From: le@lekno.ws   
      
   Louis Epstein  wrote:   
   > As we prepare for the choice of the next Pope,   
   > we are faced this time with not one but two classic   
   > examples of "didn't think it through",one of which   
   > can be easily set aside (as it was last time) but   
   > the new one is rather more difficult to square   
   > with its implications.   
   >   
   > Pope Benedict set up a situation where after 33   
   > ballots of no one getting two thirds of the votes   
   > the cardinals are thereafter required to vote on   
   > only the top two vote-getters until one DOES get   
   > two thirds of the votes,which would be a problem   
   > if those two were both inalterably opposed by at   
   > least a third of the electors,but no conclave has   
   > gone through that many ballots in a very long time.   
   >   
   > Pope Francis,however,when the position of Vice-Camerlengo   
   > of the Holy Roman Church fell open in 2020,chose to   
   > appoint the current Secretary of the College of Cardinals,   
   > Archbishop Ilson de Jesus Montanari.   
   >   
   > He has continued to hold both jobs since.   
   >   
   > Now,the Secretary of the College of Cardinals,who is   
   > not a member of it,does the recordkeeping and vote-counting   
   > and must be INSIDE the conclave throughout (there is a   
   > tradition that he is then made a Cardinal and given a   
   > higher job by the man whose election he certifies but   
   > this is not invariable).   
   >   
   > The Vice-Camerlengo,on the other hand,is the man who   
   > turns the OUTSIDE key locking the Cardinals into the   
   > conclave,while the Cardinal Camerlengo turns the INSIDE   
   > key...and he then runs the Apostolic Camera for the   
   > period of the conclave while the Camerlengo himself   
   > is locked away inside.   
      
   Further research shows that though there is still a   
   Vice-Camerlengo the office responsibilities have been   
   handed over to three cardinals who hold other jobs...   
   but who would,if not over the age to hold those jobs,   
   also be of the age that they would be locked in the   
   conclave with the Camerlengo.   
      
   > I do not believe that Archbishop Montanari has the   
   > super-power of being in two places at once while   
   > obliged by each of the jobs he is doing to not be   
   > in the other place,though with the Christian shtick   
   > of Jesus being "100% God and 100% Man and don't   
   > tell me I can't have 200%!" I suppose they'll think   
   > of something.(I don't suppose the chapel door is   
   > designed to be closed on someone cutting him in   
   > half and then he couldn't use the key anyway).   
   >   
   > -=-=-   
   > The World Trade Center towers MUST rise again,   
   > at least as tall as before...or terror has triumphed.   
      
   --- SoupGate-DOS v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)