Editing Ollanius Pius (section)

===Religion===
Befitting his epithet, he is, indeed, a pious man. He is, in fact, a believing "Catheric," which is apparently a bastardization of "Catholic." Exceedingly rare in the rabidly atheistic Imperium, although not unique in the Heresy Era: another badass <s>guardsman</s> Imperial Army Geno 5-2 Chiliad hetman, Hurtado Bronzi in ''Legion'', also by [[Dan Abnett]], identifies himself as "Catheric by devotion.") He even wears a cross around his neck which conceivably could get him into trouble. ''Practicing'' the major aspects his faith (five of the seven sacraments require a priest) would be difficult, as what happened to the Pope and Church hierarchy we don't know (although it's probably pretty grimdark.) According to real-world Catholic belief, there is a Biblical guarantee for an "unbroken chain" of Popes and Papal authority (Matthew xvi, 18), so there would be theoretically a Pope somewhere, or on the way. The church in Graham McNeal's ''[[The Last Church]]'' wasn't Catholic, although it's sort of implied that it is a bastardized form of high-Church Christianity at least in aesthetic which drifted in it's beliefs over 30 millenia ... which isn't that surprising from the perspective of the sociology of religion. If it was really, however, the literal last church on Terra, and the real-world Catholic view is true, somewhere in some corner of the Imperium there is a man who is the Pope and the Church still exists (picking up sticks and moving probably would have been wise anyway.) Several sci-fi writers have speculated about this sort of thing: ''A Canticle for Leibowitz'' by Walter Miller, considered a classic, has the Catholic church surviving several end-of-the-world [[techno-barbarian]] type scenarios, preserving civilization, and enduring over many millenia, eventually spreading beyond [[Terra|Earth]].

Despite the Emperor hating religion, Ollanius was still doing the right thing by the tenants of his by-then-ancient faith explicitly says that soldiers should obey orders and people should respect their governments and leaders in general (cf. Romans xiv, 3ff., referring to the ''Emperor'' of the time ... ''ça change beaucoup de chose, non '' ?), ''except'' of course if it involved breaking the precepts of his religion (this was a real dilemma for Roman soldiers up until the 4th century or so, because they had to [[Imperial Cult|worship the emperor]]) ... but this was not such a problem for Ollie, he was a faithful Imperial citizen and, while the Imperium forbade religiosity, it did not (at the time of the Horus Heresy, which is when we last hear of him) require him to [[heresy|worship other Gods]] or such, even though such beliefs were proscribed by the Imperium (which again, resembles certain periods in Church history).

Despite the prohibition on religion, he seemed to live his faith reasonably openly and at best be regarded as a bit of an eccentric for it: again, not all that different from certain eras of the Roman history in the 2nd and 3rd centuries-it depended on who was on the [[Golden Throne|imperial throne]] just how vigorously Christians were persecuted: sometimes it was an [[Exterminatus|all-day buffet for lions]] and sometimes Christianity was looked at as at best a strange affectation certain people indulged in (perhaps not entirely unlike we look at new religious movements today.) In fact, Ancient Rome, very unlike the 30K Imperium, would've had no problem with Christians at all if they didn't [[heresy|refuse to]] [[Lorgar|worship the Emperor]]. You know, what [[Monarchia]] got glassed for. In the 40K Imperium, the Ecclesiarchy would've probably been pretty cool with Christianity if the [[Emperor]] was ultimately seen as God (which would make Sanguinius Jesus? Except for the resurrection part.) Which Christianity would ''not'' be cool with. So Ollanius being "Catheric" would be a problem for him either way. And probably at several other points in his life (maybe in the Iraqi army, for example. And one assumes at several points over the next 30,000 years or so.).

There is another fan theory that it refers to the "Cathars," a [[extra heresy|heretical]] religious sect that the IRL [[Inquisition]] IRL [[Exterminatus|exterminatused]] in the 13th century. This is a clever play on words, but probably reads too much into it, but doesn't make any historical sense and doesn't really line up with the vague hints at "Cathericism" we get in the books.