Catholics are a fair game!

Catholics are a fair game!

Fr. Ambrose J. Bwangatto

The British Foreign Office in its buoyant mood to prepare for the four-day visit of Pope Benedict XVI to the U.K, from September 16th to the 19th 2010, has made a number of proposals to make what they described as “an ideal visit.” As well as suggesting the launch of “Benedict” condoms, the memo circulated also proposed that the Pope should “open an abortion clinic,” “announce sacking of dodgy bishops”, sponsor a network of AIDS clinics, conduct a training course for bishops on child abuse allegations, ordain a female priest and bless a gay marriage. It also suggested getting the Pope and Her Majesty the Queen to sing a duet for charity and apologising for the Spanish Armada. Such gratuitous mockery has now created an acute diplomatic embarrassment for the British Government forcing it to make a grovelling apology to the Vatican (cfr. BBC News online). On a closer look at the so-called suggestions, it is a mockery of the teaching of the Catholic Church and her doctrines or a result of some of her unfortunate dark spots like paedophile priests. One retired British diplomat, commenting on the furore, has written that those who have been shocked by this document are suffering from a ‘sense of humour failure’, since this was merely the kind of in-joke that is made all the time among diplomats. But one cannot imagine that such suggestions whether as a joke or not can be made about Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists or other classes of people. Christians in general and Catholics in particular are a fair game. They could be ridiculed and made to look foolish, old fashioned and bizarre. This world view, of bullying of Christians, is widespread in fashionable circles among those who purport to be the most liberal, educated and enlightened minds. But the nagging question on the minds of Catholics is that: Why are the brightest and most liberal and highly educated minds are actually so closed and display a vicious illiberalism and gross absence of respect for other points of view? Why the most liberal minds are exhibiting the worst puerile signs of intolerance? It is baffling to notice that really some of the brightest minds have a parochial view of reality and cannot go beyond the confines of their cultural boundaries. Many people are attacked on a daily basis and some, even killed because of their religious beliefs in a world which we thought is growing more tolerant and safer for everybody to live.
But there are some hard facts which we need to contend with today. First, the world today is experiencing an irreversible and accelerated trend of migration, globalisation and multiculturalism where monocultures no longer exist. People are experiencing the joy of what it means to be a world citizen and the world has witnessed to the beauty of beliefs, cultures, values, practices, customs, norms and religions. All kinds of ethnocentrisms and intolerance have no place in the world nowadays. It does not make any sense to make a mockery of people’s religious beliefs and attitudes; and it does not yield anything positive apart from creating tensions, insecurity and chaos. Secondly, the society in which we live has changed in important ways, meaning that there is a need to interpret the world afresh, apply the values to new problems and generate fresh thinking and proposals for change. The United Nations estimates that currently 200 million people live outside their countries of origin, an increase of a quarter since 1990; and it is estimated that 5.5 million British citizens live outside the United Kingdom, rather more than the number of foreign nationals who live in the UK. This mobile global elite is prone to champion open borders; and are less interested by nationalism, instead arguing for new sorts of regional and global reordering. In such a scenario, any form of intolerance is a recipe for self-isolation, ethnocentrism and is undesirable in the community of nations which demands a certain level of civility and humane tolerance. It is surprising that societies which were once seen as an epitome of civility and culture are quickly sliding to debauchery in the name of freedom. The daily abuse of the Catholics and constant chatter against their beliefs indicates a new form of intolerance which is equivalent to the persecutions of the young Church in the first century of the Christian era. The Church is an innocent lamb which can be ridiculed and abused without any grave consequences. It is soft and easy prey to all kinds of debauchery. Attacks against the Church cannot be levelled against any other institution or class of people. It is easy to ridicule Christians without any grave consequences, neither economic sanctions nor diplomatic blockades. So, it is easy! But anyone attacking a weak and feeble person, that person too, is weak and feeble! Could it be that those attacking the church are weak human beings and feeble mortals who want to overcome their weakness and fallibility by attacking the church! May be so!