Now this is a good one...

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – Police in North Carolina are searching for a man who stole an excavator from a construction site and used it to make off with a 2,000-pound automated teller machine.

That is quite amusing.....

Use an excavator to rip the ATM off its base and then stick in the getaway pickup.

I always say watch what they do, not what they say.

As we enter the Triduum this evening I must offer the title of this article as an open question.  

Why?

Pope Francis has decided to shun a grand papal apartment on the top floor of the Vatican's Apostolic Palace in favour of a modest two-room residence.

His spokesman said he was "trying out this type of simple living" in a communal building with other priests.

There is something particularly appealing about a man who says a given thing, and then lives that thing.

Oh, and he's eating in the communal dining room too.

And he has been seen out and about rather than cowering in the corner or behind armed security, as recent Popes have done as well.

Maybe there's a reason for hope -- not to be found in our economy and certainly not in the US Government, but rather in something a bit older and more..... refined.

"Tradition", one of the most-abused words in our language, means actually returning to the "old ways."  

Today, I do wonder....

Coming soon to a theatre near you....

And remember, the sun can rise twice in one day.  Ask the people who lived here:

... that is all.

And I say that (the title) as a Catholic.

Let's not play wordsmithing games -- The Pope was directly involved in covering up the sexual abuse scandals of the Church.

In 2010, as outrage built over clerical abuses, some secular and liberal Catholic voices called for his resignation, their demands fueled by reports that laid part of blame at his doorstep, citing his response both as a bishop long ago in Germany and as a cardinal heading the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which handles such cases.       

In one disclosure, news emerged that in 1985, when Benedict was Cardinal Ratzinger, he signed a letter putting off efforts to defrock a convicted child-molesting priest. He cited the priest’s relative youth but also the good of the church.

The Cardinals who elected him likely knew full well that he had done this at the time.  They certainly knew about it later on.

Popes are often thought of as "infallible", but this is not generally true -- among the faithful it applies only to specific acts taken in specific ways.  To put not-to-fine a point on it, only ecumincials issued "ex-cathedra" -- from his chair -- count.

And that assumes you accept the infallibility of humans under any circumstance in the first place.

None of this, of course, has a thing to do with his acts before ascending to the papacy, when such a claim would never apply irrespective of the circumstances.

Catholicism recognizes the forgiveness of sin but in order to have your sins forgiven, under Catholic dogma, you must (1) confess the sins in full, (2) make reparation to the fullest extent when and where possible, and (3) vow to not commit the sin once again.

Benedict arguably fulfilled only the third.  Not only did he fail to confess his sins in full he did exactly nothing during his papacy to put a stop to the outrageous use of legal dodges that the Church has repeatedly and intentionally used to evade responsibility for the acts of its pastors when it comes to the abuse of children.

This man never did deserve reverence -- not as a Cardinal, not as Pope, and not now.

May you slither off into the night Mr. Ratzinger and I shall pray that God guide the Cardinals toward an elect who will finally come clean while putting an immediate and permanent stop to all diversionary tactics intended to keep those who have been harmed by the Church's obfuscation and BS from obtaining justice.