Apparently - according to another blog - one of the clergy being considered for Westminster rejoices in the nickname 'Catwoman'. In this bleak Ecumenical Winter, I regard that as one of the most promising signs for a long time.
Catholic Anglicans have for long been divided from Genuine Catholics by culture rather than theology. At least in my day, Anglo-Catholic seminarians and clergy tended to be regarded as Honorary Woofters and accorded 'camp' nicknames ... even if, like me, they had already acquired a woman and were actively planning an extensive campaign of procreation. Roman Catholic clergy, on the other hand, seemed so much more Manly. We now know that one or two of them were not above a little paiderasteia, but theirs seemed a culture of betting on the geegees, emptying Whiskey bottles, playing cards, and knocking the hell out of golf-courses. Many Anglo-Catholic clergy with a touch of Roman Fever were kept in the Church of England by the realisation that if they poped their new clerical colleagues would be men whose ideas of witty small-talk consisted of a detailed stroke-by-stroke account of their last five rounds of golf and the iniquity of the bookies in the last dozen Irish Derbies.
So there you go. I wonder what odds I could get on Catwoman?
Anglo-Catholic seminarians… accorded 'camp' nicknames.
ReplyDeleteYes. Where would we have been without Serge ex-Queen of Vulgaria, Lemon-Lips, 'Beverley' Hills, Ena the Cruel and Deidre Dogsbreath to cheer our bleaker moments. Not forgetting, of course, The Madre.
But the rich vein of humour expressed in the widespread use of 'Names in Religion' appears to be greatly imperilled by the Church of England's present catastrophic state.
It was recently suggested that I should devote a web-page to compiling (in directory form) such fragments as remain - but I fear, alas, that the rapid dwindling of the constituency outweighs the usefulness of this attractive project.
hmmm... well this unfortunate tendency really is not as rare as you might think. In the more Irish dominated home seminaries yes but the Venerable English College in Rome, I hear, is nick-named 'The fairy castle' at the American College.
ReplyDelete"Genuine Catholics"?
ReplyDeleteDistinguished Roman ( Genuine ) Catholics have been awarded such honours by Anglican ( Amateur?) Catholics in the past on their embracing full Comminion
ReplyDeleteMaureen Coco de Bournville RIP