a coat of arms

[asakiyume]

The Diocese of Springfield, MA, has a new bishop, and bishops apparently get ecclesiastical coats of arms. ("They are princes of the church," Wakanomori said. "Their residences are called palaces." I wonder if that's even true in Springfield...)

The new bishop's coat of arms, as best as we could tell, seeing it via a televised Mass, looked like it was designed by a very imaginative child.

"Is that a rocket ship on the right?" I asked Wakanomori.

"Maybe it's a very thin castle?" he suggested in return.

"The stuff on the side looks like a genealogy--only a parthenogenic genealogy, because everyone descends from a single person instead of a couple.

"I think there's a flying saucer up top," Waka said.

We really, really needed to see the coat of arms up close, so we did some digging, and the interwebs came to our aid.

Behold! A flying saucer hovers above a shield, the left side of which shows a single-person skull rowing on a river and the right side of which shows a rocket to the moon. On either side of the shield are parthenogenic octopus genealogies, whose ultimate origins are The Flying Saucer



And my interpretation:

Comments

[marycatelli]

That's a candle. There's a large one like that in every parish that gets blessed on Easter and then is used throughout the year for certain Masses -- such as funerals.

[kore]

It is a really nice rocket!

[mallorys_camera]

That coat of arms is very weird looking. 😊

[minoanmiss]

*giggles delightedly*

[mount_oregano]

Don't forget the Latin motto! I've reached Level 2 of Duolingo Latin, and the motto says "I live in Spam." ("Spem" is the third-declension singular accusative for "Spam.") (I'm pretty sure.)

[queenoftheskies]

I love your interpretation.

[cmcmck]

Unfortunately my knowledge of ecclesiastical heraldry............. :o)

[gale_storm]

It’s so rough to not parse ‘SPEM’ as either ‘SPAM’ or ‘SPERM*. Yeah, i don’t go to church anymore, so there wouldn’t be any giggling during services. B^D

[pjthompson]

Yes, that's precisely what it is. ;-)