A Pontifex to Build Bridges

Did the Cardinals win another one?

21 April 753 BCE is traditionally the founding of Rome.

In the mythology so wonderfully told by Livy — you MUST read his first ten books!! — Romulus and Remus found seven hills. Like Cain and Abel, the twins — reared by a she-Wolf — fought to the death. Romulus won and became Rome’s first king circa 21 April 753 BCE.

Numa Pompilius (753-672 BCE — KING from 715 BCE till his death) was Rome’s second King, and he founded many religious institutions.

Rome was on the Tiber.

The Tiber meandered and Rome severely needed bridges.

There was a guild of bridge makers: Pontifices (a compound word from roots pons — a bridge — and facere — to make (manufacture is, in root, “handmade” — well, in ETYMOLOGY it is).

The head of the guild was a maximus.

So, Numa Pompilius nominated, circa 715 BCE, the pontifex maximus — the head of the bridge maker guild.

Also, a priestly office.

When Augustus circa 31 BCE, after Actium, solidified power in the Principate (“First among equals”), he wanted to preserve the forms of the Republic and old, traditional Roman forms.

Augustus was a title, not his name — Gaius OCTAVIUS Thurinus was his birthname — the nephew of Gaius Julius Caesar, the great man adopted him — he became, Gaius Julius Caesar . . . Later, the Senate obsequiously entitled Octavian, “Augustus” — which means pretty much what you think it does.

Augustus served as Pontifex Maximus and the head of the Pontifical College (priestly and a continuation of, well, the bridge-building guild).

One of the charms of my Roman Catholic religion is historical continuity.

This historical continuity goes back to Numa Pompilius in 715 BCE with the Bridge-Makers’ Guild (Pontifices) and the Head of the Guild (Pontifex Maximus).

As the Pontifex Maximus was established by Numa Pompilius, soon after Rome’s founding — the Tiber forced the engineers to build bridges, after all, so one of the chief Papal churches is the Pantheon.

(Daniel Klaffke, Unsplash)

(Manish Tulaskar, Unsplash)

On our 40th Wedding Anniversary, Nancy — the Love and Light of My Life — worshipped at Mass in The Pantheon.

The ancient Temple to ALL THE GODS (“Pantheon”) was converted to a Church by Pope Boniface IV in 609 CE, with permission of the Emperor of Byzantium.

Look carefully at the Frieze. M. Agrippa L. F. COS. TERTIUM FECIT. (Marcus Agrippa was a powerful, strategic and wealthy ally of Augustus. L.F. means Lucii Filius (son of Lucius). COS. TERTIUM refers to M. Agrippa’s third term as Consul. (Rome had two consuls — each a head of state in consultation with the Senate.) And there, again, is that word, Fecit — In other words: Marcus Agrippa, Son of Lucius, during his third term as Consul, erected (fecit) (this temple).

M. Agrippa built (fecit) the Pantheon circa 27-25 BCE.

The temple was, The Pantheon.

The Romans were very pious. They did not want to incur the wrath of ANY God.

So, the Pantheon allowed worship of ALL THE GODS WHATSOEVER. That is why it was a PAN-THEON.

So, to conduct Mass, as is done currently, in the Pantheon — as one of the main Papal churches, is to carry on a tradition of pre-Christian Rome.

And, who better, than the Pontifex Maximus: The Priest who was the head of the Bridge-Maker’s Guild.

So much to link us to ancient Rome.

Nancy — THE woman who has made my whole adult life fulfilled, whole and free — called me out today, as she, on CNN, had, through the miracle of television, a front row seat as the white smoke made clear: habemus Papam.

It is much less impressive that Leo XIV is an American.

What is impressive and consequential is the choice of the name, Leo XIV.

This choice definitely indicates a direction for Mother Church.**

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** Armando is a lifelong Catholic (with a forced exile during my high-school and college by parents turned FUNDAMENTALIST — YUCK!) So, I write as a member of the “faithful.”

Leo XIII was the Pope of Modern Labor and Labor Unions.

Leo XIII was not neutral in face of the cruelty of industrialists and the oppression of the worker.

Leo XIII wrote massively and passionately to advance the cause of the working person, a sample of which is here:

[O]pportune remedy must be found quickly for the misery and wretchedness pressing so unjustly on the majority of the working class: for the ancient workingmen's guilds were abolished in the last century, and no other protective organization took their place. Public institutions and the laws set aside the ancient religion. Hence, by degrees it has come to pass that working men have been surrendered, isolated and helpless, to the hardheartedness of employers and the greed of unchecked competition. The mischief has been increased by rapacious usury, which, although more than once condemned by the Church, is nevertheless, under a different guise, but with like injustice, still practiced by covetous and grasping men. To this must be added that the hiring of labor and the conduct of trade are concentrated in the hands of comparatively few; so that a small number of very rich men have been able to lay upon the teeming masses of the laboring poor a yoke little better than that of slavery itself.

Leo XIII, Rerum Novarum — Encyclical of Labor and Capital, 15 May 1891

https://www.vatican.va/content/leo-xiii/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_l-xiii_enc_15051891_rerum-novarum.html

Born in the late 1940s, this 77-year-old vividly remembers each Pope from Pius XII, to the thrill of the election of John XXIII and the Second Vatican Council — recommended reading: John XXIII, Journey of a Soul — through the Inquisitor, Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger (who, as Inquisitor (Head of the Congregation of Christian Doctrine — a euphemism for the Inquisition)) — who became Benedict XVI (and whom I gave his due respect as: “The Holy RAT” — under the theory that Germans (I am bilingual) often shorten long words — so “Rat” for “Ratzinger” — one syllable, instead of three).

The Holy Rat, along with Saint Pope John Paul II, miserably failed in correcting pedophilia. He must have lacked investigatory abilities. After all, the reputation of the Holy Cardinal’s own Brother raises a hellish stench in Germany for alleged pedophilia. How far did the Holy Rat have to look to root out offenders?

But seeking deviations from dogma? The Inquisitor, The HOLY RAT, succeeded in depriving Fr. Hans Kung of his “theological faculties.”

That means, Fr Kung was still a priest. Still could celebrate the sacraments. Still could be a professor. But Fr. Hans Kung could no longer represent that his teachings were within the fold of Catholic doctrine.

What really pleases me is The Hola RAT’s failed attempt on one of Catholicism’s best scholars: The Dominican, Fr. Edward Schillebeeckx.

Fr. Schillebeeckx was a Dominican Professor of Theology at the renowned Flemish university, Louvaine (“Leuven” — meaning “lions” in Flemish-Dutch).

Fr. Schillebeeckx wrote a huge tome with the simple title, Jesus.

The Holy Rat sat with Fr. Schillebeeckx in Holy Inquisition to make accusations of heresy from Jesus.

Now, here is the delicious part. (Armando salivates!!)

You see, German and Dutch are such sister languages, that when I hear Dutch radio, I think I should understand it all. Between English and German, I can catch a lot.

But Germans typically have a hard time with Dutch, though Low German is in parts of Germany even identical with the Dutch Language.

The Holy Rat would read an English or German translation from Jesus to Fr. Schillebeeckx and accuse him of denying the Incarnation, the Hypostasis of God and Man in One Person as in the great Council of Nicaea.

The calm Fr. Schillebeeckx responded, That is your opinion, because you cannot read my original intent in the written language.

Fr. Schillebeeckx frustrated The Holy RAT at every turn of the Holy Inquisition.

So, The Holy RAT could not deprive Fr. Schillebeeckx of ANY FACULTIES.

And, Armando had the very good fortune, 20 years ago, to meet a roommate and friend of the great Dominican at an Augustinian conference at Villanova University. The priest and professor LOVED Fr. Schillebeeckx and shared beautiful and funny stories about the great scholar.

For example, Fr. Schillebeeckx could not abide Fr. Hans von Balthasar, who is often quoted among more literal-minded theologians in the Church.

The friend discovered Fr. Schillebeeckx cool in their quarters, sitting before a rotating fan, perched upon volumes by Fr. Hans von Balthasar.

Quoth Fr. Schillebeeckx, “I have finally found a use for Balthasar’s books!”

My, goodness, the priestly roommate and I shared some chuckles over that one.

Meanwhile, what does Armando expect.

Is Armando hopeful?

Nancy is.

Nancy was gleeful today.

I explained to Nancy the significance of the connection with the great Pope of Labor Unions, Leo XIII.

There is the promise that, with Leo XIV’s experience in Peru and his love of the Spanish and Italian languages, that Leo XIV will concentrate on Our Lord’s values of the individual person.

The immigrant.

The image that keeps cropping to the front of Armando’s mind is the cruel death trap the Tyrant, Governor Greg Abbott, set in barbed wire in the Rio Grande that did nothing to stop drug or human trafficking, but drowned a sweet, beautiful young mother, who was desperate to save her little children from death, while Mr. Abbott’s state GOONS prevented Mr. Biden’s Federal Forces from entering to rescue — all with the casuistry, “What?! We didn’t see anything? A woman and her little children? Better take that up with the Texas bureaucracy, because we do not know nothing!

So, I hope that Leo XIV will be a strong Pope for humane values.

But Armando has become quite cynical.

If you heard me speak, even though, at least in the sense of Paul Tillich and Rudolf Bultmann (two of the leading theologians who RESISTED the Third Reich) — of demythologizing and symbology - Armando believes in all of the Catholic magisterium symbolically but not mythically — you could be forgiven, especially under the heavy influence of David Hume (ages 17-24, having written his Treatise of Human Nature (1739) — if you thought, “Is Armando an atheist?!?!” — certainly a literalist or a Fundamentalist would see no difference.

There can be strong Vatican pronouncements.

But for scores of years, I wanted to go to Orthodoxy, Lutheranism or Anglicanism, out of OUTRAGE for the pedophilia — the cruel torture of children.

I cannot join in any joy or celebration of a new Papacy, no matter how good Leo XIV is.

I take the Sacrament. The Sacrament gives me union with the Holy Body and Blood of the Incarnate Jesus Christ, in his Hypostatic Union of God and Man in one person, as in the ancient Councils of the Church.

But, God DAMN, the harm of little children is the most depraved crime of humanity.

Our Lord said, that if one hurt a little child, it would be better for him to have a millstone around his neck than for him to face God’s judgment for this greatest of sins.

Priests tell me it is priests and individuals, not the Church, that sins.

I am not qualified to render judgment on this, though I have carefully studied work of such greats as Karl Barth, Wolfgang Pannenberg, Emil Brunner, and most of the work of Paul Tillich.

I practice and am a member of the “Faithful.”

Did I ever tell you the one where Armando was the only member of the Faithful to be kicked out unceremoniously by the Bishop from his office in Tucson?!

That is an event I know to treasure today. What a hilarious event!

OK.

I renounce and condemn the great sins of the Church or the thousands of priests and their bishops, especially the harm of children.

I see no evidence of abatement.

Major dioceses have protected themselves financially, including by bankruptcy.

Major dioceses have covered up their archives from prosecutorial authorities.

I have served, with the St. Vincent de Paul Society, on the diocesan effort to investigate and redress these crimes.

I attend every Mass. I love the Sacrament. My theology is like Paul Tillich and Rudolf Bultmann and philosophically akin to the skeptic, David Hume, and most people would think I am an atheist.

I am transported with love and joy at the Sacrament of Christ’s Body and Blood.

In defeating the Ancient Donatists, the Holy Augustine, Doctor of the Church, made clear that the sacraments are valid even if the administering priest were evil.

So, I am transported by the Sacrament.

But in many respects, at Mass, I am absent.

Speculating on the wonders raised by David Hume in his youthful, Treatise of Human Nature, that caused Immanuel Kant to give up his original plans and go to very basic Epistemology. Kant expressed, My God, Hume is the Copernican Revolution in Philosophy.

And since then, the schools of Philosophy, starting especially with Hume, Leibniz, Jacobi, Carl Leonhard Rheinhard, Kant, Hegel through Heidegger and Rudolf Carnap and Wittgenstein, have been trying to establish a firm foundation for human knowledge and communication.

That is where Armando’s mind is.

And my mind is in the grand cathedrals of Hume and Kant, anywhere.

Which makes me among those that loves the immigrant, the Latino, the LGBTQ — the persecution of immigrants and transgender plants me firmly on the side of trying to shelter and protect them.

While Orange-Tramp deports helpless to torture cells in El Salvador, he brings back to America Mr. Andrew Tate, who is accused of terrible misogyny.

Each child, each girl, each woman, each person whatsoever, each trans-, each Minority, each resident — citizen or immigrant, “legal” or “illegal” (what do those mean, anyway? I mean, REALLY!) — each has human beauty, human dignity, the worth of a human soul, each is our brother or sister, each deserves to live a full life with adequate food, shelter, healthcare, wages, retirement, personal safety and security, and people that love and care for them.

So, I am not one who is thrilled by the new Pope.

I have lived through all of the Popes from Pius XII through today.

During WWII, the Holy Catholic Church under Pius XII failed humanity in failing, unlike Pius XI (who condemned anti-Semitism in his von brennender Sorge — “Burning Concerns) circa 1937. Pius XII, in contrast, did not.

But circa 1947, Pius XII was careful to teach the Italian midwives: No artificial contraception. No, no.

Nazi crimes against humanity; the Shoah; the Holocaust. Pius XII, I think I will be a diplomat.

What is Christianity if it fails humanity at exactly the moment of humanity’s great test?

So, no.

This 77-year-old is not “excited” about the new Holy Father.

I hope he lives up to the heritage of Leo XIII.

Meanwhile, our Nation is in a state of Crisis and Constitutional Endangerment.

More later.