A Fascinating Hypothetical

Can an excommunicated cardinal be allowed to participate in a conclave?  Civil and common lawyers will not be surprised to learn that the canon lawyer's answer is an answer they are very familiar with indeed:

"It depends."

You can find out what it depends on here.

(And by the way, it punctures a few holes in some sede vacantist arguments.  And, yes, I am aware we are all sede vacantists at the moment.  But I mean those who are more or less permanently so.)

Oculos habent et non videbunt

I have a new pair of glasses.

Same frames, but first new prescription in 10 years.

I've been visiting non-mobile-optimized websites (apparently, that is indeed what they're called) on my phone and reading the miniscule print just because I can.  And there are directions on back of Tylenol bottles.  (It'll do what to my liver??)  Who knew?

I can even read the Latin text in my Baronius Press missal in less than perfect light.  We're talking 7 pt type here, if I recall correctly.

What an unexpected pleasure this has been.  If your world has been a little fuzzy lately, I can recommend a good eye doctor.

One #$%& Thing After Another

There's nothing quite so tedious as reading about -- or worse: listening to -- the details of somebody else's illnesses.   On the other hand, there's nothing quite so fascinating as one's own.  So the following is of absorbing interest to me.  You, however, will likely find it quite stunningly boring.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


When I started this post about eight hours ago I really was going to go into detail.  Loving detail might be overstating the case.  But, certainly, detail.  Now, after a baker's dozen interruptions and assorted errands of varying consequentiality, even I have lost interest.

So, the short version:

-touch of food poisoning;
-flare up of diverticulitis;
-cold: sore throat, sinusitis, etc.
-flare up of diverticulitis II

. . . .successively over a period of about 5 weeks.


And that's why you have read nothing here since February 11th and not much prior to that.

I hope to do better in the future.  But then I always do, don't I.

I Didn't Expect to Need These Again Quite So Soon

From the traditional Missal, the Votive Mass for the Election of a Pope:

We humbly beseech Thee, O Lord:  That of Thy unbounded mercy Thou wouldest grant unto the holy Roman Church a Pontiff; who by his tender care towards us may ever find favour in Thy sight, and, studying to preserve Thy people in safety, may ever be honoured by us to the glory of Thy name.  Through our Lord.   Amen.

Supplici, Domine, humilitate deposcimus:  ut sacrosanctæ Romanæ Ecclesiæ concedat Pontificem illum tua immensa pietas;  qui et pio in nos studio semper tibi placitus, et tuo populo pro salubri regimine sit assidue ad gloriam tui nominis reverendus.  Per Dominum nostrum.  Amen.

From the BCP, slightly adapted:

Almighty and everlasting God, who by thy Holy Spirit didst preside in the Council of the blessed Apostles, and hast promised, through thy Son Jesus Christ, to be with thy Church to the end of the world;  We beseech thee to be with the College of Cardinals assembled in thy Name and Presence.  Save them from all error, ignorance, pride, and prejudice; and of thy great mercy vouchsafe, we beseech thee, so to direct, sanctify, and govern them in their work, by the mighty power of the Holy Ghost, that the comfortable Gospel of Christ may be truly preached, truly received, and truly followed, in all places, to the breaking down the kingdom of sin, Satan, and death; till at length the whole of thy dispersed sheep, being gathered into one fold, shall become partakers of everlasting life; through the merits and death of Jesus Christ our Saviour.  Amen.

And once more, and for a while yet, what's been near the top of the left-hand column for the past few years:

Oremus pro beatissimo Papa Nostro Benedicto:

 Dominus conservet eum, et vivificet eum, et beatam faciat eum in terra, et non tradat eum in animam inimicorum eius.

 Almighty and everlasting God, have mercy upon Thy servant, Benedict, our Supreme Pontiff, and direct him, according to Thy loving-kindness, in the ways of eternal salvation; that, of Thy gift he may ever desire that which is pleasing unto Thee and may accomplish it with all his might. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Quinquagesima Sunday

Quinquagesima Sunday

Station at St Peter

This solemn assembly at the confessio of the Vatican brings to a close the Triduum in preparation for the great solemnity of the coming fast. Having assured ourselves of the patronage of St Lawrence, St Paul, and St Peter, we shall be ready with full confidence to commence next Sunday at the Lateran Basilica the holy cycle of penance. In imitation of the Greeks, all religious communities and the more devout amongst the laity began, in early times, to abstain from meat from this week onwards. The Church has adopted this use to a certain extent by beginning Lent on the following Feria IV (Ash Wednesday).

. . . . .

The mystery of the cross is so difficult for the mind of man to understand that even the Apostles, who had studied for three years in the school of Christ, had not yet penetrated it. They did not understand it now as they journeyed to Jerusalem, nor yet on the evening of the paschal feast, at which they were consecrated the Pontiffs of the New Testament. One short hour later, omnes, relicto eo, fugerunt, leaving Jesus to go up to Calvary alone. How necessary, then, is it for us to meditate upon Christ crucified, lest we should fail in a matter of the highest moment, towards which the whole of our spiritual life should be directed -- that is, the mystery of expiation through suffering.

From The Sacramentary (Liber Sacramentorum) of the Blessed Ildefonso Cardinal Schuster.
Vol II, pgs 36, 38.

Found While Looking for Something Else

There is nothing greater than the Church, the "Great Church", as Celsus called her in the third century, in order to distinguish her from the heretical self-styled "churches." She is likened to a tree in which the birds build their nests. Indeed, since the sanctification and glorification of the Church are the ultimate end of all created things it is necessary that social institutions, kingdoms and families should derive their strength and their permanence from her. At Rome, in the pontificate of St Clement, she was called the firstborn of all creatures, for whom all other things were made. Therefore liberalism, the theory that the Church and the State are two irreducible parallels, is an anarchical idea, which resolves itself in pure atheism. History, life's great teacher, demonstrates but too clearly the truth of that which was said by the ancient author of the Epistle ad Diognetum -- namely, that the world without the spirit of Christianity is no more than a decaying corpse from which the soul has fled.

- from the Liber Sacramentorum of Bl Ildefonse Cardinal Schuster in the article on the Sixth Sunday after Pentecost, pg 417 of volume 1.