In 1969, with the arrival of Humanity on the Moon, the obispo William Donald Borders became the Bishop of the Moonofficially recognized by the Catholic Church. How is it possible?
In the year 1969 was in force in the Catholic Church the Code of Canon Law, an internal law that was drafted in 1917. This code states that “any new territory to be discovered is automatically assigned to the diocese of the place from which the expedition departed.”
The Apollo XI mission, which brought Neil Armstrong and company to the Lunadeparted from Cape Canaveral, which belongs to the Diocese of Orlando. Interestingly, this diocese was created only a year earlier, in 1968.
William Donald Borders, the first Bishop of the Moon
At the moment in which Armstrong stepped on the Moon and pronounced the mythical phrase: “A small step for man, but a great step for Humanity”, the bishop of the Diocese of Orlando era William Donald Borderswhich automatically became the first Bishop of the Moon.
In this way the Diocese of Orlando became the biggest in the worldby adding to its jurisdiction the 38 million square kilometers what’s wrong with it the surface of the moon.
According to the UCatholic website, the Obispo Borders he met that same year, 1969, with Pope Paul VI. During the conversion he told him: “You know, Holy Father, I am the Bishop of the Moon.” They say that the Pope was perplexed, until they explained to him the norm that appeared in the Code of Canon Law.
Father John Giel, Chancellor for Canonical Affairs for the Diocese of Orlando, acknowledges that this jurisdiction “means nothing if there is no one to have jurisdiction over, since we have not yet found life on the Moon. The story only emphasizes the good nature and humor of Bishop Border, which allowed him to be such a good first bishop for central Florida”.
There may be no life now, but if in 2025 Humanity returns to the Moon as planned, and establishes a colonythe Diocese of Orlando You will already have potential parishioners to attend to.
The obispo William Donald Bordersthe first Bishop of the Moonrecognized by the Catholic Church, died in 2010. So that task would fall to the current Bishop of Orlando, John Noonan.
