If you have been to the Sistine Chapel as a tourist recently (and not for a liturgical event or perhaps a conclave), you will have found it disconcertingly filled with a crowd of rowdy tourists (self-excluded, of course).
Now you can get the full Sistine Chapel experience ONLINE here – and with really nice streaming music too! The only feature I would like to see added is a zoom and the ability to move the point of reference around. But it is still really cool. AND empty!
I propose that
1) We replace the absentee monarch of Australia (who is also the Monarch of Great Britain) with an elected Australian monarchy.
2) The elected monarch exactly replaces the current monarch in the current constition.
3) The elected monarch has exactly the same powers, duties and responsibilities as those of the current absentee monarch. All the monarch's functions are carried out by his/her personal representatives (as is currently the case): federally by the Governor General, and in the states by the State Governors.
4) The Governor General and the Governors continue to be selected and appointed as they currently are, that is, by the premier with the approval of the monarch.
5) The monarch is elected to sovereignty over Australia for life, but his/her sovereignty is strictly non-hereditary.
6) The elective body is the "college of electors" comprised of the state governors and federal governor general.
7) The election of the monarch must be a unanimous decision on the part of the college of electors.
Judas Digital Priest, where is an Oliviero Cardinal Carafa when we need him?
Speaking of Cardinals Carafa, doesn’t our friend Cardinal Pole on this blog often sound rather more like Giovanni Pietro Cardinal Carafa rather than the historical Reginald Cardinal Pole? I’ve always wondered what sort of Church (or Churches) we would be living in now if Cardinal Pole rather than Cardinal Carafa got the white smoke.
Holy crap, you mean Paul IV? Well, I have no doubt Die saemtliche Werke Past Elders would have ended up on the Index, but I’m not sure if my Righteous of the Nations thing would get me the yellow hat.