Upon hearing the address from the believer, the man in the black robe twitched his eye and turned his head toward the front hall.
Cheerful crowds, expressionless visitors, and displeased monks. Todd rubbed the bridge of his nose in frustration; it seemed things were more complicated than he had imagined.
“Fellow Catholic Todd, I am Father Paul, sent by Bishop Fabian, to announce the Church’s decision on consecration.”
The black-robed man's words made the monk even more suspicious.
He understood the meaning of the term "consecration": it refers to the bestowal of a holy rank by a high-ranking member of the Church upon a clergyman.
Simply put, it means that a leader in the church promoted a subordinate.
However, this kind of blessing ceremony is completely contrary to common sense.
First, Todd is clearly a monk, not a member of the clergy, and has no right to be granted the rank of saint.
Second, even the conferment of canon titles should take place in the bishop's cathedral, with a dedicated ceremony. What kind of logic is this, where someone just finds a random spot, a priest, and announces it as if it's a perfunctory task?
Father Paul took a parchment from his pocket, handed it forward, and said loudly, "Fellow Catholic Todd, His Holiness the Bishop confers upon you the holy rank of Third-Rank Auxiliary Exorcist."
This makes things even more chaotic.
The holy orders of the Father God sect are generally divided into the following ranks from lowest to highest: Gatekeeper (first rank), Reciter (second rank), Exorcist (third rank), Assistant Priest (fourth rank), Deputy Deacon (fifth rank), Deacon (sixth rank), and Priest (seventh rank).
It's true that exorcists are of the third rank, but what does adding "assistant" before that mean? Is it an honorary exorcist?
To give an analogy, it's like how those world-renowned universities in the past awarded so-called celebrities the title of honorary alumnus.
Todd glanced at the people around him.
The monks in the monastery looked at him with a hint of hostility; the visiting church members, however, looked at him with an expression of anticipation, as if waiting for a good show.
Recalling what Huggins had told him about the conflict between ascetics and ecclesiastical groups, Todd immediately understood.
It turns out I was being used as a pawn...
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