Many people do not realize how you have to be part of the right interpretative community in order to interpret a text in a way that results in meaningful communication between the author and the reader. For instance, many radical-"traditionalist" Catholics often like to quote old Church documents out of context; they assume that because they have a pre-Vatican II mindset, they will automatically understand anything written before Vatican II. And don't even get me started on Protestants and the Bible.
Reading Pope Benedict's Exhortation, I had this mental image of someone hundreds of years in the future reading this passage:
Given the need to rediscover sacramental forgiveness, there ought to be a Penitentiary in every Diocese.
and supposing that back in the 21st Century the pope used to have a jail in every diocese.
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