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Some, maybe many, would probably say that you're better off not trying to understand anything that I write!

For those who have an interest in history, literature, art, and language it is an opportunity to study and learn a bit. More important than any of my confused scribblings is that people should try to think on and learn from the great thoughts that have been expressed in word and image. It really is worthwhile.

I'll try to explain my post where I used that phrase. What sets Catholicism apart is the Pope; he is the only one that can make a decision that all Catholics can and must hold as certain. I think we all know that, whatever one holds to be the current status of Francis, on a practical level there is no "decider" to look/listen to at the present time. So, very understandably, we try to understand for ourselves. We pray, study, think, make arguments and try to hold and do what we think is correct. In a sense we build ourselves an ark, our own little portable paradise, as it were. But, just like in the paradise of Arcadia, death is still there. Deep down we all know that some things are our own opinion, no matter how well founded we think they are, and cannot be resolved until there is a credible Hierarchy in place, a Pope to make a binding ruling. It is just reality. Personally, I think we shouldn't be afraid of that reality, for God is greater than our fear and greater than the dark situation that is our lot in this time. That is what I was trying to convey with the image of Arcadia. Clear as mud?

There are some concepts that are best expressed in Latin, and people with at least some education, and who are well-read, would have encountered them, and would know what they mean.  If you read enough traditional Catholic literature, you'll pick these up like burrs on a sweater while walking through the woods.

Examples include mutatis mutandis and mirabile dictu.  Their English equivalents would be something like "making the necessary changes in analogies that aren't exact but that illustrate two scenarios with some similar characteristics and some that are not similar" and "you'd never think it, but...".  

William F Buckley Jr would have had no pity.  His attitude was "if you don't know it, look it up".