"They will learn from your example how serving the Holy See involves first and foremost having a Christian frame of mind and lifestyle". This was said this morning by Pope Benedict XVI as he received in audience the "Gestatorial chair carriers of the Pope", long-standing Vatican staff, who take their name from the fact they were in charge of the hall service and the carriage of the gestatorial chair, the mobile throne on which the Pope used to be carried so that he could be more easily "admired" by the faithful during public ceremonies. Its use was abolished by John Paul II in 1978, during his inaugural ceremony. Beforehand, Paul VI and John Paul I too had expressed doubts about its function and had reduced its use. In particular as Benedict XVI recalled this morning it was Pope Paul VI who simplified the protocol, in "implementation of the new council requirements", "bringing it back to more restraint, which is more in agreement with the Christian message and today’s needs". The tasks of the gestatorial chair carriers who are employees of the prefect of the Sacred Apostolic Palaces and the House-Steward have therefore progressed as customs and needs have changed.
