fide et magicarum

Members: ~500 magically talented, ~800 additional full-time Sanctioned Catholic Order personnel that work across all all 3 Orders
Headquarters: Apostolic Palace, Vatican City, Earth
Resources: High
Dues: Low (Tithes), 200 Terran Alliance Credits per year
Patron: Catholic Church [Pope]
Secrecy: 0 (but internal secrets range from 1-6)
Connection Rating: 3 (6 in Rome)

The exposure of magic to the world created vast upheavals among the faithful of many religions. The Catholic Church at first claimed disbelief and then railed against the magically-talented, teaching that magicians had powers stemming directly from Satan, and that spirits were Satan’s minions.  This was mainly done to appease the hardliners among the Church and to cover themselves from backlash – since the Church had known of magic for centuries, and counted more than a few theurgists among its popes and other high-ranking officials.
As more people began to realize that they had some magical talent, and it was found that there were people of unimpeachable faith who had expressed magical talent or revealed pre-existing talent, the Church began the slow process of examining its own beliefs, culminating in the publication of an encyclical in 2022 titled Potentiae Fidei, authored by Pope Joan II herself.  At the release and public reading of the encyclical, the already-controversial Pope made the further stunning revelation that she herself was a practicing theurge, and had been for decades.
While the attitude of Catholicism towards magic has varied over the years , but currently it has settled into an area where it is not necessarily sinful to have magical talents. It is not necessarily a sin to have magical talent, but magic is viewed as a force that can lead to corruption.  To assist magicians of the faith, the church strongly encourages magicians with talent to join one of the Three Holy Orders.   Almost every magically active member of the Orders are either a theurgist or an elementalist (usually focusing on Fire).  Members of the Orders are expected to assist local bishops when needed.
The Three Holy Orders frequently find themselves caught up in church politics. Conservatism within the Catholic Church is hard to change, and since the Orders were founded by a liberal Pope and tasked with investigating magic rather than denouncing it, they frequently run into opposition. These internal complications vary from diocese to diocese; for example, the Catholic Church in the ESA tends to be more liberal than the Church in the SSA, but both of these are much more conservative than the remains of the Catholic church in China, which has been forced to liberalize their agenda to avoid driving away potential members in the face of the government’s ongoing battle against religious hardliners.
The Holy Orders meets in chapter houses, which frequently share the grounds of a local Catholic cathedral, except where this would cause danger to the congregation (or where the congregation is opposed to the orders’ existences). The orders are often called upon to ward Catholic houses of worship, and individuals are frequently approached by the clergy to solve magical issues for members.

Pontifical Order of Saint Joan of Arc – Of the Three Holy Orders, the Pontifical Order of Saint Joan of Arc is the only one that answers directly to the Pope instead of answering to College of Cardinals.  The terms “Joanites” and “Arcine” are used interchangeably when referring to this order, with “Joanites” usually referring to the members of the order, and the “Arcine Order” being the accepted short name of the order. The Joanites are the militaristic arm of the Three Holy Orders, charged with defending the Church against supernatural threats to its existence.  Currently this has only ever been used to stop a few attacks by radicals, both of Catholic and non-Catholic persuasion.  More often, the Joanites are deployed with military units for ‘spiritual support’ (in conjunction with similar members of other faiths), or are assigned to aid peacekeeping forces or SDA anti-Spirit Beast operations.

    Favored Weapons: Whatever the practical weapons of the Swiss Guard are at the time.

BENEFITS