Cut To The Chase

 

Theodore Roosevelt definitely Cut to the Chase. The College of Cardinals definitely did no cutting until they had lost a lot of weight and they had snow on their hats. 

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Teddy wanted to build the Panama Canal. He knew, if he turned the Build or Not Build Decision over to Congress, it would take a long time and he was not of a mind to wait around for that long a period of time. So, he said this...

“My own part in it may perhaps be explained by the fact that I deemed it better not to have half a century of debate prior to starting in on the canal; I thought that instead of debating for half a century before building the canal it would be better to build the canal first and debate me for a half-century afterward.”

Do you not agree that not waiting for Congress to act was the right decision?

It’s been more than 100 years. Do you not agree that our Congress has not changed?

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An Interesting Fella Sidetrack... The 1268–71 papal election (from November 1268 to September 1271), following the death of Pope Clement IV, was the longest papal election in the history of the Catholic Church.

Politics ruled and the Cardinals could not agree on a Pope for almost 3 years.

The selection process still continued to drag on for more than a year after the magistrates of Viterbo locked the cardinals in, reduced their rations to bread and water and had the roof of the room they were in removed (exposing the Cardinals to the elements) while they continued to poke holes in the air with their collective fingers.

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Maybe it was easier back in 1370 because there were only 18 Cardinals involved in the selection of the Pope...maybe.

Today there are 252 cardinals in total, but only those under the age of 80 can take part in the conclave.

While that means that 135 cardinals are eligible to vote, two have announced they will not travel to Rome, leaving 133 cardinals to participate in the conclave.

Let’s get back to December 29, 1370...

• On the first ballot in the morning Pierre Roger de Beaufort was unanimously elected Pope.
• He initially opposed his own election but eventually accepted and took the name of Gregory XI.
• On January 2, he was ordained to the priesthood.
• On January 3, he was consecrated Bishop of Rome by the Dean of the College of Cardinals.

Wham bam, thank you, ma'am!

Would I kid u?

Smartfella

Lagniappe: Let’s hope there is not a spoil sport out there somewhere who points out that, Canon law stipulates that any baptized, unmarried man is technically eligible to become pope. Someone better close all the windows because Planet Earth has a lot of unemployed baptized unmarried men who just might throw their hats into the ring and then this conclave too might drag on and on.