I attended the funeral today of the Most Rev. M. Pearse Lacey (1916-2014), Bishop Emeritus, former Auxiliary Bishop of Toronto. He was a friend of the family and I served many a mass as an altar boy for him.
He retired and moved from our parish before I took an interest in heraldry, so I never noticed his arms before, or he rarely used them, but they were prominent on the program today.
http://i873.photobucket.com/albums/ab296/bct74/1396892507675_zps86bfd3e9.jpg
His arms here are parted per pale, not impaled. He was a child of Irish immigrants to Toronto, so the Celtic cross makes sense, and a brief search of Lacey arms online shows a number of purpure lions on gold fields. Here the shepherd’s staff/crozier would seem to allude to his ministry. There may have been a more creative way to cover all the bases in this design, but, as we are fond of saying, we’ve seen worse.
"We’ve seen worse" ??
IMO we’ve seen relatively few better!
Parted per pale isn’t ideal, especially for clerical arms which may at some point be impaled with diocesan or parocial arms; but this is such a nice, clean design that IMO, at least in the absence of impalement, art trumps science.
Though I can’t see us recommending this approach for others, or at least suggesting a bordure or maybe an indented or other variant for the per pale division. This one would be one of those rare exceptions to the rule…
Others may of course feel differently. I attended a funeral mass yesterday for an old friend, so my deference to the personal quirks of those no longer with us may be a factor.
(Curious - was he RC or Anglican? Not sure if it makes any difference heraldically but just curious. Also curious if these were granted/confirmed by the CHA or just personal assumption)
Bishop Lacey was Roman Catholic. As to the origin of his arms, I couldn’t say. He was installed as bishop way back in 1979 (per dating the CHA), so I suspect these were assumed. As we all would with our departed elders, I’d love a few minutes back to ask a few more questions.
