Q: Regarding your recent post about finding a public way to laicize a bishop – https://paulturner.org/laicized-bishop/, there used to be one.
The old Roman Pontifical has a whole series of rituals for “degrading” clerics. I like the part where the bishop’s gloves are removed.Then scrape off the oil with a knife or a piece of glass! Next scrape the head. Then take off his shoes!
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A: Goodness, you’re right! The former pontifical indeed included public rituals of degradation for a bishop, a priest, a deacon, a subdeacon, an acolyte, an exorcist, a lector, a porter, and from tonsure.
The most recent edition of the previous pontifical dates to 1962. Those rites were never revised after the Second Vatican Council.