From: ahk@chinet.com   
      
   Louis Epstein  wrote:   
   >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.   
      
   Can't they cut off the beer and pizza earlier than they did last time so   
   they more quickly make a decision?   
      
   >> 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).   
      
   --- SoupGate-DOS v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)