As a Roman Catholic, I have never been in support of homosexuality and will never be in support of it. But the article published in The Guardian of September 13 by one Malachi Igwilo entitled, “Still on the Pope and homosexuals” was distasteful, short of throwing a punch at His Holiness Pope Francis. In the Catholic Church we hold the clergy in reverence, how much more the Pope. Most Catholics would have been satisfied with Cardinal Okogie’s clarification in his article in which Igwilo makes reference to, but not so for him.
To understand this better, on a plane back from Rio de Janeiro
from activities marking the World Youth
Day a pressman asked Francis about gay priests, and the pontiff answered: “If
someone is gay and he searches for the Lord and has good will, who am I to
judge?” Francis told reporters in Italian, but used the word “gay.”
Yet,
Igwilo went ahead with his polemic saying, “The piece written by Cardinal
Olubunmi Okogie in The Guardian of
August 12 was too economical with the truth and was away from what needed to be
said concerning the issue at hand. There is a saying in the Catholic Church and
beyond that ‘you can’t be more catholic than the Pope!’ This saying represents
the expectation that the Pope is the principal custodian of the Catholic faith
as was handed down from Christ through the Apostles in these two millennia of
the Church. But indeed, someone can be more Catholic than the Pope! If the Pope
preaches heresy, it is the responsibility of all Catholics to speak up and be
more Catholic than the Pope!” A layman daring to even suggest heresy with his Pope!
If it were some other religion there would have been a pronouncement on that
fellow’s head by now.
But
why judge Pope Francis, whose only crime perhaps is his genial look? It is true that Pope Francis is “the
principal custodian of the Catholic faith as was handed down from Christ” but
the same Christ said “What ever we agree here on earth is agreed in heaven.” He
has given the Church the power to change its doctrines through grace and
inspiration handed down from above. That is why Catholics, apart from the bible,
have the Church tradition.
Pope
Benedict XVI was accused of being conservative, now Pope Francis is too
liberal.
The
Catholic teaching on homosexuals is clear, even the press who asked Francis in
the plane know it. It was a trap question, the type the Pharisees used to ask
Jesus. And from his answer, it might have been Jesus answering. They never
expected that kind of answer from Francis.
Sometimes,
I wonder how certain people would have coped with Jesus if we were in his days
on earth. Even the Pharisees would have been saints. Jesus ate and mingled with tax collectors, drunkards,
prostitutes and all manner of sinners. Jesus did not condemn the adulteress. His
disciples by today’s standards would have been called ‘area boys’ (street urchins).
Jesus
told us about the parable of a man who left ninety-nine sheep in search of a
lost one. That there was more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than
over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance. He still went on to
ask “What woman, having ten silver coins, if she loses one coin, does not light
a lamp and sweep the house and seek diligently until she finds it?” Does this
not happen to us in our everyday lives?
Igwilo
alludes to the fact that the Pope was condoning immorality because he was
coming from Rio were ‘scantily dressed’ people received Holy Communion. But
Jesus himself said it is the sick that need a physician.
Homosexuals
or not, Jesus’ central message was not about the law; he was about love, under
grace. We can embrace homosexuals who seek forgiveness and are ready to turn a
new leaf. Even a president of a country or a governor of a state has the power
to pardon a person who has committed a crime or who has been convicted of a
crime, which forgives the wrong doer and restores the person’s civil rights.
This power derives from English system in which the king had the right to
forgive virtually all forms of crimes against the crown. Here, we have seen
those who stole our money forgiven. This is from even those who we consider as
corrupt themselves, those like us Jesus called evil, forgiving others, how much
more God’s servant here on earth? Benedict was said to have chased away many
Catholics, Francis wants to bring them back, (including non-Catholics). But the
Igwilo’s of this world would rather twiddle his thumb.
Igwilo
did not stop at disrespecting the upper echelon of the Catholic Church he also
‘murdered grammar’. But he is not to blame. It is The Guardian that has the greater sin for ‘endorsing’ and publishing
an irreverent article filled with grammatical errors (without properly editing
them. Or, perhaps there were more of such errors).
Igwilo,
said: “So many Catholics refrain from questioning the Pope. Others help him
clarify his statements just as Cardinal Okogie have (sic) done.” He also said “But the cardinal did not mention that the Pope as
a person cannot change the teaching of the Church! The Pope is not the one
determining what Catholics believe. So if tomorrow a Pope arises and try (sic) to
determine what Catholics should believe, difference (sic) from what is already
in the Church long before that Pope, we should all flee from such a Pope.” Not done, he added, “When the story becomes
(sic) known, what prevented the pope from asking this man to leave this
important Church office?” With this kind of gobbledygook it is
hard to believe in the message, let alone in the messenger.
How many times
has Igwilo prayed for the Pope or the priesthood? And indeed, how many times do
we remember to pray for them? Pope Francis knew this, and that was why when he
was chosen to be
in Saint Peter’s throne, in an unprecedented manner, before he blessed the
people he asked them to pray for him. It is very glaring then that there are a
growing number of enemies of the papacy even within the Catholic fold. But as TIME said, the papacy has survived more
trials than almost any other kingdom in history. No other institution can claim
to have withstood Attila the Hun, the ambitions of the Hapsburgs, the Ottoman
Turks, Napoleon Bonaparte and Adolf Hitler, in addition to Stalin and his
successors. Francis’ papacy will not be different.
There is a
growing rise in disrespect for those in constituted authority. The Church has
not been spared. We go to church not because the priests and those who attend
church are saints, but because there are more saints in the Church than
sinners. It has always been Satan’s
grand plan to destroy the Church. We must pray that he does not enter us as he
entered Judas.
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