itchy

This theology class gives me eczema. For real. It's not the content, particularly, it's something about the instructor's delivery, which is frenetic and prone to sometimes-interesting but often (for me, at least) impossible-to-follow digressions into the politics of the Archdiocese of Basel. Today I learned...that for historical reasons and according to treaties with the Vatican* signed in 1828 and 1847, respectively,
- the Bishop of Basel is elected by the priests of his archdiocese; and
- the Bishop of St. Gallen is elected through a process whereby the archdiocese sends six names to the Pope, who is allowed to strike three of them, and the archdiocese then elects a bishop from the remaining three. 
This is apparently, for the Roman Catholic church (as re-concieved in the second half of the 19th century), some crazy radical anti-hierarchy. In case you were wondering.

* I also learned that a treaty with the Vatican is called a "concordat." This stuff is super relevant to everyday life!