25 January...

This morning's release of Deus caritas est is but the latest use of the feast of the Conversion of St. Paul for the culmination of one major papal initiative or another....

We can only wonder if Benedict XVI called the cardinals into the sacristy of St. Paul's Outside the Walls after the close of the Ecumenical Vespers earlier today. John XXIII did that on this date in 1959, then re-emerged to announce to the world his intent to call an ecumenical council and revise the Code of Canon Law.

Said revision of the Code -- which took your humble narrator's great-great-great uncle 13 years to compile on his own the first time around -- was completed on this date in 1983. The photo at left is taken from that date: John Paul II signing the Apostolic Constitution Sacra Disciplinae Leges (The Law's Sacred Discipline) which promulgated the new Code for the Latin church.

Who's that peering over his shoulder, again? (And no, I don't mean the happy Venezuelan....)

Is it pure coincidence that His (Over-the-Shoulder) Fluffiness has reminded the world again that Caritas lex suprema -- Love is the greatest law?

As you can see, the timing fits the path marked out by history.

-30-