No offense — no _intentional_ offense, anyway — to my Papo-con colleagues,

but I have always thought that the system that prevailed in certain

stretches of the later Middle Ages, where you had more than one Pope, had a

lot to be said for it.

Nowadys it would probably come down to a conservative Pope for the

Papo-cons, and a more liberal anti-Pope for the spiritual descendants of the

Berrigan brothers. Then Roman Catholics would be free to choose. What’s

wrong with that?