A few years ago, the Lawrence Berkeley National Labs turned on their 27$ electron microscope. It can measure half the width of a hydrogen atom.
Even with its assistance, I doubt if I could find anything in the coverage of the Knights of Malta by an element of the Catholic Press in Britain of the slightest interest or significance And that even before we noticed the importance in this matter given to Cardinal Burke.
Like the good cardinal himself, this organisation is a medieval accretion , well past its sell-by and of debatable importance in the first place. We can see how he enjoys the company, mind you. The Knights tend to go into uniforms in a big way. One of them is in the news wearing a chestful of gear which would make an old-fashioned cinema commissionaire think twice, and which would fit beautifully into a Ruritanian operetta. But then, so, of course would, Cardinal Burke . Not just because of the cheap melodrama, but because of the famous 22 feet long cappa magna which you can see on Google at any time.
But who cares? Although one must ask why a section of the Catholic Press cares , and ask it loud and long.
Pope Francis has more to do. It was a bit worrying when it was reported that he was looking at letting married priests in Brazil back in, but there were reports of schism in that area not long ago, and he knows what he is doing .
There are two things he might care to consider, sooner rather than later.
One is clarifying at last the Church’s policy on family limitation, and reducing Pope Paul VI to the footnote in history where he belongs.
The other – and how obviously it follows on- is to remove from Canon Law the ridiculous necessity after General Absolution to find a priest and have sins forgiven twice. If you can find a priest of course.
The exercise of power, some have said, is the curse of the Tridentine priesthood. Just google ‘General Absolution’ some time, and note the frenzied hysteria with which the idea of losing the feeling-yes, the feeling- of giving absolution is greeted. That feeling-yes, the feeling- seems to be what really counts.
Anyway, it is now nearly a year since the BBC revealed in full detail- and sometimes you have to wonder if it really knows what good it does- that in St Pope John Paul II we had a pope who was madly in love with another man’s wife. And yet the Church still stands, and life goes on. Who knows what writers are working hard to draw parallels between STJPII’s more bizarre pronouncements and his complex emotional life ?
We have every intention of preempting them . Watch this space !