Why does an archbishop have a palace? Just wondering.
To get to the other side!
Oooops sorry. Wrong punchline.
L
I'll respond with a definition penned by H.L. Mencken:
"Archbishop- A Christian ecclesiastic of a rank superior to that attained by Christ."
"Why does an archbishop have a palace?"
10. All the Archbishop-y bungalows were full.
9. Doesn't have to waste valuable Archbishop time giving directions.
8. Came with free membership at El Blockbustero.
7. Graceland was already taken.
6. Run on split-level palatial estates left him otherwise homeless in the midst of housing bubble.
5. Saves money with lots of roommates, passes on savings to Catholics with VOLUME VOLUME VOLUME!
4. Needs somewhere to hold annual Opus Dei paintball tourney.
3. Two (and a half) words: Carmelite hoe-downs.
2. Needed a big backyard for the kids.
1. Doubles as road trip hangout for College of Cardinals spring break.
It's just his official residence and offices. Palacio in Spanish does not mean what we think of as "palace" in English. It can be an official building (such as the Palacio de las Cortes, literally, the Palace of the Legislature) and sometimes a large urban private home. Houses of well-off upper middle class families in the 19th century were called "palacios," for example. Sometimes they were quite lavish and sometimes not, but they were always large and had space for employees of the family or individual, a library or document storage space, offices, etc. The term is not used much any more except for official buildings or historical buildings.