SEDE VACANTE
You are a member of the College of Cardinals. You are probably British (the Church has long been a dumping ground for surplus Habsburgs), perhaps Italian, Irish, German, or Nova Scotian— but perhaps you come from one of the Catholic nations destroyed by its neighbors or overthrown by revolution or religious strife— Thailand, Portugal, the Knights of Calatrava, Norway— presiding over a diocese in exile. Perhaps you hail from the more remote corners of the British Empire— British East Africa, in which an irenicist Church is a lightning-rod for agitation for independence; or one of the various island colonies that dot the Caribbean and the Pacific and serve as stations for the Royal Navy. Or perhaps you come from one of the tiny communities of Catholics in old Europe that survived the Valerian Persecution, ministering to your flock in the shadow of an Orthodox or Gallican Church.
It is a time of chaos in the Catholic Church. While nothing can equal the dark days in the immediate aftermath of the False Saint’s ‘mending’ of the schism, in which True Religion’s Advocates found themselves nearly persecuted out of existence by the traitor kings of a Christendom gone mad, it is at least as serious a crisis in the apostolic succession as the proliferation of antipopes in the 11th century, or when the last pope to reign in Italy was hiratined following the annexation of the First Papal State.
The Byzantines firmly remind you that the latter crisis was all the fault of that nasty, no-good Roman Empire, and definitely not Byzantium, which of course has absolutely no historical continuity with the blood-soaked reigns of those brutal tyrants*.
You were hesitant to elect a new Pope without a Holy See for them to reign in, or any concrete plans to provide for the safety of the Pope. Before you can even consider who might replace the martyred Urban IV, you must sort through the various plans proposed to the Conclave to solve these issues. The Red Rose Pact has a vested interest in having a grateful and legitimate-seeming Pope, and many of their constituents are growing increasingly concerned over the unprecedented length of this period of sedevacantism.
OOC: This vote will be followed by a second vote to elect a specific Pope. For options here with multiple possible locations listed, each candidate will represent a different one.
True Religion’s Advocates In Times Of Rebellion & Strife
For all of modern history, the Habsburg monarchs of Great Britain have been the Pope’s hosts, guardians, protectors, and fiercest advocates in a hostile world. The fall of Mann was regrettable, but it was a consequence of the Papacy’s location on an isolated island enclave. As the example of Rhodes showed, such places are often havens for bizarre political projects. Great Britain itself is still the safest place in Europe. Through all the wars, the revolutions, the chaos— not once has an enemy army landed on Britain’s shores. A Pope serving in Scotland, England, or Wales will have the Royal Navy between him and any who might harm him. Not even mighty Byzantium can boast of such inviolability. Futhermore, consider the following: responsibility for the welfare of the Church is perhaps the only matter of substance that is still the legal prerogative of the Sovereign of Great Britain. That means that, in Great Britain, the Papacy will continue to enjoy the advocacy of a powerful institution with a vested interest in its welfare, rather than being at the mercy of a fickle Parliament, Senate, or Ekklesia.
#Support the Penitent Queen to locate the Papacy in Great Britain (possible locations: London, Glasgow, Canterbury)
Okay, look, sorry the decision my party made at the First International indirectly led to fascists seizing the Second Papal State and executing the last pope. I really would have voted to invite the Pope to Rome if I’d been there! But, unfortunately, I would not be born for another sixteen years, which made casting a ballot difficult. Anyway, as you know, the Irenicist Party (as opposed to the small-i irenicist tendency of the Athens Commune, which I represent, although– ha ha– not the Catholic wing of it) controls the Ekklesia, and if I can make a deal to bring the Pope back to Italy, they’ve agreed to earmark the funds to build an aircraft carrier for the Red Navy. We’ll name it after your Pope! We can get you back into Rome– the Patriarch of Rome isn’t using all the cathedrals there– or perhaps you’d prefer Orbetello, the illustrious Papal history of which makes it one of our most popular tourist destinations. Or how about Tuscany? I mean, it’s the most Catholic-y part of Byzantium, since it spent so long as the private fiefdom of Byzantine monarchs who were too lazy to care about the whole “forced religious conversion” thing.
##Support the Maritime Tribune to locate the Papacy in the Byzantine Commune (possible locations: Rome, Orbetello, Tuscany)
I have a rather unorthodox— no pun intended— plan. I am one of the military officials tasked the restoration of order to Ireland. We have already made great strides defeating fascist holdouts and… encouraging… the local Party to adopt more syndicalist policies. Nonetheless, the New Red Army General Staff feels that the relocation of the Papacy to Ireland will greatly improve the morale of the Irish people, and be a crucially stabilizing influence. Now, we’re aware that, given what happened to the last Pope, you can think of one very good reason to avoid Ireland. However…
…we can think of 119,000 very good reasons to consider it.
##Support the Red Army Officer to locate the Papacy in Ireland (possible locations: Dublin)
*The following emperors and empresses are still considered acceptable historical role-models and Honorary Byzantines™: Marcus Aurelius, Aurelian, Alexios I, St. Kaisarios, Iouliana the Great, Trajan the Silent, Julia Radziwill the Great. Any bad stuff they might have done was simply the result of imperfect political consciousness owing to the character of the times in which they lived. All of their accomplishments are part of the proud historical lineage of the Byzantine peoples.
#Support the Penitent Queen to locate the Papacy in Great Britain (possible locations: London, Glasgow, Canterbury)
Lord Cyrahzax
GSD
WeaponGradeSadness
Rejected
paragon1
Luhood
Tulip
Kellanved
Zikan
##Support the Maritime Tribune to locate the Papacy in the Byzantine Commune (possible locations: Rome, Orbetello, Tuscany)
Danny Glands
tatankatonk
NewMars
Frontspac
mcclay
StrifeHira
RagnarokZ
Another Otter
LJN92
Freudian
D3m3
Jimmy4400nav
Ghetto Prince
##Support the Red Army Officer to locate the Papacy in Ireland (possible locations: Dublin, Armagh*)
QuoProQuid
ThatBasqueGuy
Sindai
Mister Bates
Espilae
Hitlers Gay Secret
Toningly
Flesnolk
ZearothK
AJ_Impy
Ghost of Mussolini
LowellDND
TheMcD
Jeoh
HiHo ChiRho
Semquais
megane
Clayren
ThaumPenguin
Glenn Zimmerman
Unwise_Cashew
*lol i knew i was forgetting something important, megane
Vote closed!
Now, let’s put forward some candidates for Pope! Like I did with the Grand Ball, I’m going to solicit the thread for characters to stand for election here. The two leading candidates are the Cardinal of Dublin and the Cardinal of Armagh. (Cardinals are pretty thick on the ground, since the Church has contracted into such a compact area since the days of CK2). But who are they? I’ll choose the most interesting proposed cardinal from each city for the final election. The format for this is pretty loose, but your proposed candidate should have a name, a background, and a plan for the future of Ireland. Don’t worry about portraits– I’ll probably just draw the winner at some point.
A few voters were concerned about the queen losing the vote affecting the Red Rose Pact, but you don’t need to worry about that, since this vote is the College of Cardinals, not the Ekklesia or any other Byzantine body, and also this is mostly just the Queen’s personal interests, not the government’s. Her proposal failing might have some impact on the Habsburg monarchy’s future, though…
Sede vacante. The pope, hounded and harried by Valeria, is dead. The cardinals are in conclave.
Gold and silver glitter in the torch-light. You have an odd feeling that you are deep underground. Haggard faces framed in ragged scarlet line the table— cardinals from France, from England, from Denmark, from the Holy Roman Empire who never expect to see their dioceses again.
Christendom as you knew it is coming to an end.
You aren’t sure who starts the murmuring. “László,” says a frail voice, “László Ceska Lipa”. Another joins it, and another. All eyes turn to a tall, broad-shouldered Hungarian cardinal seated by the fire. He stands up and nods to you.
A puff of white smoke drifts over the rooftops of Orbetello.
Pope Marcellus III is standing on the balcony of Orbetello Cathedral, speaking to his flock— such as it is, those fear-mad mobs of clergy, true believers, mercenaries, and curial officials who fled the fall of Rome— for the first time in his papacy.
“This is not the end of the True Church,” he says, “It is a new beginning. No longer are we beholden to the selfish whims of duke and duchess, king and queen, emperor and empress. The crowned heads of Christendom have shown their true colors— they love power, and power alone, and flock to the False Saint’s banner. This is not the first time we have faced such adversity— our earliest history was one of persecution at the hands of Rome, of martyrs refusing homage to the Caesars and their false divinity, of resistance to Empire. As a community of believers, we endured. We shall learn from the example of our fathers and mothers and endure again.”
The crowd is rapt. When he had emerged from the conclave, he sensed them wavering. Now, they hang on his every word. “The kinslayer Hyginus II grew corrupt and complacent even as the False Saint plotted his downfall. No longer must we trust the universal church of Europe to venal crusader kings. We must build a new church— an incorruptible church. A church built on faith in our darkest hour. A church with a heart of iron. A church where the strong band together to protect the weak from those who would do them harm.” The people gathered below are absolutely silent.
“A Church Militant,” he says. “The coffers of Orbetello will provide.”
The Papal Conclave has been productive. Queen and Tribune have been turned away from the House of God— instead, the cardinals have listened to the entreaties of a humble military man, petitioning on behalf of a people desperately in need of something to believe in. It is generally agreed that the next Pope should be one who has suffered alongside the Irish people in their darkest hours. Three serious candidates emerge, and although there is some confusion over their home dioceses, they all seem eminently worthy of the Conclave’s blessing
Flesnolk posted:
Manuel Lanzol, Cardinal of Dublin
I believe in Ireland. Ireland took my family in when they fled Lai Ang to escape the War of the Victorian League, and eventually made our fortune when we had nothing. When I was born, I was raised in the Irish fashion, as were my brothers. Ireland allowed me to be a soldier, a prizefighter, a lover… a criminal, too, long ago, but it let me turn away from that path. Ireland let me find God. I am but a man, so I faltered now and then, but I tried my best to follow in His footsteps and became an ordained minister in Dublin, where I had studied at Trinity College. Over the long years serving my parish I took to heart Christ’s teachings of compassion, of unconditional love for our fellow man, and vowed my church’s doors would always be open to any in need. I was eventually given a Bishopric for my service, but I only did what any Christian would.
That was before the troubles, before the crucible of fire that washed Éire’s rolling hills with blood, and turned fair Dublin into a vision of Hell. In those years of constant civil war, when fascist and communist alike subjected the innocent to such savagery, anyone’s faith would be tested. Mine held, but my dreams will be filled with the horrors inflicted by Irishmen upon Irishmen until the day I take my place at our Heavenly Father’s side. I lied and stole to defend my congregation, beat a man of the Iron Heart senseless to save the life of a child orphaned by the endless battles in the city, used the churches in my diocese to shelter and feed those who had lost everything, and to hide those hunted by the government – be they the Iron Heart or the PNE, the way either of them treated those not in their favour. I carried a pistol under my robes from the day the civil wars started to the Byzantine intervention and the fascists’ final defeat, and would have used it in a heartbeat to protect the weak from the corrupt.
Through all that, I still believe in Ireland and its people, and the teachings of our Lord. It has been a hard road, full of suffering, but we have come out the end whole once more, and we can be stronger than we ever were before. We can kick out bullies like the PNE, walk a path closer to the Byzantines’, or our old Labour Party before they all got hiratined, and show the world Ireland is a nation to be respected, and that its people can come out of horror closer to God. I am tired of all the blood and fear, violence is for the young and stupid, though I understand fascism respects nothing but force; still, you will not hear me preaching hate or retribution or screaming about fire and brimstone from the pulpit, that’s all nonsense that landed us in this mess to begin with. Ireland takes in the poor, the sick, the needy, the lost; it doesn’t kill them. Just be kind to each other, for God’s sake.
(Basically, as plans for Ireland’s future go, he wants Ireland to become a power of note, and much more moderate than the current ruling party. He’d prefer them to go a peaceful route, but well, if there’s any such thing as a just war saving the world from the grip of fascism is probably it, and there’s not much option for neutrality when 120,000 soldiers of the RRP are hanging out on your doorstep.)
##Support Lanzol
Ghetto Prince posted:
Jessie Ryan. Cardinal of Dublin.
Jessie was born to a small sharecropping family, and is the only one of his siblings to survive the recent troubles. He completed a doctorate in theology, was ordained a priest in the Catholic Church of Cork ,and was made a Bishop after twenty years of service in the Church. He was by all accounts a very traditional, quiet and uninspiring man until the Byzantine intervention, when he was sent with the Abbess of St Catherine’s Convent to aid the many refugees fleeing the violence.
Tragically, the hospital he was working in came under artillery fire and the abbess and most of the patients were trapped and died when the building collapsed and caught fire. Since his ordeal, Jessie ,now an ordained Cardinal, is a changed man and one of the most outspoken Cardinals in the Church, although controversially his chief topics are political and economic rather than religious and many Bishops would prefer to see him silenced.
He uses his popular weekly radio show to preach against the horrors of fascism and capitalism, and although he often says he is not a violent man, he makes it no secret that he would work to make Ireland a member of the Red Rose Pact.
you would not believe what I had to look through to find an old picture of a woman dressed as a priest.
##Support Ryan
AJ_Impy posted:
Theodore O’Malley, Cardinal of
UlsterArmagh
A background, you say? I’m just a humble man o’ the cloth, I was born in County Down as a second son and took the cloth eary on. Spent most my life since trying to minister to those that needs it. Course, that hasn’t been so easy these past few decades, what with every man jack with an ideal and a flag saying theirs is the best for all Ireland, in the name of Communism/Capitalism/Socialism/Richbastardism/Some long-dead chit of a girl who wrecked Catholicism in the first place. Look, don’t look to me for the deep theological debates or all the hypothetical stuff. Years of warfare, brother against brother, all for nothing, can beat the airy-fairy religious waffle out of a man. Here’s what it boils down to, in the words of the Big Man:
Love your neighbour as you love yourself. Heal the sick, give sight to the blind, make the lame walk. Be as the good Samaritan. Always make sure weddings have enough booze. Someone at your side cuts the ear off one of the opposition, you heal it.
That’s it. Sod all this factionalism. Let Christianity in Ireland be remembered for accepting everybody, helping everybody. If that ain’t enough of a plan for you, then tough. I want Ireland to have some peace, have some respite, and I will work myself most of the way to death trying to get it for them.
##Support O’Malley
Lanzol
Mister Bates
Erwin the German
Freudian
Ryan
GSD
Tulip
RZApublican
Another Otter
Jeoh
O’Malley
Lord Cyrahzax
sniper4625
Danann
Ogianres
Danny Glands
Unwise_Cashew
paragon1
Rumda
AJ_Impy
HiHo ChiRho
tabris
theblastizard
Semquais
Jimmy4400nav
Mr.Morgenstern
Grizzwold
StrifeHira
Frontspac
WeaponGradeSadness
Marcellus III’s Skeleton
Adept Nightingale
Vote closed!
Annuntio vobis gaudium magnum:
HABEMUS PAPAM!