VATICAN CITY, February 22, 2017 (LifeSiteNews) – Women wearing skin-tight body suits performed for Pope Francis at his general audience today, the Feast Day of the Chair of St. Peter.
Shot of today's circus act performed at today's general audience on feast of the Chair of Peter. Photo @dibanezgut pic.twitter.com/hOZFJpqBxU
— Edward Pentin (@EdwardPentin) February 22, 2017
“I am a married man and this picture is harmful to my state of grace,” one Twitter user wrote in response to the photo. Another suggested the performance was a “mockery of the Chair of St. Peter.”
The women were dressed as cats, with their costumes showing half of their stomachs. They did the splits and danced to cheesy music.
According to the Daily Missal of the Mystical Body, edited by the Maryknoll Fathers and published in 1961, “Preserved to this day at the Vatican Basilica in Rome is the chair upon which, as history tells us, Pope Peter sat enthroned to exercise his Christ-given authority over the universal Church…Our faith, a gift from God, is strengthened by the teachings of Christ's vicar on earth.”
Ostentatiously-dressed circus performers have entertained Pope Francis before. For example, on January 27, 2016, a circus group performed at the pontiff's general audience. Some of the women wore similar body suits with sea shells or giant eyeballs on their breasts.
“You are creators of beauty,” he told the group. “You produce beauty, and beauty does good for the soul. Beauty gets us closer to God.”
In 2015, acrobats and clowns performed at a Catholic education conference at the Paul VI Hall in Rome before Pope Francis spoke.
Whose idea was today's performance? It seems like a strange way to commemorate a Catholic feast day dedicated to the pope's authority and sacred duties.
@EdwardPentin @dibanezgut Ridiculous, but I'd rather he do this than grant another interview to Eugenio Scalfari or others at La Repubblica
— johnnycuredents (@DeplorableJoCur) February 22, 2017
@EdwardPentin @dibanezgut I think they violate the papal audience dress code: https://t.co/DRc1hp4u0M
— Francis J. Beckwith (@fbeckwith) February 22, 2017
