ROMAN DIARY ENTRY

But O for the touch of a vanished hand. Tennyson

Ed. Note: The Readers were busy diarists on their recent sojourn to the eternal city as they recorded the opinions of some of the distinguished citizens they met. In the coming months, Pistrina may share some of their most pertinent observations with followers of this blog. For starters, and for whatever it's worth, here's an interesting note from the other side about ordination with one hand.

We met him by pure chance on a crisp, almost impossibly bright, Roman late morning in the first week November as we visited Santa Maria del Popolo. We happened to be admiring the numerous funerary monuments of the Mellini Chapel. As one of the Readers translated aloud the inscriptions for our group, a merry priest, perhaps in his mid-sixties, energetically approached us with a broad smile. It seems our interest in the chapel -- and our colleague's fascination with lapidary prose and sentiment -- had piqued his curiosity. Our introductions were almost immediately interrupted by the announcement of the church's closing for the afternoon, so we all shuffled off for a quick look at the adjacent Chigi Chapel with its mosaics designed by Raphael.

Outside, in front of the simple but impressive travertine façade, we chatted some more with this lively clergyman and ended up inviting him to join us at Canova's, an attractive café and restaurant just across the piazza near the Via Babuino. There we learned that our new acquaintance, now living in semi-retirement in Liguria, had been a professor of theology at a diocesan seminary. (He was in Rome that week on a visit to younger siblings.) As the hours drifted by, we explained the intractable problems of the traditional movement in the U.S., and in particular its substandard, grasping clergy. Inasmuch as our priestly table companion was a professionally trained theologian, one of the Readers, after supplying background information, asked him his opinion on one-handed ordination.

Our newfound friend first protested ignorance, saying that nowadays the Church puts less emphasis on "such procedural niceties." However, with a little prodding, he soon confessed amusement that sedevacantist clergy would not have cured the defect privately. "They have dozens of bishops willing to do such things for a small consideration! Why didn't that man regularize his predicament before his consecration? Why did he ever leave the question open to continuing speculation and doubt?"

We couldn't answer him, but we observed that subsequent to his consecration a dependent found a few authors who didn't condemn one-handed ordination.

"Su! Dai!" was his impatient retort as he slapped the edge of the table with his fingers. Then, with an arch smile and a slow shake of the head, he continued, "It's not outside my experience for authors to be wrong. Even the saintly Cappello! These sedevacantists are notorious for demanding adherence to the literal letter of the law. That's their scandal: they insist on strict compliance from others but they can't follow the rules themselves."

All we could do was agree, and we assured him their day in the sun was at an end.