"Has anybody around here ever heard the word dispensation?"
While I can't speak for anyone else, Thors Catholic Hammer, I personally haven't. Further, I'm utterly incapable of using no less than four separate online search engines just as I've also forgotten how to use either of the two very large printed dictionaries I still display in my library. These days, I use them strictly for pressing flowers.
In fact, I've been waiting all my life until the moment you joined GTV and at long last graced the comments section with your unparalleled scholarship regarding this new, never-before encountered word.
.
Behold! The star Sirius appears in the south, heralding tonight's appearance of GTV's Font of Wisdom, Thurible of Tutelage, Cornocopia of Clarification. Let all fall silent as he gives voice to the meaning of "dispensation"!
Thor... the floor is yours. :P

To Ultraviolet: What’s with the bitter sarcasm?

It's an effective answer to condesension. ;-) Or were you asking the question non-rhetorically? In that case, I apologize.:)
I can also say with near total certainty, given the apparent age and education level of most here on GTV that, yes, people here have, in fact, heard the word "dispensation" before you mentioned it. Most here probably do know what it means both in a general and religious context.
I'm glad you asked... this little interchange may have saved you an unecessary English Class lecture.

Most catholics with a sense of humour would have seen my remark as a normal light hearted question within the context of the topic under discussion.
You need to lighten up a bit.
Crypto Sedevacantism is doing your head in.

Most catholics with a "sense of humour" wouldn't need to ask why they got a sarcastic reply after posting a "light-hearted" yet blatantly condescending comment, either.
Obviously calling me a "crypto sedevacantist" is your new gimmick. Fits your standard approach of endlessly repeating the same fatuous garbage unproven.
It's the behavior of an intellectually dishonest, rhetorical charlatan.
Fair enough. I'm not a crypto sedevacantist. I'm a canonical uniformist. Either we apply Canon Law and Church Magisterium to ALL popes or we do not.
Those governing and guiding elements of the Church don't magically cease to exist when you happen to like one (former) pope and then return in full force when you dislike his successor.