TRAGEDY! I wrote the following yesterday morning and scheduled it to pop up now ... only to discover last evening that Fr Zed has got in first with his marvellous, splendiferous Clement XIV mug! (I would very much welcome a gift of one of those mugs.) But I'm not going to waste my own humbler effort, so here it is:-
Dear Readers
Society of Pope Clement XIV (SPCXIV)
I have been strangely moved to found a new Society with the above name. You know how these inexplicable inspirations do suddenly come upon one, tumbling out of the heavens without any warning. (If I were a Bergoglian, I would of course attribute such agency to "the Holy Spirit", but I am anxious to avoid blasphemy.) Can any reader explain to me why that particular Pontiff (1769-1774) might be deemed to have an exemplary role in today's ecclesial situation? What was there about that particular pontificate which will make "Clement XV" such an obvious and suitable name for the next (and restorationist) pope?
Vivat Ganganelli! Vivat!! Vivat!!!
When our family was young, they sometimes stood at the gates of fields containing newly-born spring lambs and chanted in their sweet tiny voices "Mint Sauce! Mint Sauce! Mint Sauce!"
Next time I pop into the Santa Marta for the daily homily, I shall set up a great chant of
Ganganelli! Ganganelli!! Ganganelli!!!
I wonder why.
Yours truly
John Hunwicke SPCXIV
PS All who read this are automatically Members unless, within five minutes of reading it, they make a deliberate Act of Witholding their Intentions.
PPS The Society is a Sovereign Entity and I am the Grand Master.
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23 comments:
Ah, Father... I swear I could hear Messrs, Mascall, Stephenson, Willis, Dix, et al - the Holy Forebears of the Patrimony - stifling their chuckles in the heavenly places....
We do so need to have our spirits lightened in these times....
Such serendipity! Only this morning I was reading a Patrick O'Brian novel in which Maturin tells Aubrey that the Jesuits were successfully supressed by Clement XIV, but that he expects them to come back somehow and return to turning out schools full of atheists.
My only other comment is that in the same scene we meet a man of Afro-Carribean descent who seems set for a bright future in the Church.
Que sera sera...
Greetings, Illustrious Grand Master,
Having just perused items found in the old Catholic Encyclopedia, I must agree. The Society must find in His Holiness Pope Clement XIV its Champion. I would go so far as to suggest that we have greater need of his kind these days than we did in the eighteenth century.
What was wickedly extorted the first time will be warmly welcomed by every heart the impending, second, final time, for good.
Thank you, O Grand Master, for your generous grant of membership.
How many Cardinals have joined already?
Do you have in mind a second edition of "Dominus ac Redemptor"?
Presumably because he suppressed the Jesuits. But I am sure you would not wish to tar all of them with the same brush. Or would you?
Grand Master
Delighted to be accepted as a member.
Vivat Ganganelli!
Sign me up! Mint Sauce! Mint Sauce!
Brilliant Father! Could I humbly suggest that this new Society promote what one might call a "suppressionist hermeneutic", particularly when it comes to the misuse of footnotes found in Apostolic Exhortations?
Alright !
I would like to be the pope's special envoy to the Order.
I will make my first intervention to be the discernment of the appropriateness of the Order's doctrine (ouch), er, exposition of the faith. Then I will examine the finances, particularly the profits from the sale of beakers..
Viva a San Ignacio !
Machst Gut !
The obvious answer is, um, er…too obvious!
So, in search of other reasons I would posit that:
a) He was a true Francis(can)
b) He was a fan of Wolfgang Amadeus
c) He canonized no one
d) He was not beloved of the Ultramontanists
Finally a notation by the Enclyclopaedia Britannica of 1876 sagely asserts that:
”…his pontificate remains…a proof of how little the logical sequence of events can be modified by the virtues and abilities of an individual.”
A truly LOL post! Wonderful Father! Simply wonderful!
Maybe one of the first acts of the SPCXIV should be to initiate the process of Canonization for the Societies Patron?
Pope Francis should gladly accept the cause for canonization of a Franciscan right?
If only I had the Esteemed Host's snail mail address....
Is there regalia?
Proud to be an automatically inducted memeber!
As an Orthodox Christian (Syrian with a strong Slavic affinity) I humbly ask your clemency that I might join your merry band.
Whatever you do just make sure you don't appoint a Grand Chancellor! If you don't appoint one you can't ever be tempted to sack him. If you can't sack him, you won't get That Call to Rome.
Is not your proposed organisation a little too grand for promoting the cause for the ultimate canonisation of Clement XIV, if that is your intention? After all Ganganelli was a Franciscan, a follower of the Poverello, so should not your organisation be better called "The Friends of Cardinal Ganganelli", or something like that? Is the post of Grand Master compatible with gospel values, I wonder? Clement XIV clearly instigated a more merciful policy on his election in 1769. One of his first acts was to abolish the fearsome annual bull, "in Coena Domini", usually issued on Holy Thursday, that listed a huge number of offences, which were subject to excommunication, including piracy in papal waters. This act of clemency can be viewed as a modest forerunner to the Age of Mercy! So perhaps, as an eirenic gesture, you might invite the Holy Father to act as the patron for the cause of his much maligned predecessor!
Is not your proposed organisation a little too grand for promoting the cause for the ultimate canonisation of Clement XIV, if that is your intention? After all Ganganelli was a Franciscan, a follower of the Poverello, so should not your organisation be better called "The Friends of Cardinal Ganganelli", or something like that? Ganganelli instigated a more merciful policy on his election in 1769. One of his first acts was to abolish the fearsome annual bull, "in Coena Domini", usually issued on Holy Thursday, that listed a huge number of offences, which were subject to excommunication, including piracy in papal waters, might now be viewed as a modest forerunner to the Age of Mercy!. So should you not invite the Holy Father to be the patron of your new organisation?
J.M.J.
Why Clement XIV? If memory serves correctly,
he was first to condemn Freemasonry...and we ARE living in the age of Freemasonry triumphant!
Our Lady of Fatima ora pro nobis!!
Thank you, Father. I will now flout my membership to show I am more pious than just about anyone . . . and that I hate the Jesuits.
Flaunt.
i too am absolutely delighted to be a member of this society. may his legacy be replicated soon
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