Beaten to the first

Perturbed

I missed an opportunity to capture the anxiety of people on this day but one thing that jumped at me without reading the story was just as imaginable as it was improbable.

The Vatican has become embroiled in morass of clerical child abuse cover-ups that at the weekend the Pope attempted bluster over amelioration by indicating that he would not be hounded over the claims that he did not deal decisively with priests under him who had been accused of the abuse of minors.

Diffident

Now, it would be unconscionable of myself to ever suggest that there was a bit of hubris in the somewhat unchristian of attitude of a church lead by the Vicar of Christ to recognise that the issue is hardly about errant priests but about justice for victims which should include succour for their pain exemplified by a touch stance against child abuse.

Fundamentally, it seems the church considers these sexual "sins" moral issues rather than societal criminal acts which need to be passed on to civil authorities rather than mollified with in the clergy.

Trying to reach the priesthood with that very fact of criminality along with the emotional and other consequential damages to the welfare of the victim has been hard and nigh on impossible but activism and outrage from outside the church.

Disturbed

So, who would not have thought it true when I read this morning that the gathering storm of discontent with the attitude of the church had lead to an unsustainable confidence in leadership that in the quest for all that is good natured and Christianly for the sake of grace and peace - the Pope, Benedictus XVI, the Vicar of Christ and the Bishop of Rome had resigned.

We can be thankful that the first 12 hours of April the first are given to us to ponder the imponderable, excite controversy and offer opinions too atrocious to contemplate - but sometimes, you do wish the news was really the news.

One reality remains for today, every occurrence of this day, many happy returns to she who was born this day.

Our Lady of Fátima

Fátima without knowing much

When we lived in the North, in Kaduna and Jos at various times in the 1970s I always wondered why certain Catholic Church institutions had a Muslim name as part of their identification.

I had learnt that the name of one of Prophet Mohammed’s daughters by his first wife Khadija was Fatimah [1] who was considered one of the most devout examples of Muslim living.

There was an Our Lady of Fatima Girl’s Secondary School in Kaduna and later when we moved South, there was the Our Lady of Fatima Catholic Church in Aguda, Surulere, Lagos [2].

The Fátima they speak of

Fátima [3] was a lot further afield than the confines of Nigeria, it is the name of a once nondescript village in Portugal and this is derived from Moorish influence over the Iberian Peninsula.

The greater claim to fame comes from the six apparitions of the Virgin Mary [4] to three shepherd children with instructions, revelations and miraculous events on the 13^th of every month from May to October except in August when she appeared on the 19^th.

The children Jacinta and Francisco were siblings and Lucia the oldest of the children was their cousin; as it all transpired, the siblings have both been beatified, Lucia only died in 2005.

Please read the links within the blog to get the details about the events that have turned the little village of Fátima into a world centre of Catholic faith pilgrimage that has received popes, with Pope John Paul II having visited the sanctuary thrice.

The visit of a protestant

Being in Lisbon gave me the opportunity to visit this fascinating place and observe firsthand the cult of Our Lady of Fatima [4].

As I got on the tour bus after being picked up from my hotel, during the 123 km ride the guide amazed me with the way she said all she had to say in one language before switching to another, it was like having the whole Bible read to you or listening to a whole sermon in one language you do not speak as you wait for your language.

By the time she finished telling the stories, I had probably become the most sceptical on the bus, I almost felt I was being taken for a rather long ride, but then it took the Catholic Church a good 13 years to come to the conclusion that the apparitions were worthy of belief.

The question as I chatted to a devout Catholic couple who had travelled from Australia, devout Catholics to the point that I skirted the issues of homosexuality and abortion was what was a Protestant [Anglican and repressed Evangelical] doing visiting a place of devout Catholic pilgrimage?

How about because it is there and I can get to it? Another thing, the veneration of Mary does really give my theology serious misgivings, I suppose that is why I would remain Protestant.

Between the religious and the kitschy

When I eventually get my pictures up online, they would tell the whole story and I saw and took my pictures – Our Lady of Fatima now hosts the 4^th largest Catholic Church in the world, Igreja da Santissima Trindade [3] – no mean feat for a place that was once a village.

Then we went up to the village of Aljustrel where the shepherd children came from, visited the house of Lucia where time seems to have stood still in 1917 with sheep eating out of trough – now, that is tourism schmaltz, if I ever saw one.

A walk down a path to a well when an angel appeared to the children to prepare them for the visitation of the Virgin Mary had a woman drawing water for people to drink – I only drink bottled water, so I bottled out of that one.

It all looked like déjà vu, I was once a shepherd boy in a nativity play, but then shepherds, sheep, mangers – yes a manger in Lucia’s house, wells, angels and virgins – somebody must be pulling my leg, am I reading chapters and verses of the Gospels of Matthew and John in no particular order?

It was a pleasant day out. I should be walking to Lourdes or Santiago de Compostela next.

The slideshow, the details and comments on the pictures of my visit to Fátima.

Sources

[1] Fatimah - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[2] Our Lady Of Fatima Catholic Church Aguda Lagos

[3] Fátima, Portugal - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[4] Our Lady of Fátima - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Does Ichabod now live at the Vatican?

Holy See saw naught and did zilch

The irony should not be lost on you my readers, no, not at all.

What is this thing about the Pope caught in a security scare?

The Pope was having his usual Wednesday "walkabout", albeit in his Popemobile when a young man vaults over an embankment to approach the Pope, he clung to the vehicle for seconds before he was subdued by the security personnel - whatever was on his mind never saw fruition - maybe.

The more serious issue here is the realisation that whilst the Pope might be the head of an established church, his office does not seem to have the fantasy of the miraculous, maybe even hazard the occupation of palliative comfort.

In other words, we have a spiritual head who really is a political power commanding a quality of authority, a president, head of state or monarch would just as well require an entourage and the same retinue of personnel.

I would presume in Jesus' day, He would have sensed the incident, just as the woman with the issue of blood caught His attention because he felt virtue (miraculous power) had been tapped from His being and not so much for she having tugged at his garments - it would appear from the video footing, the Pope was completely oblivious of the event, or maybe even practically unperturbed.

The risk of faith

The young man however might have taken the risk of faith hoping to touch and latch himself to the Popemobile with the desire that he might be whole - that however might have been thwarted by the overzealous courtiers who deny people of Papal blessings in the guise of security and protection.

The man has also been handed over to the mental health authorities where the Master might have used the opportunity to minister grace and healing.

The mental health authorities are most likely going to put the poor chap in a strait jacket where he might have thought he would get the one touch of the healing hands of the Pope - Security again gets in the way of the Vicar of Christ on earth.

For the young man, at the Vatican, maybe miracles are impossible but a referral happens in an instant.

All that security and all makes you wonder where that amazing power of the Church now resides, not the Ark of the Covenant, the Holy Grail nor does the authority of compassionate healing appears to be in the vision of the Holy See today - Alas! Ichabod now lives in Rome.

Pope in danger - All panic.

Pope in Brazil gives no abortions message

Where are the Catholics?

The Pope has landed in Brazil and there is no doubt that he would be thronged by faithful adherents of the Roman Catholic doctrine and dogma as they gather for a message of hope, of peace and of love.

And that is to be expected, the encouragement to keep with the truth and the admonition to keep away from trends and fads that have no religious bearing on bringing succour to the people.

There is also a kind of disaffection amongst worshippers, people are looking for a livelier God, a kind of worship that includes reverence but also involves the whole of their being in vision, hearing and motion - the type that you would find in Protestant Evangelical churches to which Brazil is haemorrhaging followers.

A message for now?

It would appear the message of hope that the Pope takes to Brazil is the anti-abortion message, one that was at variance with medical realities - a few years ago, a 9-year old girl whose life was at risk if she took the pregnancy to term and the parents decided on an abortion - her parents were excommunicated because the life of the unborn child was more precious to keep than that of the suffering child who might not survive the ordeal of giving birth.

In that circumstance, the parents refused to risk the possible lose of their daughter and prospective grandchild to be succoured with the epithet - God giveth, God taketh away. Nobody, not the doctors nor the church could guarantee the survival of either party should the foetus have come to term.

Of doctrine and of relevance

Indeed, unborn life must be protected, but a humanity of circumstances has to be involved too; religion was made for man to help achieve peace, contentment and balance, it is not an ideological set of dogmatic rules upon which man should be offered as sacrifices to maintain an unconscionable status quo.

Too many times through history, we have allowed such machinations to deprive others of the right to live or exist; driven by some force that portends to speak and act for God, men arrogate to themselves powers that do not belong to any man on earth to exercise terror and dominate the pliant; this should not be so.

We know of the poverty, the disease, the illiteracy, the crime and destitution in certain communities in Brazil - the followers of Catholic doctrine must ask their Holy Father one question - How does the anti-abortion message change our lives for the better, how does it raise Brazilians out of desperate circumstances?

Basically, does the anti-abortion message have any relevance to those who hunger, who suffer, who are deprived and who need a different kind of help?

Even I am listening for an answer in the comfort and security of my Western affluence.

Sitting here in limbo

After death, then what?

I am no expert in paedo-theology, the religiosity of the unborn or the spirituality of the foetus, but a document released by the Vatican International Theological Commission brings this topic into new focus.

Obviously, there are dogmatic differences between Christian denominations on the matter of infant baptism and the issues of salvation before or after death, the posthumous expectations do matter a lot to those still living.

In contemporary terms, we view limbo as a place of undecided and unresolved situations, Catholic Theology has viewed it as a place not in heaven and definitely not in hell, but an almost there place in view of salvation but not entering into the presence of the Almighty.

The doctrine of the dead child

The Catholics have also agonised about the spiritual status of the aborted unborn child or children who die before they are baptised - this has varied from outright damnation to an almost heaven place.

The study now aims to redefine limbo in terms of the more comfortable green room but never getting to meet the host, though there is hope.

Suffer the children

Whilst I would not deign to challenge the authority of the Pope, I would recall that his boss Jesus Christ made such an issue of asking children to His company and blessing them whilst admonishing the learned adults that flocked Him that except they, the adults became like children they would not enter the Kingdom of God.

Other preachers listeners to repent and be baptised - whilst this is no exegesis of religious dogma, a few points are clear from these issues - children exhibit innocence and dependencies of trust that are necessary to establish a strong relationship with God and baptism accompanies repentance, indicating the person who is baptised be accountable, that person cannot be an infant.

Jesus was never ambiguous about children belonging in the presence of God and this is at variance with extant Catholic teaching.

Hope of salvation

However, in what is looking like trying to bolster the social views against abortion and committing a child to a religious association they do not understand; parents in those unfortunate circumstances of worrying about the loss or the possible loss of a child now have serious indulgence-like obligations to distress the child with a baptism service lest they have to regret leaving the child in a state of near damnation but with one eye of God on the child.

What I would hate to happen is a new doctrine that emerges on the conclusions of this one suggesting that the child can be prayed out of limbo into the arms of God through the much reviled indulgences of old, thus, playing on the hopes of the vulnerable parents.

Let me say we have the makings of a new Protestant reformation brewing whilst I am sitting here in limbo.

Whose apology is it anyway?

Religion of peace allowing violent protests?

An article on the Times Online site today expressed my sentiments in words I probably cannot better.

Just like we saw during the carton riots, one really has to try and reason out the paradox or irony that excites Muslim protests.

Anyone from Mars would be at pains to understand the oft held belief that Islam is a religion of peace only to see that the adherents when aggrieved about the infraction of one the bastions of their faith, take to the streets in rowdy, violent protest in a kind of mass hysteria of rage that shows nothing of the peace we have been schooled to expect.

The whole logic escapes me, in a world that is moving to a stage where conversation and dialogue should resolve disagreements and grievances; we find no intelligent debate to press those grievances rather than the blackmail of “offenders” who are forced to recant their views for the fear that the street violence would go out of hand. Imagine, protests concerning the cartoons lead to the loss of dozens of lives.

This ought not to be so.

Whose apology is it anyway?

The demand for an apology is facetious in the least, like I did say during the cartoon riots, if the name of Mohammed or some Islamic principle is besmirched, who really stands up to absolve the offender when an apology is made?

Who is the figure-head leader of Muslims around the globe who would take supplications and offerings of penance when the good name of the Prophet or the God of Islam is insensitively debased?

What really constitutes an apology, a recantation, self-flagellation or even worse and by whose standard is the offer of an apology judged to be sufficient enough to assuage and placate the offended?

Is there anyone who would lead a new civilization in Islam that would say, we have a religion of peace and rather than call people into the streets would we lead a debate that reasons out the issues and convinces the offenders of their faults?

Invest in raising literacy rates

It is time for the Mullahs, the Clerics, the Imams, the Sheiks and princes of Islam to take a commanding and leadership role to excite edifying and constructive debate on what is turning out to be a clash of civilisations.

There is no way we can reach a place of understanding if one side seeks erudite discourse and the other excites mass hysteria in street demonstrations – that results in a communication breakdown – it also means that certain sides should invest more in the education of their people rather than subduing them by allowing illiteracy to thrive such that they do not have minds to make reasonable and rational decisions.

We seek an age of enlightenment that raises not just literacy rates but creates skills meet for community is evolving in response to the juggernaut of globalisation, it is unlikely that people gainfully oiling the engines of globalisation would be on the streets burning effigies – however, that is a debatable generalisation.

References

Global Literacy

Literacy rates in Islamic Countries

Integrate Modern and Islamic Education

A new Jihad for the streets of Islam

New opiates for religious fanatics

The people are agog like the mob let loose to lynch a criminal, as the pictures fill our screens with people burning effigies, protesting with interesting placards in the cities of India, Pakistan, Turkey, Egypt and Palestine.

There is no doubt that this would gain some global following before it quells down, if it ever does. I suspect there is some organisation somewhere that searches the world over for any mention of the words Islam, Mohammed, Muslim, Qur’an or Allah, then counts so many words forth and aft then forklifts that as staple to project a grievance.

In February 2006, during the Mohammedan Cartoon rows, I wrote a whole set of opinions, I think 8 in all about how certain adherences to a religion to the exclusion of reason and understanding allows for mobs to be mobilised to a cause that ends up portraying that religion in the worst light.

There is no doubt that those cartoons were offensive in general, but the reaction to those cartoons did little to win converts to the faith, however, it did unite established adherents in holy anger and violent rage.

Read that speech first

So, this morning, I printed out the whole seven pages of the Pope’s speech to a scientific community in a university where he was once a professor got out my highlighter and pored over the whole text to see what the fuss was all about.

On the whole, what I could read was a discourse about how it requires reason to appreciate the whole concept of religion, reason itself, requires elements of scholarship and within that, reason gains both creativity and self-communication when it includes and is concerned about religion and ethics.

At the beginning of his speech, in what should become the focal point of all intelligent and scholarly minds who have the power to address their people and followers, this where they may be failing in understanding the whole discourse, we should be “sharing responsibility for the right use of reason”.

Read the whole speech

This also means we should be questioning not just our motivations in reaction to issues but the consequences of those reactions when viewed in the clear light of day.

The quote that the Pope used in reference to Mohammed, the Qur’an and holy wars cannot be read out of context, it appears on the second page of a seven-page document.

It follows on from a point about scepticism and probably atheism within the university to a need to apply reason to the atheistic concept of how God cannot exist and yet the university had two faculties of theology.

The historical context

Then he related the story of a conversation between Emperor Manuel II Palaiologos and an educated Persian which occurred during the siege of Constantinople; this should be taken in the context of the fact that Ottoman Sultan Bayezid I had besieged the Byzantine capital such that the emperor travelled to Western Europe, twice in his lifetime, to seek help, this lead to the last great Crusade called the Battle of Nicopolis which was defeated.

It was also at a time when Islam was at an ascendancy moving West towards Europe and Catholicism was in decline – the import however was to highlight that fact that people should not be coerced into adopting a religion, much as wars in those times either Christian or Muslim sometimes included the spoils of forcibly converting the vanquished to the religion of the victors.

Jihads and Crusades – 21^st Century

This then lead to the gem of the exchange itself – “Whoever would lead someone to faith needs the ability to speak well and to reason properly, without violence and threats... To convince a reasonable soul, one does not need a strong arm, or weapons of any kind, or any other means of threatening a person with death...”

The today’s context there might be talk of Crusades and Jihads but both have to climb out of the primitive use of the sword to the expression of ideas, reasoning and communication – this is where the street demonstrations though dramatic and sensational to say the least never really convey with persuasion and understanding of grievance, rather, people are repelled by the fear of an expression that exhibits destruction, hate and abuse.

If we must raise a Jihad, let us go back to the Jihad that Muslim scholars of old, who during the Dark Ages in Europe, kept knowledge and light glowing in the development of mankind – there more to Jihad than the sword – it is time for a change of heart, the searching of the soul, where the tongue sues for peace the world over, where people reason as knowledgeable citizens of our current civilisation and a sense of community prevails over selfish ends.

In that sense, Christianity and Islam have a reasonable purpose, the betterment of mankind, in fact, it is religion based on strong reason, just as God did say in the Bible in the Book of Isaiah (Isa to the Muslims) – “Come now, let us reason together”, the Pope’s speech was an exhortation to all to be reasonable in pursuit of religion or in the community of mankind.

I am no papist and I do not see any reason why a well written discourse on religion, reason and science should attract such unwarranted opprobrium.

The reaction of many simply shows that they never read that speech past the second page and if they did, they did not grasp the context and the world is poorer for it.

References

Fresh criticism of Pope's remarks