A Self Proclaimed Poet?

It seems as if one Fox News anchor described the deceased Renee Nicole Good as a "self proclaimed poet" ...

What is that even supposed to mean?

Obviously, he didn't think real poets include her, but what, on his view, distinguishes real poets from her?

One could mention metre. After looking up her prize winning poem from 2020, she's mentioning metric units, but not using them.

But if so, is Walt Whitman no poet?

One could mention being mentioned, supposing the anchor may have ignored she won a prize in 2020, so, the fact is, she did win a prize and was mentioned.

But I think it is a lot vaguer than either of these. Renee Nicole Good may not have been God's greatest gift to poetry, but people who use "self proclaimed" this way are probably the Devil's gift to the Antichrist.

Now, one could speak of "self proclaimed Pope" (like Clemente Vincente, whom I once followed as believing him to be truly "Gregorio XVII", seeing that the Evolution endorser Wojtyla couldn't be Pope). One could speak of "self proclaimed prophet" (I already mentioned Clemente Vincente, right?). Equally, one could speak of "self proclaimed Emperor" (to be somewhat varied, Joshua Abraham Norton, a k a Norton I). These phrases make sense, because Pope, by definition, there is only one true at a time, and either that one or any reasonable claimant needs to be elected by someone else (which Pope Michael I was, by the way). Emperor, those only exist in countries that qualify as Empires, typically with some historic connection to Imperial Rome, Caesar and Constantine somewhere in the background, and any of the ways in which those countries work would involve some process other than self proclamation to verify who is Emperor. Like getting elected by Seven Princes Elector and getting crowned in Frankfurt.

And prophet, there is only one God in Three Persons Who can send true prophets, and He usually gives them miracles to make others proclaim them such. However, sometimes, before doing a miracle (like a miraculous prediction actually getting fulfilled), they may appear self proclaimed. So, already in this context, where self proclaimed per se would be a fault, appearing self proclaimed isn't. However, in such cases, the prophet is recognised after the fact.

But, apart from Pope, prophet, Emperor, and in some other contexts Messiah or Mahdi, self proclaimed is pretty much the norm for any non-employee in a free market.

That news anchor wasn't a self proclaimed news anchor, because he was hired by Fox News. But Fox News is a self proclaimed News Outlet. And essayists, authors, poets and so on and so forth actually do follow the same rule on a free market. One doesn't single out someone as "self proclaimed" because everyone is self proclaimed.

One limit case is when a Danish news outlet considered an Evangelical pastor (who got in trouble in Denmark) as a "self proclaimed reformer" ... all the Reformers of the Protestant Reformation were self proclaimed. Not one of them proved by miracles that God had named him, and one of them (John Calvin) specifically went out of his way to state that the time of miracles was over, to cover that up. Not one of them has been by actual Catholic authority recognised after the fact, namely as a Reformer.

Some of them had some kind of mission from the Catholic Church, like Luther being a parson in Wittenberg or Cranmer being an archbishop of Canterbury. However, the things they did as Reformers went outside this mission. This is why a Catholic will inevitably find that Danish headline ironic. The Protestant Reformers were all Self Proclaimed in the bad sense.

Unless the Dane was so set on Church of Denmark, that he focussed on the Reformers eventually getting Royal authorisation. That of course still leaves Zwingli and Calvin in the position of the self proclaimed ones, but then again, neither Zwingli nor Calvin are counted among the Reformers of Lutheran Churches. Luther is, and Melanchthon is, and outside Germany some non-German is, like Tausen in Denmark or the Petri brothers in Sweden or Agricola in Finland. And, of course, Tyndale never got approval from Henry VIII, so, he was, despite being (self proclaimed) Lutheran, self proclaimed too. And since Caspar Tauber didn't get approval from the Emperor Charles V or from the Mayor of Vienna, but actually got killed for heresy, he was self proclaimed, like Tyndale was. On that Caesareo-Papistic view, it's inconsistent to recognise Tyndale and Tauber as Reformers or even just as martyrs. Luther's theory was, princes have the jus reformandi, not Popes, not bishops of a country, not anyone who happens to disagree even if he bases the disagreement on the Bible. Hus at least had the support of Wenceslaus IV of Bohemia. But Tauber and Tyndale didn't. So, they were self proclaimed.

The fact is, the Catholic Church does recognise some saints as precisely reformers, like Sts. Teresa of Avila or John of the Cross reformed the Carmelite order or Sts. Robert of Molesme and Bernard of Clairvaux reformed a branch of the Benedictines, now known as Cistercians. Indeed, before that, St. Benedict of Aniane had reformed Benedictines and Benedictines as such were the reform of monasticism by one St. Benedict of Nursia. In many of these cases, the people started out self proclaimed, but actually were recognised posthumously. None of them set out to take a distance from the traditional doctrine or liturgy of Catholicism, though.

But essayist, poet, writer, author ... these are normally self proclaimed per se. So are news outlets outside Public Service TVs and Radios. You don't single someone out for taking up such job descriptions or doing such jobs without having been specifically invited by someone else.

Hans Georg Lundahl
Paris
St. Hilary of Poitiers
14.I.2025

13.I

Pictavis, in Gallia, natalis sancti Hilarii, Episcopi et Confessoris; qui, ob catholicam fidem, quam strenue propugnavit, quadriennio apud Phrygiam relegatus, ibi, inter alia miracula, mortuum suscitavit. Eum Pius Nonus, Pontifex Maximus, universalis Ecclesiae Doctorem declaravit et confirmavit. Ipsius autem festum sequenti die celebratur.

14.I

Sancti Hilarii, Episcopi Pictaviensis, Confessoris et Ecclesiae Doctoris; qui pridie hujus diei evolavit in caelum.

Clarification:

The mentioned saints were (apart from St. Benedict of Nursia) self proclaimed only in relation to monasteries and convents outside their own, they were abbots and a prior and a prioress with due authority already granted. St. Benedict was however a hermit before being an abbot./HGL