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ElectAPope.com, site by attorney for Catholic canon and civil law

Why wait for 117 priests to elect a pope when you can do it yourself?

That's the approach taken by Patricia Dugan, an attorney who says she is the world's only laywoman schooled in both Catholic canon and civil American law. (Here she is on the left, exchanging pope hats with Pope John Paul II. )

Led by Bob Ambrogi, I clicked over to Dugan's Web site, ElectAPope.com. "Cast your vote," the site urged me:

"The Election of a Pope affects not only the entire Roman Catholic Church, but it also has effects on the entire world.  The College of Cardinals has one hundred and seventeen men who will actually elect the Pope.  There is not one from every country in the world, nor is there a representative from every country with which the Church has diplomatic relations.  No women are electors, nor are there any electors who are not ordained priests. With such a limited amount of input from the world, we invite you to tell us who you think should be the next Pope."

Dugan, according to her site, earned her Juris Canonici Licentia (JCL), summa cum laude, at the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas in Rome -- the same university from which Pope John Paul II gained his degree -- after she had already been practicing law for 10 years.

According to a press release on ElectAPope.com, "Canon Law is the Code of man-made laws of the Roman Catholic Church -- the study of the Canons or specific statutes of the Code and how they are applied, within the oldest continuing functional legal system in the Western world. Like the Church, Canon Law is universal -- a code of law that knows no national or local boundaries. All appeals end in Rome." Dugan is the founding partner in the Philadelphia-based firm Dugan, Carver and Kosinski, with a concentration in family law.

Bob Ambrogi has a link to view results here. More about the pope hat here.

Posted by Jennifer Moline on April 12, 2005 at 11:16 AM | Permalink | TrackBack (0)

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