Pope Benedict XVI - A man in a modern-day pyramid

As man is storied

Pope Benedict XVI was a man that represented the frailty of our humanity, for all flesh shall perish. That is nature as it has been from long before we recorded history I note that Roman Catholic Church is the longest continuously running political and religious organisation, what she documents in her archives, some unsearchable of the mysteries of our human race would intrigue those who eventually have liberal access to those libraries.

When Pope Benedict XVI took the papacy at the end of the long reign of Pope John Paul II, much as he was highly influential as the Dean of the College of Cardinal and Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, he was also an old man of 78 and for almost 8 years he bore the burden of his ministry with the strength he could muster and the weaknesses that plagued him in the many domains where he wielded influence from within himself to the broader church and global political organisation he led.

As man is frail

When he decided he could no do more, he resigned from the papacy and took on the title of Pope Emeritus sequestering himself at the Mater Ecclesiae Monastery in the Vatican Gardens as Pope Francis succeeded him at the age of 76 and he presided over the solemn funeral mass of his predecessor, also now a frail man of 86 years of age.

Of men of advanced years, there was every possibility that the current pope could predecease the man he succeeded, my cultural heritage of the Yoruba celebrates the lives of people who live to a great old age at death, even as congratulations are offered to those who survived them. Our mortality is ever present in the course of our existence.

The concerns that a pope in retirement would inadvertently interfere with the organisation of his successor were not borne out. Pope Benedict XVI devoted himself to writing, studying, and prayer with the occasional snippets of news about him, what he was up to and his health condition.

As man is mortal

In his death, at the age of 95 on New Year’s Eve into 2023, there became how to celebrate a cardinal and a pope, as he was not the Sovereign of the Vatican City, apart from officials attending from Italy where the Vatican is situated and Germany, where he was from, any other country representatives would have attended in a personal capacity.

For the wealth and influence of the man and his standing, along with the offices he held, “As per tradition, the Pope Emeritus' pallium, coins and medals minted during his pontificate, as well as a "Rogito" or Deed summarizing the highlights of his papacy, were also placed inside the casket. He was buried in a triple coffin of caskets of cypress wood, zinc, and oak. [Vatican News: Deed of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI placed in casket]

As man is mummified

The zinc casket is welded shut with seals and a plaque, but for the man who ruled over men, they see no corruption for they neither return to dust nor are given to ashes, they become mummies of posterity, an eternal reliquary of bones with hair and leathered skin.

It makes one wonder if the crypts of royalty or the papacy very much like the pyramids of the Pharaohs might be discovered millennia from the present time will reveal to that civilisation once again the treasures of antiquity exemplified in the lives of significant persons of our times only for them to be plundered in the name of archaeology for the new museums that as human beings we visit to gawp at artefacts with intrigue.

As I watch a replay of the funeral Mass, the solemnity with the obscurity of Latin clouds the ceremony with mystery and awe. Pope Francis was wheeled in on the chair, and we all at another funeral find that moment to reflect that the times of man are just for a season. The celebration of our lives is informed by how we lived and for all that we might have done, our stories are buried in a summary and our graves have the briefest of inscriptions; our names, the year of our coming and the year of our passing.

Blog - Academic theologians creating Islamic disquiet

As for man, his days are like grass; As a flower of the field, so he flourishes. For the wind passes over it, and it is gone, And its place remembers it no more. Psalm 103:15-16 (NKJV)

Academic theologians creating Islamic disquiet

The Purview and the voice

The Archbishop of Canterbury and Pope Benedict XVI are superb intellectuals and formidable theologians – it would be far from me to suggest with my little learning and experience the ability advice on any matter that decides to offer an additional erudite perspective on their pronouncements.

However, I can recall that when the Pope gave an academic lecture at Regensburg University in September 2006 entitled Faith, Reason and the University: Memories and Reflections; he touched on a topic that should probably entertain the purview of the learned but not the voice of the powerful.

Debate and reason

There, he alluded to the seventh conversation between a Byzantine Emperor and a Persian scholar on the subject of the truth of Christianity and Islam.

Emperor Manuel II Paleologus said “Show me just what Muhammad brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached.”

This was a conversation recorded in the 14^th Century and I am sure the Persian scholar would have reasoned intelligently and probably answered with views and ideas that validate Islam and Muhammad positively whilst trying to broaden the view of the Emperor to an enlightened perspective of Islam.

Unfortunately, very few would have taken time to put this all in context of the 14^th Century conversation or the academic lecture of the 21^st Century.

Whilst that question or statement should have offered the opportunity for those most concerned to reflect and offer a “gospel” of Mohammedanism that makes that view insignificant, many rose to the gathering of the mob and gave credence to that contention.

Stirring troubled waters

The wisdom of the Pope in giving voice to a latent view of the violence of Islam is still a matter for debate and history; in the end, he was able to placate the offended and make peace with those who mattered.

Lessons should have been learnt from the fact that Christian leaders are better suited to commentary on their areas of specialisation than on their appreciation, understanding or even ignorance of other religions where they hold no offices.

For Sharia Law relevance

Whoever the advisors of the Archbishop of Canterbury are, they surely must be pensioned off because in an academic lecture - Civil and Religious Law in England: a religious perspective - delivered to lawyers in London preceded by an interview (BBC audio) on Radio 4’s World at One the archbishop did touch on viewing aspects of Islamic law in a favourable light but it has created another set of unintended consequences.

It is quite revealing not a squeak has been heard from any of the major Anglican Archbishops in England in support of Dr. Rowan Williams, he might just weather this storm with the voice of support from the Presbyterian Prime Minister .

Considering the furore this has created, this great knight of the Anglican faith might just fall on his sword.

Allowances of the law for conscience

One cannot dispute the fact that certain aspects of conscience or conscientious inclinations by reason of religious belief are given the benefit of exception from legal duress in civil law.

However, the primacy of civil law must remain when a conflict arises that either removes the premise of equality before the law or religious law allows for illegal or unlawful actions.

Sharia law might be used to settle disputes for adherents of that faith but in cases where the female sex does not have equal access, evidence and representation before those courts; it becomes incompatible to existence in broad Western democratic societies as the interviewer stated when chatting to the Archbishop.

The popular Sharia view is scary

Obviously, the concern that has drawn the greatest opprobrium has been the vision of the more dramatic Sharia law judgements that include floggings, amputations and beheadings – these definitely have no place in the Western criminal justice systems, they should for all intents and purposes of a modern civilised world be consigned to history.

Meting out those punishments are considered deterrents that instil fear in the general populace acting as an opiate of contrived civility though they are as cruel and as barbaric as anything dragged out of the darkest ages.

Failed to convey understanding

Dr. Williams whilst understanding these complexities in his interview failed to demonstrate those differences clearly enough for people to appreciate the facts and temper their reactions to the possible visitation of the presumed evils of Sharia on our liberal Western comforts.

As one commentator stated on one of the Daily Telegraph columns; it is amazing that a man whose job it is to be clearly understood failed to convey understanding that he has become so misunderstood and left many seriously displeased.

Like smart person knows well to stick to their own knitting; the leaders of the church should stick to matters that concern the church and stop peering over the wall into mosques with academic lectures that get delivered to select audiences but create an unedifying rumpus amongst the masses.

If he survives, the grace of God with the munificence of Allah does abound towards him, he might find mercy but he would need to do a lot for the forgiveness of men. I, for one can see their points but the wisdom in giving voice to issues that can be so easily hijacked, misinterpreted and manipulated for unintended ulterior ends leaves one rather suspect of their good judgement.

Catholic Church pays off paedophile accusers

Tithes and Offerings

I have not been the most ardent adherent of Malachi's Gospel, just before the offertory in Church many a preacher has re-enacted the Garden of Gethsemane as pleadings become mendicancy and entreaty betrays desperation that the honesty, purity and spirituality of the message is lost to the quest for filthy lucre.

It is almost an in-joke to Nigerians that when a person opens a church, it is like opening a business where worshippers can be persuaded beyond stupefaction to part with the rewards of the sweat of their brow to fund the lavish lifestyle of the founder who must live and exude the excesses of the prosperity gospel.

But the people have kept the faith because beyond filling the House of God with food there is a promise to be fulfilled, the blessing that floods your beyond a deluge as God opens the windows of heaven - think Noah's flood of blessings and you had better have an ark to ride in.

Now, many might have their views about the work to which tithes and offerings are put to in the Church, I have never been involved in Church government or management, but there is no doubt that standard practices of auditable control are necessary lest the organisation falls fouls of the law.

The settlement

We now hear that the Roman Catholic Church and the one true Church according to a document that receives the blessing of Pope Benedictvs XVI (Another story) is through its Los Angeles Diocese settling child abuse claims to the tune of $660 million, just 6 short of the mark of the beast that should be emblazoned with a hot brand on the priests who have seriously abused the office, the trust, their calling and children.

People in positions of religious responsibility who hold moral sway over their communities and in whom too many repose trust to the point that they believe their children are safe in the company of religious tutelage only to find out that the child's innocence is stolen in sexual duress by trusted Father String Himup.

It is fine that the Church is paying up, but this would not repair damaged lives, it allows the Church to wipe the slate clean whilst not fully exposing to the law the extent of seriously criminal activity and the culpability of the clergy in conniving, concealing, condoning these acts when they should have been challenged - they were comfortable with harbouring and shielding addicted sociopathic unrepentant paedophiles who just happened to be priests.

Paedophiles they are

Unfortunately, paedophile is one word that has never been used to address the matter of Catholic priests abusing children and just to properly set our minds on the revulsion of these acts the definition of paedophilia in the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary is sexual perversion in which children are the preferred sexual object.

And now, the tithes and offerings of the faithful Catholic laity would pay to make child abuse less synonymous to paedophilia, over $2 billion has been paid out, this is seriously big business and money - No wonder religion remains definitely the opium of the people.