There seems to be more than the usual quota of unintended humour in the news these days.
I am referring to Donald Trump being raided at his Mar-a-Lago residential estate by the FBI who found 27 boxes of various classes of classified documents in the storage rooms. This is in contravention of the Espionage Act which has serious penalties including jail time, ex-President or not. Quick but stupid as ever, Trump’s lawyers advised him to say that he had ‘declassified’ those sensitive documents while he was still President. Not so stupid though, since apparently the United States has no procedure to prove that documents have been properly declassified. As always, there is a practical application to such new and creative inspired ideas. Let’s say parishioners complain to the Cardinal about a Bishop being fond of watching pornography since some of them saw old Playboy magazines lying around during their visits. Although unlikely, the Cardinal sends a party of priests to the Diocese residence (better if some of them are the bishop’s critics) to see the truth in the accusations. These priests do find the said magazines lying around His Grace’s living quarters, but in a Donald Trump-like manoeuvre, the offending Bishop quickly tells the priests that all these materials have been blessed by him and are therefore not sinful any more. Remember in some Catholic countries you could buy a Papal Bull that exempted you from not eating meat on Fridays during Lent in the days when this was rigorously enforced? The word Bull comes from the world bulla or seal that would be attached to a papal decree. The decree could be of any content. Who knows, Trump’s lawyers could have got their inspiration from Papal Bulls. Roland. Toronto.
