He is a man of God after my heart even though I am no adherent of the Roman Catholic Faith. Pope Francis’ unassuming simplicity, quiet dignity and unobtrusive asceticism make him such a Christ-like figure. On his stepping into the shoes of the fisherman, St Peter, regarded by Catholics as the first pope, he chose to be named after St Francis of Assisi. That decision sent a signal that this would be a Pope committed to the welfare and wellbeing of the teeming wretched of this earth. For, St Francis of Assisi dedicated his life identifying with the poor and underprivileged of this world while himself shunning any form of worldly comfort. Some christened the new head of the Roman Catholic Church as the ‘Pope of hope’.
Pope Francis has not disappointed. He has at every opportunity spoken against global poverty, the current perverse inequality in our world and the adverse consequences of a neoliberal capitalism that ceaselessly pursue economic growth and ever increasing profit even at the detriment of the environment that sustains us all. Pope Francis shuns protocol and considerations of security to reach out to children and the poor and disadvantaged in his extensive travels across the globe. Here is a pope who even bends down to wash the dirty feet of poor children, following in the steps of Jesus Christ.
But then, Pope Francis is also at home with the high and mighty. His speeches elicit standing ovations and prolonged applause whether at the United Nations or at the United States Congress or in Cuba. And here is my problem with the Pope’s style. He rightly reaches out to the poor but also wants to be in the books of the high and mighty. The Pope heads over 2 billion Catholics worldwide. He is the Vicar of Christ on earth. But if Jesus or the fiery John the Baptist or St Paul, were to address the United Nations or US Congress today, would they be given standing ovations? I wager not. For, they would have spoken blistering truth to power to the utter discomfiture of their audiences. Can it then be that the Pope is so widely venerated because he says what the people want to hear? Has the church subordinated itself to the values of a world that, like the ill-fated Titanic, is heading seemingly inevitably towards a destructive rock at sea? As perhaps the most powerful and influential religious leaders on earth, should the Pope not be a light on the hill seeking to give direction to a world clearly shrouded in socio-political, economic, moral and spiritual darkness?
These thoughts came to my mind when I read of the Pope’s recent admonition to Roman Catholics to apologize to gays whom they had maltreated in one way or the other. Incidentally the Pope also asked the Catholic Church to apologize to the poor, women and even children who had been exploited or discriminated against in any way by the church. Speaking on his way back to the Vatican from Armenia, the Pope said “I will repeat what the catechism of the (Roman Catholic) says, that they (homosexuals) should not be discriminated against, and they should be respected, accompanied pastorally”. In 2013, the Pope reportedly reiterated the church’s position that homosexual acts were simple but homosexual orientation was not. But can there be homosexual orientation without ultimately homosexual acts? “If a person is gay and seeks God and has good will, who am I to judge?” the Pope had said.
Of course, in some ways the Pope is right. It is not the function of any human being to stand in judgement against another. Judgement is ultimately the responsibility of God. And as the Pontiff rightly said again, the church has a responsibility to show love and compassion for all including gays. However, I worry about the moral relativity that informs the Pope’s position. If a religious leader of his stature and influence sits on the fence in this matter, is he not indirectly giving the impression especially to impressionable youth that there is nothing wrong with homosexuality?
True, in a democracy, nobody should be debarred from expressing their sexual preferences. An individual’s sexual preference is a private matter and not one for public regulation. But while politicians who seek to win elections and thus identify boldly with the increasingly numerous and politically significant people of same sex orientation, the Pope has no such burden. He should be able to declare and consistently affirm the biblical position on homosexuality. This does not mean discriminating against same sex relationships in any way. That does not lie within the province of the church. Despite, their deep differences, for instance, the Republican and Democratic presumptive nominees for the US presidential election, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, as well as incumbent President Barack Obama, ceaselessly express their support for people with same sex orientation. They can afford to do that. For them, it is about political success and democracy. For the Pope, it is a moral issue on which he ought to take a firm and uncompromising stance. There must be a yardstick for deciding what is wrong and right in any society. Where the dividing line between right and wrong is erased, the society can only continue to spiral from one depth of moral degeneracy to even more devastating ones.
Let me quickly say that I am opposed to the very hypocritical stance of public authorities in many parts of Africa, particularly Nigeria on the issue of homosexuality and same sex marriage. In Nigeria for example, an exceptionally idle National Assembly passed a law criminalizing same –sex marriage in 2009. This is, of course, sheer hypocrisy if not lunacy. Why doesn’t the Nigerian parliament, for instance, also pass a law criminalizing adultery, which in the biblical scriptures is treated as being no less sinful than homosexuality? So is it right for overpaid but under-performing public officers, who seduce and go out with young women including students to rail against homosexuality while ignoring the huge log in their own eyes? As the Anglican Bishop of Remo, Rt. Rev. Michael Fape poignantly put it: “Pope as a Roman Catholic has a right to his opinion. He is not saying the minds of those who are orthodox Christians…Whatever is good (as punishment) for an adulterer, for a robber, a sorcerer, or a murderer is good for a homosexual. They are all on the same level”.
Criminalizing same-sex marriage only drives the practice underground rather than eradicate it. Containing same- sex marriage just like adultery among married couples goes beyond the scope of legislative or state action. This task must be left to spiritual bodies or Non-Governmental Organizations so inclined to work in that direction. But how can those who need counseling and help in terms of their sexual orientation be helped when an utterly meaningless law drives them underground? In any case, have we taken enough time to study and understand the issue of same-sex relationships from its psychological, sociological, scientific and medical dimensions?
I remember being at a church service here in Lagos shortly after the 2009 anti-same-sex bill of the National Assembly was passed. The Senator who spearheaded the bill was in the church with his wife and children. The pastor spoke eloquently and at length about the man who had fought so hard against homosexuality and took a firm stand for God or words to that effect. He eventually urged the congregation to stretch forth their hands towards the distinguished Senator mightily being used by God in the National Assembly. Of course, I did not join in any such thing. As far as I know, legislators who receive humongous quarterly allowances and other outrageous perks in a country as poor as ours are no better than the homosexuals they seek to hound out of existence.
All the same I insist that the pope should, like Peter, whose fisherman shoes he adorns or Jesus, of whose Vicar he is on earth, must stand for something. This is particularly so in the moral and spiritual darkness of our contemporary world.
No comments:
Post a Comment