.
My wife asked me what they were and I had no idea. I have very poor vision so the best I could make of the hanging figures was that they were red and they appeared to be cloth. I thought, “it is either a banner from the feast of a martyr or the artifacts of a Chicago Bulls win.” Given the Bulls’ record this season, I had to settle for the former.
Just then, a good deacon who was preparing to serve at Mass saw our confused faces and he came over to greet us. He asked us if we knew what we were looking at. We told hm we had no idea and he told us a bit of Cathedral history that pretty much blew our minds.
Cardinal Burke in his Galero
Apparently, they are Cardinal galeros, which are wide-brimmed, bright red, honorary hats, elevated and suspended to the ceiling. There have been 6 Cardinals in Chicago since the founding of the now Archdiocese starting with Cardinal Mundeline and ending with Cardinal George, may they rest in peace. That’s why there were 6 galeros hanging from the arches.
According to tradition, after a Cardinal’s death, their galeros were hung to the ceiling by the tassels and, once the tassel wore too thin, leaving it unable to hold the hat’s weight, it would fall toward the altar and that would signify that the Cardinal’s time in purgatory was complete.
Unfortunately for them, those galeros are now fastened by wire now. So it might be a while before they get into heaven if the tradition is true!
Apparently this is a thing in some of the larger Cathedrals in the United States. The Archdiocese of New York and the Archdiocese of Chicago are the only ones I know of that do this.
Does anyone else have a galero hanging in their Cathedral? I would love to hear if this is common practice in other Dioceses and Archdioceses both in the U.S and internationally.
I think that is Cardinal Burke
Definitely Cardinal Burke
Amended. Thanks for the catch!
Yes, but to make that argument, we must assume that there are, indeed, cats in heaven.
The Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis has this tradition!
My wife and I renewed our vows on our 25th anniversary in that cathedral.
St. Michael’s Basilica in Toronto has the hat of Cardinal McGuigan hanging from the ceiling but the galero is no longer given to cardinals so that leaves the three subsequent cardinals out.
They really believe Cardinal Bernardin is in heaven? The man who requested to not have a Catholic funeral and had the Chicago Gay Men’s Choir sing at his wake?
Comical.
I have seen the Galeros hung up in the Cathedral of Hanoi, Vietnam! I think there were two Cardinals’ galeros were hung up there. I never knew that depending upon the entry of the soul of the Cardinal to heaven from Purgatory, his galeros would fall down to the altar! Suppose that the galeros were remaining their for decads, do we need to think that he might be placed elsewhere?
The galeros of all deceased Cardinal-Archbishops of Washington incorrectly hang over the entrance doors, they are supposed to hang over the main altar or over their tombs. In the Cathedral of Toledo, Spain, the Cardinalatial See of the Primates of Spain, there are dozens of galeros, many hundreds of years old, hanging in the apse. It is quite a spectacle, many of them are almost grey since their red has worn out.
Cardinal “Mundelein.”
Who are “they”?
I suppose the administration that hung his red hat. This is the guy who invented the ‘seamless garment’ argument, was a known, practicing homosexual, and a promoter of religious indifferentism. He’s still a pretty big deal.
We have a priest in our diocese that trained under one of Bernardin’s ecumenical programs. A lovely flamboyant priest who lives with his boyfriend, a Franciscan brother.
The Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in Los Angeles has the galeros up — that was the first time I heard of the legend. And it’s just a legend, kind of Catholic folklore — please, don’t anyone confuse it with an actual teaching of the Church!
In Fargo (N. Dak.) the galero of Cardinal Muench is mounted behind glass on the back wall of the vestibule.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aloisius_Joseph_Muench
Baltimore hangs James Cardinal Gibbons’ galero at the old cathedral basilica of the assumption and the galero of Lawrence Cardinal Shehan uptown at the younger Cathedral of Mary our queen
What is wrong with having the Chicago’s Gay Men’s Choir sing at his wake?
Are you serious? This is the 21st Century, not the Middle Ages.
half to 3/4 of the clergy are gay. this surely comes as no surprise to you.
interesting how you described the priest as “lovely flamboyant”.
try being a bit more Christ-like.
I do not like this tradition and the fact it symbolizes that, at least eventually, all Cardinal’s go to Heaven. We can’t know for certain anyone’s fate but if I were a betting man I would say it is well less than 100%. It is not Church teaching but it sure could misguide a lot of people.
Also, why stop at Cardinals and Cathedral’s. When the parish music director dies why not hang her Easter bonnet above the parish altar? Or the lovely gentleman who ushered for 30 years and was a huge Iowa Hawkeye fan. Shouldn’ we hang his favorite Hawkeye cap as well? If not, are we saying only the clerics are worthy of this honor because we are more certain of their fates than of the laity?
He’s an open sodomite that actually got my brother fired for teaching straight from the post-conciliar catechism that homosexuality is “intrinsically disordered.”
This priest’s “boyfriend” is a close confidant of the Bishop, who teaches college kids that if you “take all of the hokus pokus out of the Gospel” then you get the true story.
These sodomites are all the same and ought to be purged from the Church.