Difference between revisions of "Holy Vatican See"

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(Holy Vatican See)
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There is also a [[Apostolic see|Sede vacante]] where the [[Wikipedia:Conclave|Conclave]] is formed, in order to elect the next pontiff.
 
There is also a [[Apostolic see|Sede vacante]] where the [[Wikipedia:Conclave|Conclave]] is formed, in order to elect the next pontiff.
  
=Holy Vatican See=
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''''Holy Vatican See''''
==History and Events==
+
==Introduction and Caveat==
===Introduction and Caveat===
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'''We do not demand to be "THE ONLY" Catholic Church for all the multiverses of NS--there are players who prefer to relate to other "Catholic Churches" and that is fine.'''
 
'''We do not demand to be "THE ONLY" Catholic Church for all the multiverses of NS--there are players who prefer to relate to other "Catholic Churches" and that is fine.'''
  
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On the other hand, if you're well within current RL doctrine with just a few minor twists, you may want to establish the Church of your nation within the Communion as a "Variant Church" with its own name, similar to the Churches of Oriental Rite in RL. In fact, we are renaming the RL Church's Congregation for the Oriental Churches, and calling it the Congregation for the Variant Churches. Please consult by [[TG]] to discuss this, and do your homework--[[Wikipedia:Google|Google]] around a little to see how the Oriental Churches relate to the Latin Rite Church, how their Liturgies work, etc. Have a realistic plan.
 
On the other hand, if you're well within current RL doctrine with just a few minor twists, you may want to establish the Church of your nation within the Communion as a "Variant Church" with its own name, similar to the Churches of Oriental Rite in RL. In fact, we are renaming the RL Church's Congregation for the Oriental Churches, and calling it the Congregation for the Variant Churches. Please consult by [[TG]] to discuss this, and do your homework--[[Wikipedia:Google|Google]] around a little to see how the Oriental Churches relate to the Latin Rite Church, how their Liturgies work, etc. Have a realistic plan.
 +
 +
==History and Events==
 +
 
===Major Threads:  Descriptions and Links===
 
===Major Threads:  Descriptions and Links===
 
====Active Threads:====
 
====Active Threads:====
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===Current Events===
 
===Current Events===
 +
The Vatican's current ''major'' priorities fall into several categories:
 +
* Sustaining and providing spiritual guidance to faithful Catholics everywhere
 +
* Engaging in the charitable works of mercy that embody the love and redemption of Christ
 +
* Providing moral leadership for peace, the advancement of virtue, and the promotion of economic and social justice
 +
* Expanding the Church's diplomatic capabilities to assist in these goals
 +
 +
Additional priorities include:
 +
* Exploring and establishing the physical, scientific, and metaphysical properties of the fractured multiverse
 +
* Resolving the many issues posed by the advent of extensive space travel and non-human sentience
 +
 
====Conference on Non-Human Sentience====
 
====Conference on Non-Human Sentience====
==Power Among Catholics==
+
 
===Lines of Authority===
+
The Church's most visible current initiative is the [http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=419012&page=1&pp=15|Conference on Non-human Sentience].  The Conference gathers Catholic leaders, as well as a variety of non-Catholic human and non-human advisors and observers, to explore the issues confronting the Church.  Conference information can be found at the [[HVS Conference on Non-Human Sentience|Conference Website]].
 +
 
 +
==Power Among NS/HVS Catholics==
 +
===The Heirarchy:  Clergy and the Laity===
 +
The NS/Holy Vatican See retains all of the traditional [[Power in the Church|roles]] and [[Power in the Church|lines of authority]] prevalent in the RL Catholic Church today, with minor modifications based on the multiversal fracture and the slight differences in Variant (Oriental) Churches in the NS multiverse.
 +
 
 
===The Curia===
 
===The Curia===
 +
 
====Roster====
 
====Roster====
 
==Major HVS Characters==
 
==Major HVS Characters==

Revision as of 22:15, 12 June 2005

This article deals with Holy Vatican See as it relates to NationStates. For more general information, see the Wikipedia article on this subject.

Holy Vatican See
holy_vatican_see.jpg
Flag of Holy Vatican See
Motto: "Pactum Serva"
map of the Vatican
Region Lateran Treaty
Capital The Vatican City
Official Language(s) Latin
Leader Leo XIV
Population 1.5 billion
Currency Euro 
NS Sunset XML

The Holy See refers to the episcopal see of Rome, where the Pope offically resides; it can also mean the Pope or the Roman Curia. The term "Holy See" generally refers to the Pope, the Pope's official bureaucracy in the Vatican, Vatican City itself, or all of the above.

One of the more perplexing issues among Roman Catholic NS players is just who is the Pope of the NationStates world. Several players have played the Vatican. Prominent among them is Holy Vatican See (HVS), who RPs an alternate universe in which John Paul II died in 1998, replaced by a Hungarian named Sixtus VI, and then replaced by the current Pope Leo.

While many NS nations accept HVS as the Vatican of the NS world, HVS's players himselves has stated several times that no one is required to accept them as such. Nations such as Syskeyia and Cherry Ridge RP with the RL pontiff, Benedict XVI, as the pope, and Pantocratoria has accepted HVS' "papacy," but is willing to RP with countries that accept Benedict XVI.

There is also a Sede vacante where the Conclave is formed, in order to elect the next pontiff.

'Holy Vatican See'

Introduction and Caveat

We do not demand to be "THE ONLY" Catholic Church for all the multiverses of NS--there are players who prefer to relate to other "Catholic Churches" and that is fine.

However, if players DO choose to recognize HVS as "The Church" we'll expect you to act the way you would to the Church. We're willing to be somewhat fluid about how players recognizing this Church interact with nations recognizing other "Catholic Churches," as long as it doesn't pose too much anomaly in the role play.

This is the Holy Catholic Church as founded by Peter upon the death of our Lord, Jesus Christ, with an unbroken Apostolic Succession from Peter through the current Pope, Leo XIV, elected in Conclave by Cardinals from various NS players in April of 2004 RL time. The structure and lines of authority mimic (as far as possible) that of the RL Church.

We intend to play this nation very much the way the RL Church operates. You don't see the RL Church handing out reams of ex Cathedra pronouncements, declaring Crusades and Inquisitions, loudly excommunicating or anathematizing scores of people, etc. On the other hand, you DO see the Church simply refusing to recognize or lend its sanction to the more bizarro manifestations and perversions of doctrine, quietly slapping an internal gag on the more wacko advocates of extremist interpretations of doctrine, etc.

This Church will continue to tread the same line the RL Church is treading between the various factions within militating for liberalization or returns to more conservative interpretations, between the church's internal spiritual responsibilities and the external temporal moral leadership required to actualize our Faith. We can see many interesting opportunities for internal/external politics creating fascinating RPs and taking the future development of the church in some surprising directions, but those directions will proceed in a natural flow from real doctrine as influenced by the RP'd events.

The RL Church studiously avoids intervention into the politics of sovereign nations, and so will this Church. That is not to say that we won't exhort the Faithful to act within the appropriate temporal parameters of their nation's politics to actualize the Christian principles of Faith, but it will be couched as the RL Church couches such exhortation-- that individual Catholics, acting lawfully as citizens of their nations, follow the dictates of their consciences and the teachings of the Church in political affairs.

As regards overtly Catholic nations, this Church will, again, interact with them the way the RL Church interacts with RL Catholic nations-- that is, they will not meddle overtly with political affairs, and will exert the influence of the Church through assisting the individuals who profess our Faith with spiritual, rather than temporal, guidance. (You don't see the RL Holy Father excommunicating the entire political leadership of Ireland just because they finally got around to recognizing civil divorce, do you?)

In short, the RL Church is a spiritual, rather than a temporal, authority, and this Church will be played on that same assumption. The only temporal authority we assume is over the precincts of the Holy Vatican See and the established Institutions of the Church.

And no, there IS NO INQUISITION, and this Church will not recognize any such institution as valid. Questions of doctrine, interpretation, etc. should be submitted to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which will reprove doctrines opposed to the principles of the faith after the interested Bishops of a region have been heard.

The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith also examines whatever concerns "the privilege of the faith" whether in law and in fact. It is competent to pass judgement on errors about the faith according to the norms of an ordinary process. It safeguards the dignity of the sacrament of Penance. It will proceed administratively or judicially according to the nature of the question to be treated, with the usual level of deliberation. (Meaning, not by tomorrow afternoon at 3:00, that's for sure. What's an aeon or two to an Eternal Church?)

So please, if you're RPing some version of Catholicism that involves fire-breathing Inquisitors hiding under every bed and torturing unbelievers, holding public burnings or shrieking witch hunts over the airwaves, remain in some other multiverse unless you want your Church to be an acknowledged separate "Catholic Church" outside the Communion, such as the Coptic Church, the Anglican Communion, etc.

On the other hand, if you're well within current RL doctrine with just a few minor twists, you may want to establish the Church of your nation within the Communion as a "Variant Church" with its own name, similar to the Churches of Oriental Rite in RL. In fact, we are renaming the RL Church's Congregation for the Oriental Churches, and calling it the Congregation for the Variant Churches. Please consult by TG to discuss this, and do your homework--Google around a little to see how the Oriental Churches relate to the Latin Rite Church, how their Liturgies work, etc. Have a realistic plan.

History and Events

Major Threads: Descriptions and Links

Active Threads:

"A New Order Rising in the Excalbian Isles" The Confederated Sovereign States election results are a surprise to everyone, especially when it becomes clear that Knootian members of the Order of the Invisible Hand have been working with CSS politicians to change the balance of power in the Isles. Holy Vatican See's involvement begins on 24.

"That's The Way It Is" In Zero-One space, an anomalous entity resulting from a scientific experiment on the dying consciousness of a Catholic cleric explores the Matrix.

"Species and Spirituality" The Vatican finally gets around to calling a Conference to discuss the Church's relations with non-human sentient species, continuing the unfinished business of Sixtus VI's first Council on Non-Human Relations, which broke up in chaos.

Ongoing Threads:

"Returning Home" Scolopendran Catholics reunite with the Mother Church, and a Vatican Legation is established in the Segments.

"Dominion Legate: A New Shepherd for the Flock" The Vatican restores full diplomatic relations with the Dominion. What happens when a Church headed by Sicilian Pope matches wits with Dominion power.

"A New Third Order: Special Envoy to Pantocratoria" Leo XIV taps the Emperor Andreus to start a potential lay order of Catholic heads of state and heads of government, to maintain their spiritual welfare and advance the Church's ideals of human rights and social justice. This thread is currently inactive, but may be revived soon.

"The Secretariat of State of the Holy Vatican See" This thread exists for the purpose of 'official correspondence' with the Holy See. Requests to initiate diplomatic relations, etc., should be directed here (and a TG alerting the Collective to a posting doesn't hurt if a day or two goes by without a response from us.)

History

The Spacetime Fracture and Multiversal Shifts

As mentioned above, the history of the Holy Vatican See (Nationstates) is precisely contiguous with that of the RL Church up through 1998 CE. Sometime around then (Vatican scientists have not been able to pinpoint it, for obvious reasons,) a fracture in the spacetime continuum occurred; the multiverses heaved, and the timeline for HVS/NS diverged from the RL meatworld as most of us know it today.

HVS/NS was unaware of the fracture, at first. In our multiverse, things proceeded much as usual, and Pope John Paul II contracted a bad case of pneumonia and died on April 9th, 1998. He was replaced in a full and proper Conclave by Cardinal Erval Mralina, who took the name Sixtus, the sixth of that name. Shortly thereafter things became a little odd. However, due to the nature of the spacetime fracture, strange phenomena of memory and perception were integrated into the overall changes, which meant that the "oddness" was accepted as a perfectly ordinary matter of fact.

During the subsequent couple of decades, much technology advances (at strangely varying rates,) spacegoing nations appeared/disappeared/reappeared, and the eldar races were brought to the attention of the Vatican. A Council was held to discuss the Church's relations with eldar races, but it broke up in chaos. However, it did enough work for Sixtus to issue the Encyclical "In Apostolatum Eldari", which has remained controversial.

Vatican scientists have also been working on ways to examine and classify the phenomenon of the multiverses, with only partial success. However, all HVS/NS characters are aware of multiversal nature of the spacetime continuum, and accept without question memories "acquired" as the multiverses shift.

Recent History: The Election of Leo XIV The recent history of the Holy Vatican See:

On his deathbed, Sixtus VI realizes that the chaotic events following the fracture have left the Church without sufficient leadership. He calls a Consistory to appoint new Cardinals:

"Sede Vacante: The Death of Pope Sixtus VI"

"Cardinals Gather for Sixtus VI's Final Consistory"

A Conclave is summoned, including the newly-made Cardinals. Murder, controversy, and theology mix as liberals and conservatives vie for control of the Church.

"The Papal Conclave Begins"

In the end, a compromise candidate is elected, a bureaucrat of the Curia whom, it is assumed, will not rock the boat. But even the first few eventful weeks of his Papacy show that Leo XIV is a man capable of delivering surprises:

"We Have a Pope!"

Current Events

The Vatican's current major priorities fall into several categories:

  • Sustaining and providing spiritual guidance to faithful Catholics everywhere
  • Engaging in the charitable works of mercy that embody the love and redemption of Christ
  • Providing moral leadership for peace, the advancement of virtue, and the promotion of economic and social justice
  • Expanding the Church's diplomatic capabilities to assist in these goals

Additional priorities include:

  • Exploring and establishing the physical, scientific, and metaphysical properties of the fractured multiverse
  • Resolving the many issues posed by the advent of extensive space travel and non-human sentience

Conference on Non-Human Sentience

The Church's most visible current initiative is the on Non-human Sentience. The Conference gathers Catholic leaders, as well as a variety of non-Catholic human and non-human advisors and observers, to explore the issues confronting the Church. Conference information can be found at the Conference Website.

Power Among NS/HVS Catholics

The Heirarchy: Clergy and the Laity

The NS/Holy Vatican See retains all of the traditional roles and lines of authority prevalent in the RL Catholic Church today, with minor modifications based on the multiversal fracture and the slight differences in Variant (Oriental) Churches in the NS multiverse.

The Curia

Roster

Major HVS Characters

Who's Who: General

Pope Leo XIV

Cardinal Renard

Cardinal Hume

Other Characters

NS Papal Documents

Sixtus VI

Leo XIV

Diplomacy with the Vatican

The Secretariat of State

Nunciatures, Legations, and Representatives

Roster of Current Diplomats

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