It’s Iimi! Truth For Consequences

Kismetta tells the others about her experiences in looking for an apartment in the Goregeton area. Malik has questions about the new encyclical. And the members of the AThE think that they can stump Iimi with an ancient paradox. Can she give them the… Truth For Consequences

Pre-Comic Notes:
There are some long quotes in this issue. Due to automatic scaling based on screen size, it might be necessary to zoom in to read them, depending on your device.

Post-Comic Notes:

Act 2 was something that I thought should be written, given Iimi’s previous discussions (in passing) of the Church and slavery. While I’m only addressing it now in the 6/21/26 issue, I was scripting this issue when the Pope’s encyclical was published (5/25/2026).

What you see in Act 2 reflects my own searching. The Holy Father viewed the significance of some documents differently than I (and Iimi) did originally. Like Iimi, I saw Sicut Dudum, which explicitly condemned taking slaves, as having more weight than Dum Diversas (which came later). But I don’t see my different interpretation as “Pope Leo XIV being wrong.” Knowing I am not infallible, I gave religious submission of intellect and will, and saw this as an opportunity to reconsider my interpretation. (Krysta’s statement that parsing Dum Diversas broke her brain reflects how I felt reading it.)

Much of the secular media's focus on the encyclical seemed to miss the point of what he said, reducing the main thrust of human dignity, spinning it to look like a document where the Church “admitted” it caused and approved of the slave trade. So, to be clear, I accept Pope Leo XIV’s assessment of Dum Diversas. But I believe the secular interpretation of that assessment is wrong.

But as I said through Krysta, the first paragraph in Dum Diversas is extremely difficult to parse. It can be interpreted in several conflicting ways (which probably explains why I took a different interpretation from Pope Leo XIV). So, I don’t accuse those secular interpretations of malicious intent.

Image Credits
Cover artwork is copyright © 2006-2014 Bradley K McDevitt.

 

AI Disclaimer

I used AI to generate covers and background scenery for Issues 184-277. I still use it to create logos, doodles, and symbols, simply because there are no non-AI logo-creation programs (suggestions are welcome). Some previously used images have been kept for consistency (iconic buildings and “historic photographs”) with the intent of replacing them when possible. Any other appearance of AI means the stock art seller I purchased from misrepresented their product.