"Schneider's glasses"

A shoe, a shoe

The shoe that once belonged to Pope Pius IX.

(Bild: Kloster Sankt Josef)

A few weeks ago, a nun found a shoe and a cap that once belonged to Pope Pius IX in the convent of St. Joseph in Lauterach. For "Krone" columnist Robert Schneider, this anecdote is, of course, a real find.

Sister Alena Diabolkova (48) will have studied the contents of the dubious package that fell into her hands in the attic of St. Joseph's Convent in Lauterach a good three weeks ago with trepidation and flushed cheeks. As she held the red shoe of Pope IX in her fingers alongside the pileolus, she couldn't help but think of the scene from Monty Python's "Life of Brian", where the "Popular Front of Judea" finds an orphaned sandal and elevates it to a religious symbol.

The venerable sister did not know where the sudden blushing and trembling came from. Was it the excitement of having come so close to a pope? Was it the shame of having immediately thought of this heretical movie that ridicules the Catholic religion, which she should never have seen, but secretly did and found it funny? Our Redemptorist was plagued by a deep pang of conscience as she descended the attic stairs. As Bishop Benno had announced a routine visitation of the monastery anyway, she would immediately confess to the "Life of Brian" and, as atonement, install a small museum where the cap and shoe would be on display for everyone to admire forever and ever.

Bishop Benno found out about it from the newspaper. Because he is a highly learned man, he knew that there would be no success with this Pius IX, who had proclaimed the dogma of the Immaculate Conception of Mary. Difficult case.

In the sermon for the 120th anniversary of the monastery, the bishop elegantly reinterpreted the matter: the shoe stands for walking together.

I don't know whether Sister Alena confessed on this occasion.