quote:

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A person on being appointed to the cardinalate is said to have received the red hat or cardinal's biretta. Cardinals created in each consistory through that of 1967 received a broad-brimmed, tasseled hat as a symbol of their office—the galero.

Today, Cardinals no longer receive the galero (in Latin galerum rubrum), which they would wear only once while cardinal and which would be hung up in their former cathedral on their death and left to disintegrate through decay and old age, symbolising the passing of manmade glories and power.

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Source Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_hat_(Catholic)

No wonder - Before 1967, I was not into Church History like I am today....Thanks Jili - never heard of that before....

jkag89,

Good work with the research. The hats do not merely hang in the Cathedral, they hang over the crypt in the floor where the Cardinal is buried. His spirit cannot leave the Cathedral until the hat hits the floor, I am told by Church employees who conduct the tours. I was in Spain recently and they still hang the hats for the Cardinals.

Can someone who is Catholic explain the doctrinal significance of this act?

De Jili Nada- Still do not know the about what the guide told you while touring the Toledo Cathedral, but I'm going to assume(can find nothing else at all on the subject) it is nothing more than a local legend based on this tradition of hanging galero. The tradition is still parcticed, the top photo in my first post is from Holy Name Cathedral in Chicago. What was discontinued was recieving the galero upon appointment to the office.

[This message has been edited by jkag89 (edited 3/1/2006 10:51a).]

Like others, I can find no official explanation for this, which leads me to believe it is not doctrinal in nature, as DJN suggests, but rather symbolic.

As anyone who has been to many Catholic churches in different regions and countries can attest, symbolic and customary differences abound -- as with any church. The mass, however, remains much the same.