From my good friend and the Official Parodohymnodist of the blog, Fr. Tim Ferguson about a matter of great importance for the synodal (“walking together”) process (emphases added):
I was thinking this morning (dangerous occupation) about the Synodal Synod on Synodal Synodality, and the recent graphics issued. I’m sure there will be more, and probably even more artwork issued (who will take Fr. Rapenik’s place as artist laureate?).
But, thinking of the Olympics, what’s missing is a synodal mascot.
Since a mascot needs to exemplify the event, but also drum up interest and support in it, a mascot should be cute and cuddly.
Since the synod is largely useless, the mascot should be similarly useless. It should be something that makes little evolutionary sense and adds next to nothing to the ecosystem in which is dwells.
My first thought to propose for a synod mascot was a panda – cuddly, cute, endearing, but totally and entirely useless (I was sorely disappointed on a recent trip to Green Bay to find that the ubiquitous chain, Panda Express, offers absolutely no panda-based entrees, express or otherwise). But, upon reflection, a standard panda would not be a good mascot for the Synod, since their coloration is black and white. And if there is anything we are learning from the synod is that nothing is black and white anymore.
That led to consideration of the red panda, but it has a problematic name. For most in the world “red” is associated with socialism, and while the synod has many seemingly socialist tendencies, I’m not sure the organizers want that aspect of synodality to be widely known. Here in the States, red has become synonymous with the Republican party, and that would hardly be appropriate for an association with synodality.
So, back to Wikipedia to look for a more appropriate mascot. Then, I happened upon the quokka. It is cute, cuddly, and entirely useless. It provides little food, it has a very narrow habitat. While it appears to smile and be friendly, like the synod, these appealing aspects are largely a lie. It does not smile, it’s face is just made that way. When threatened, a mother quokka will throw her offspring in the way of the predator and make her escape. It is willing to throw the children under the bus, as it were, in order to preserve itself. Much like the synod.
Many celebrities have taken selfies with quokkas, they just love the little buggers, but again, its just for show.
Quokkas are also quickly going extinct, their population declining by half in recent decades, and are down to just a few thousand wild members, mostly in the brush around Perth.
I propose that we name him (or her) Blather, the Synodal Quokka.
He added.
I have no artistic skill, but by googling, I found this page of quokka pictures that are freely reproducible. Perhaps someone with better artistic skill than I could develop a cartoon for the synodal mascot Quokka.
Rhymes with “wokka”?
This rendition seems good, down to the selfie-stick. It’s there for others… also.
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Less interesting artwork potential, but how about a Tribble? Has the added benefit of not being entirely real. Drivel the Tribble?
You can’t fool me, Father.
That’s your old rodent statcounter emeritus, ummm…. whats’isname! You’re going to use him to infiltrate Synods, counting on the lack of his famous hamster wheel to disguise him!
oh no. i have a p/w for some sites that includes “quokka” and a word i would not repeat here.
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I respectfully disagree. The Blobfish is WAY more suited. It’s slimy and slippery, so it can’t be held down. It’s an opportunistic hunter; lying in wait for unsuspecting prey. So ugly it won’t EVER look at its reflection.
The German sinodalists have chosen the synofant. You can look up Google for the thing itself – and you’ll also find Bishops posing with / hugging it … (sometimes it’s hard to be a German. Woman. …)
Missing: AirPods, for The Listening™?
I also think he should be on a hover board. To represent the Holy Spirit.
Pandas and Quokka sure are cute but permit to me pour some boiling water on all the humor.
The appropriate mascot for the Synodal Synod on Synodal Synodality is the Golden Calf.
Much of the Church has returned to the desert, opting for an endless walking together rather than turning to God:
Exodus 32:1-6
1 And the people seeing that Moses delayed to come down from the mount, gathering together against Aaron, said: Arise, make us gods, that may go before us: for as to this Moses, the man that brought us out of the land of Egypt, we know not what has befallen him. 2 And Aaron said to them: Take the golden earrings from the ears of your wives, and your sons and daughters, and bring them to me. 3 And the people did what he had commanded, bringing the earrings to Aaron. 4 And when he had received them, he fashioned them by founders’ work, and made of them a molten calf. And they said: These are thy gods, O Israel, that have brought thee out of the land of Egypt. 5 And when Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it, and made proclamation by a crier’s voice, saying: Tomorrow is the solemnity of the Lord.
6 And rising in the morning, they offered holocausts, and peace victims, and the people sat down to eat, and drink, and they rose up to play.
I’m thinking that a camel or platypus is a better option, since both appear designed by committee.
Plus the “camel’s nose in the tent” analogy.
Unbelievably, I saw an unrelated article elsewhere today about the quokka. I was astonished. Is it a sign???
The Quokka, disguised as a dancing gopher, lives at the golf course in “Caddyshack” the movie.
He survives violent attempts to kill him by Bill Murray.
Tribbles are too cute to be synodalish.
I agree with the blobfish – for the German Sinod. It has just the right cast of germanic mean, grumpy old man, with a measure of slimy and of course ugly thrown in.
For the overall Sinodal Synnod on Synodectal Synodality, the ideal characteristics probably cannot be found in a single mascot, because no one thing is that awful. But perhaps we can come close, by merging into one caricature semblances of Ted Bundy and Theodore McCarrick, and call it “Teddy Scare”.