Lentorama 2013: There's a Name for That

Day 24: galero

The galero is a wide-brimmed hat with large tassels hanging off the side, and up until Vatican II it was the hat given to newly-made cardinals as a symbol of office (after Vatican II it was the biretta, a more common hat that, as noted yesterday, is used by clergy at all levels). It was originally conferred by Innocent IV so he could pick out cardinals in a crowd.

While Vatican II did away with the galero, some cardinals continued to acquire them privately. There was also a tradition of hanging a cardinal's galero over their tomb until it decayed into nothing (a reminder of how we came from earth and will return to earth), which has subsided but not entirely gone away. At least one cardinal, Raymond Burke, has gone back to wearing the galero, which isn't surprising given how far things have shifted to the right since Vatican II.