The comment thread over at Edward Pentin’s watershed piece that he published to his private website – perhaps risking his job with EWTN/National Catholic Register – is REALLY GOOD.

Some people are criticizing Ed for including quotes from Salza, et al.  Look folks, Ed Pentin is a JOURNALIST, not a pundit.  He isn’t arguing a position – he is REPORTING, like journalists USED to do.  I’m old enough to just barely remember the days of actual journalism.  Considering that there has been and continues to be a hyper-aggressive media and for-profit blogo$phere blackout on the entire question of Pope Benedict’s invalid resignation, Ed’s reportage is HUUUUUGE.  He has blown the lid off the fact that the question of Pope Benedict’s attempted partial resignation being invalid is now MAINSTREAMED in Rome.

Also, people are getting all snippy about the fact that Ed didn’t quote or link to me.  Folks, be VERY, VERY careful of ANYONE who demands “credit” in this situation.  If I die totally forgotten under a bridge (as mentally ill psychopathic ogresses like me are wont to do – wink), that doesn’t matter a whit, so long as this situation GETS RESOLVED.  As far as I’m concerned, Steve Skojec should receive massive credit for publicizing the question of the invalid resignation of Pope Benedict XVI.  He has spent years of grueling 80 hour work weeks on social media tirelessly calling attention to this situation.

My favorite comment in the Ed Pentin combox is this little nugget of truth from “Elmo”:

If a priest says “I baptize you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Red Firetruck” it doesn’t matter his intention, the baptism is invalid. Pope said ministerium instead of munus. INVALID.

Yup.  Imagine the hypothetical priest in the example above is suffering from the same sort of dementia that we are seeing from Joe Biden.  Let’s call him “Fr. Joe Dementia”.  His brain is mis-firing and random words replace what he is actually trying to say.  We would all KNOW what “Fr. Joe” MEANT to say in the context of the baptism.  But he didn’t say it, and therefore the baptism is 100% INVALID.

Fr. Joe Dementia might have said, “I baptize you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the… Thing” to keep the Joe Biden comparison pure.

Now, layer onto that the fact that in this situation, what Pope Benedict MEANT is also highly, highly debatable.  In fact, there is a mountain of evidence that Pope Benedict MEANT something completely different – “red firetruck”.

So we have Pope Benedict SAYING IPSO FACTO INVALID WORDS as the example of Fr. Joe Dementia above, but we ALSO have strong evidence that Pope Benedict “red firetrucked”:

The “always” is also a “for-ever” – there can no longer be a return to the private sphere. My decision to RESIGN THE ACTIVE EXERCISE OF THE MINISTRY does not revoke this. I do not return to private life, to a life of travel, meetings, receptions, conferences, and so on. I am not abandoning the cross, but remaining in a new way at the side of the crucified Lord. I no longer bear the POWER OF OFFICE FOR THE **GOVERNANCE** OF THE CHURCH, but in the service of prayer I remain, so to speak, in the enclosure of Saint Peter. Saint Benedict, whose name I bear as Pope, will be a great example for me in this. He showed us the way for a life which, whether active or passive, is completely given over to the work of God.