…hypotheticals! Given the lateness of the hour and the festive character of what’s left of Pentecost, this seems better than writing about serious matters. So, here goes:

1. You accidentally slip into a parallel universe. Are you still obliged to go to Mass?

2. You accidentally slip into an alternate timeline. After many adventures, you restore the timeline to its original state. Are you obliged to confess the sins you committed in that timeline which can now be said to never have existed?

3. You are sent back in time, three hundred years before the birth of Saint Dominic. Are you still obliged to pray your daily Rosary?

4. The Doctor has given you his sonic screwdriver!!! Do you give it to a) your spiritual director, b) your secret crush, or c) Joss Whedon?

5. In the parallel universe, Catherine of Aragon has a healthy baby boy. Do you kidnap him and give him to our Catherine of Aragon, knowing that this will save our England from schism and but lead to schism in the parallel England?

6. You are granted a limited power over the timeline. At your word, we’ll have won the Battle of Constantinople… but the Popes will remain in Avignon. Yes or no?

7. A priest hears a confession on Monday. He slips back in time and prevents the sin from being committed. When he slips back to the Monday, is he breaking the seal of confession if he shares the details of a confession which he has now no longer heard?

8. Your spiritual director says that you watch too much sci-fi. Is he a) right, b) a jansenist, c) his doppelganger?