This is me, Eccles

This is me, Eccles
This is me, Eccles

Monday 2 May 2016

Fr James Martin wins Comedy Award

Fr James Martin SJ is known for his gifts as a humorist, often seen in his uncanny ability to draw the wrong conclusions from the Gospel or indeed anything else he comes across. Of course, in Jesuit circles, this is regarded as theological brilliance, while the rest of us simply appreciate it as light comedy.

Martin, Colbert and Rosica

Fellow-comedians Colbert and Rosica rush to congratulate Martin.

For those of us who hang onto his every word on Twitter, the following Martinism was a classic of the genre.

infamous tweet

Wit from Fr James.

This is excellent humour. Nowhere in the Bible nor in Christian tradition is it ever claimed that the Holy Spirit is female. The Catechism of the Catholic Church uses "he". There is a weak argument based on the fact that certain Aramaic words (such as "ruah" or "ruach") are female - similarly, all German girls are neuter (it seems ungallant to point this out, Eccles, they don't all look like Angela Merkel) and cats are female, while French "personnes" are all female.

Gerard Depardieu

A female "personne".

Fr James (or should we say "Parent James"?) has had a long and successful career as a comedian. Another of his classic japes was to use the picture below as an argument for women priests. You see, it's a 3rd century woman in what looks vaguely like a dalmatic, so she's obviously a deacon, so...

lady in dalmatic?

Lady in a dalmatic (or possibly Demis Roussos).

Therefore we are delighted to announce that Fr James Martin wins the April "Comedy Vicar" award, also known as a "Giles", being a tastefully-designed statuette of Giles Fraser. Congratulations, Father, er Parent, James!

Giles award

A prestigious "Giles".

For another take on this story, we recommend Faith In Our Families.

8 comments:

  1. But how do we know the person in the dalmatic identifies as a lady?

    ReplyDelete
  2. She's wearing a dress, of course. Cross-dressing was firmly prohibited in those days.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Fr Jas was actually referring to the Holy Sprite which we might assume is female. This would naturally result in an effervescent reaction by the trio of clowns in the photo.

    ReplyDelete
  4. As Alice Thomas Ellis said: "If God is a woman then the devil might be one as well. Madame Lucy Fur. Since people persist in regarding God as female, it seems only fair to offer the same advantage to the Prince of Darkness."

    ReplyDelete
  5. Is this the guy who was brought in to wreck (yet again) Holy Name in Manchester after it had been revived by Father Ray Matus?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Surely not. He's an American and writes for the Fishwrap.
      See http://ncronline.org/person/james-martin

      Delete

  6. Honestly,Eccles, your Catholic humour cannot be topped...even the Jesuits are learning from you.

    Fr Martin is probably just trying a different approach pattern using humour as the the most effective weapon in the arsenal( by lampooning gender based protestant and secular beliefs)... expressing newly found Jesuit mirth as a combative tool in the battle against perversion and heresy.

    Brilliant post Eccles...!!! ROFL !

    ReplyDelete