Wednesday, October 28, 2015

Satire

A dear friend of the EF has sent in this wonderful piece of satire that can give us some repose in the sea of turbulence in which we must live by God's design. The text may be heard with its music here.

I am the very model of a modern German cardinal
I'm kind to all minorities peripheral and marginal
I know the mobile numbers of my seniors political
I try quite hard at humour and I'm studiously uncritical
I'm very fond of arguments heretic and schismatical
I like to bitch about my fellow Lords ecclesiastical
About Kasperian theorem I am teeming with a lot of news [pause]
With many cheerful facts about conveyancing and empty pews
I'm very well acquainted too with every kind of blasphemy
I know in every detail all the sins contr'ry to chastity
In short, in things political, peripheral and marginal
I am the very model of a modern German cardinal
I know the Church's history, from Schillebeeckx to G D Boff
I like to wear bad vestments and I'm apt to take my cassock off
I quote in elegiacs all the crimes of the traditionalists
I make outrageous statements and proceed to slander journalists
I'm very prone to avarice, and harbouring of catamites
And mawkish modern liturgies with troupes of female acolytes
In profit from the Church tax I've a juicy line in Simony
I'm expert in denial and impervious to irony
Then I can write an article in favour of adultery
And praise unclean affections both unnatural and desultory
In short, in things political, peripheral and marginal
I am the very model of a modern German cardinal
In fact when I know what is meant by mercy, grace and charity
When I can tell at sight heroic virtue from depravity
When such affairs as doctrine and dogmatics I'm more wary at
And when I learn precisely what became of Jude Iscariot
When I have grasped the rudiments of sexual biology
When I can make a fist of a believable apology
When I care more for men than for the dogs they keep at Battersea
You'll say a better German Cardinal had never sat a See
For my Catechetic knowledge, though I'm pompous and effrontery,
Is limited by effort will and interest quite perfunctory
But still in things political, peripheral and marginal
I am the very model of a modern German cardinal.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

That is FABULOUS! Let's all enjoy some G&S now for comic relief! Heaven knows, we need it....in bucketfulls!

William said...

Another stunning piece by Long Skirts.

Barnum said...

Thanks a million, Maximillian!

Anonymous said...

Does German mean Belgian and Swiss too? OK, LS is a great poet, wonderful. God bless+

Anonymous said...

The German episcopate would have never been so bold if it weren´t for the milquetoast American Hierarchy egging them on like some overweight baseball coaches.

Northern Europe and Northern America is the heart of the bad seeds that led to so much corruption.

susan said...

Was this Long Skirts??? If so, let's make her pope!

Long-Skirts said...

Oh, my goodness, no, this wasn't written by me, it's waaaaaaay past anything I could ever write, it's brilliant and very well performed. FANTASTIC!! now as for being the Pope...hmmmmmm, the first thing I would do would be to appoint his excellency, Bishop Fellay to take my place!! ;-)

susan said...

OK...so like I said; let's make you pope! ;)