Diocesan Reach

For John, BLUF:  Asking the questions you never thought to ask.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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ASK FATHER: Who is in charge of the Moon?

From Fr Z's Blog, by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf, 30 January 2018.

Here is the lede plus one:

QUAERITUR:

It occurs to me that two of the three people on Apollo 11 were in the military at the time of their trip to the moon.  The command module pilot, Michael Collins, and the lunar module pilot, Buzz Aldrin, were both active duty military at the time of their trip.  Is there an argument to be made that this is sufficient to make the moon part of the Archdiocese of the Military?

Hat tip to Memeorandum.

…as it stands now, it seems that the Moon is under the jurisdiction of the Diocese of Orlando.

“ORLANDO?!?’, you may be saying.  “Disneyworld?  EPCOT?  THAT Orlando?”

The idea is that, back in 1969 when Apollo 11 landed on the Moon, the Diocese of Orlando included Cape Canaveral. Because the journey to the Moon began from the Diocese of Orlando, Orlando had jurisdiction.

There is an anecdote about this.  The late Archbishop Borders, at the time Bishop of Orlando, during an ad limina visit in Rome told Paul VI that he was the bishop of the Moon.

Hat tip to Ann Althouse.

Hat tip to Randy.

Regards  —  Cliff