February 20

There are some people that you just have to admire, if only for their chutzpah. Michel Collin is just such a man. Collin was a member of the Order of the Sacred Heart and a Roman Catholic priest. Well, he was a member and priest until the day in 1950 when he declared himself Pope Clement XV. Upon his making this declaration, Collin was immediately dismissed from the order and excommunicated by the Church. It seems that neither the Vatican nor anyone else in the Church was involved in Collin’s election to the papacy, and Roman Catholics, particularly those in the papacy and the College of Cardinals, are notorious sticklers for details. Not one to let those little details get in his way, Michel took his role as Pope Clement XV quite seriously. In ministering to his flock, Michael informed them that there would be a worldwide catastrophe on the 20th in 1969. (Think Pat Robertson without the tsunamis and nuclear holocausts but with a specific deadline) When life as he, or everyone else, knew it did not come to a screeching halt and his followers became his detractors, Michel’s response was to accuse his flock of ‘quibbling over dates’.