Michael Swanwick's Periodic Table of Science Fiction

Curium

(247)

Holy Mother Church

CURIUM: Noun, singular of the collective plural Curia. The Roman Curia is

the ensemble of departments and ministries which assist the sovereign

pontiff in her government of the Universal Church. The most famous Curium

is the "Sacra Congregatio Romanae et universalis Inquisitionis seu sancti

officii," popularly known as the Inquisition, which was founded in 1227

by Pope Joan VI.

The Office of the Inquisition was in sad repute when the Reverend Mother

Maria Sklodowska took control of it at the beginning of the twentieth

century?split by schismatic in-fighting and rife with doctrinal error.

Worse, accounts of suspects being tortured, while certainly exaggerated,

were not entirely untrue.

All this Mother Maria changed. She put the Inquisition on a firm

scientific footing. Heresy was no longer prosecuted but rather

investigated. That which was not understood was laid open to examination.

All questioning was persistent but gentle. It was her position that an

admission of error made under fear of punishment was worthless.

Critics objected that many suspected heretics lived long and fulfilling

lives and ultimately died of old age while their cases were under

consideration. Her supporters, however, say that the results speak for

themselves. Many consider her example to be one of the wellsprings

responsible for the flowering and growth of the Catholic Church in the

last century and thus, ultimately, for the entente between Christianity

and its traditional rivals, Judaism and Islam.

Among the Holy Mother's most famous sayings are these three:

A theologian in her laboratory is not a mere technician: she is also a

child confronting heresies that impress her as though they were fairy

tales.

and

Nothing in heresy is to be feared. It is only to be understood.

and

One never notices the sinner; only the woman within, praying for

salvation.

But she herself would rather that whatever honor we bestow upon her be

addressed elsewhere. As she herself put it, "What little my sisters and I

have achieved, was all done for the greater honor and glory of our Lady

and Savior, Jessica Christ."