22 April 2021

NOTICE

I may need some eye treatment. This may mean that I might not read comments, let alone enable them. I cannot say when the status quo ante might return. I would be very grateful for prayers.

I have set up some posts which should, Deo volente, pop up automatically every day without my further agency.

I thought I had answered the Benedicentist position in my recent piece about how to behave when one is offerred two alternative popes. Or three. Or even four. Or, indeed, as many as Providence sends you.

If people want to practise DIY popemaking, let them take into Westminster Cathedral a reliable checklist of popes and antipopes. And a pencil. And lots of paper. Work through the lists on the left-hand wall. Pay special attention to amusing little details like which archbishops apparently received a pallium from which papal claimant, and whether that claimant was, er, indeed alive at the relevant time. And which papal claimant inherits his claim from which predecessor and why not. 

Hours of fun! Try not to get infuriated. If you do get infuriated, avoid (1) shouting; (2) attempting to correct the lists with your chisel.

In fact, probably best not to take the chisel after all.

Amusing additional questions: Why is the mighty Cardinal Allen not on the list? Who sez that the Vicars Apostolic of the London District were chief pastors of the Catholic Church in England?

Not I.

Post Scriptum: Why is Mr Biden wearing a British Brigade of Guards tie today? Was he a MI5 agent during the Troubles?

8 comments:

Lady Jane Perdue said...

Dear Fr. Hunwicke, You are an inspiration. Prayers for a full recovery of your eye condition. Your clear vision of Faith & reason remains excellent.

Evangeline said...

Fr. Hunwicke, I will be happy to pray for you! We look forward to hearing from you as soon as you are able. God bless you and keep you. We will miss you while you are healing and are sure all will be well. Having just gone through a spirited bout of Covid, having Jesus and Our Lady as company will be all you'll need to set you right again.

william arthurs said...

I had an acquaintance, an Anglophile American, who I believe wished to be thought of as a sometime Guards officer.

Out of curiosity,why are you wearing a Guards tie? I asked him.

Ah but it is, he replied, actually the tie of the Virginia Ramblers' Club.

Fair enough. (I should add that it would have been easy to tell the difference if only because American striped ties customarily have the stripes gong the other way from those on British ties. How this custom arose, no-one knows.)

AQ said...

Father, I will pray for your eye trouble, which I have had a lot of. The good doctors are getting better at fixing these afflictions.

DMG said...

St Raphael intercede for Father Hunwicke.

PM said...

Dear Father

I have just offered a decade of the Rosary for you and shall keep you in my prayers.

John Patrick said...

"I should add that it would have been easy to tell the difference if only because American striped ties customarily have the stripes gong the other way from those on British ties. How this custom arose, no-one knows".

Probably the same reason that we drive on the wrong side of the street, have our bathroom taps reversed, and leave out "u" in words like colour and neighbour. Just to be different.

By the way speaking of taps I understand that in Mexico if and when they use American taps they put the one marked "C" on the hot water side as in Spanish C stands for Caliente or hot. However I have never been to a Mexican facility to test this hypothesis. But I digress.

Albrecht von Brandenburg said...

I second AQ's sentiments, having had eye-trouble myself.

AvB