The Guardian view on kissing the pope’s ring: the power of symbols

The Guardian view on kissing the pope’s ring: the power of symbols | Editorial

All government rests on obedience but democracy requires independent thought as well. How to reconcile them?

Pope Francis wishes the faithful would kiss his hand less often. He’s the pope, so they should obey him. But kissing his ring is one of the things that marks him out as worthy of obedience. If they don’t think he’s special enough to be honoured that way, why should they take any notice of his opinions?

His ring matters because there is a natural human tendency to recoil from brute power and to clothe it in symbols and narrative. The police officer’s uniform does as much as her truncheon to impose order. Such symbols clothe their bearers in an authority that is greater than merely personal. The pope’s ring symbolises the marriage between bishop and his diocese, understood as an arrangement divinely approved and ordained. The sceptre of the monarch and the mace in parliament have a similar function. They all mark some forms of power as sacred and something greater than its transient bearers.

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