Pope Benedict! Prince Charles!
The past may be history, but it is not forgotten. It is often overlooked, assumptions made that what is past must remain in the past. And we carry on, toward the future. With a certain amount of equanimity. We do, after all, learn from the past. And there are certain inexorable alterations that must, after centuries, be accepted. For time has a habit of marching on, and bringing us all to new and different interpretations of the fitness of things.
On the other hand, there are institutions of humankind that seem incapable of adjusting themselves to reality, regardless of the passage of time. Resentment appears to simmer, close to the surface, ready to erupt at the earliest opportunity. Wrongs done - perceived or otherwise - rankle, beg to be confronted and the sinner urged to recant. Or, on occasion, observe the original event, bring it into focus and make amends to suit the tender feelings of the sinned against.
In the instance of the Roman Catholic Church as an institution of longevity and arcane practises true sins are those that give short shrift to what is held most dearly by the Church. One must not sin against the precepts of the Church, for they are immutable, undeniably the expression of the will of God. Sin one may against other human beings, but those are sins that are forgivable, for a confession will allay guilt and condemnation is withheld, the spirit is free.
On the other hand there are certain indiscretions on the part of clergy committed to the fastidious rejection of sex and marriage as they have pledged themselves to total abstinence, primal urges submerged and sublimated in the greater need to commit unquestioningly to God's word, a celibate and sacrificing life. What to do with those priests who feel no great urge to sublimate, and submit to the greater urge to commit sins against those in their charge?
Why, forgive them, Father, for they know well what they do, but they are of our House and must needs be protected from the rage of the mob. Or the long, often disinterested arm of legality. Until public rage becomes too urgent to be denied and the law extends its arm to the extent where justice must be seen to be done. The Roman Catholic Church finds itself of late in a very unpleasant position, having long protected those among its clergy who preyed on the innocent.
They may, withal, be forgiven, the priests who despoiled the innocence of childhood, who hungrily, greedily, unconscionably, ruined the lives of little boys and little girls by their unbridled lust. They soiled the priesthood, but it is a house that looks to its own, shuffles those who succumbed to their inner urgings to other parishes where they broke the faith again, and moved on to newer pastures.
Unless they were clearly gay, and that indeed was intolerable.
So here is Prince Charles preparing for another papal visit. The last one was a jovial affair, when he presented his then-wife Diana, the peoples' princess, to the Pope's predecessor, and all was sweetness and light. On this occasion, the prince and the duchess, his new wife, Camilla Parker-Bowles, Anglicans both - resulting from the 500-year-old schism born of royal rage against Catholic defiance of a king's demand for divorce - will meet a new pope.
Who views divorce askance, as he does abortion, as he does birth control, as he does the order of severity of offences against the Holy Catholic Church. Prince Charles will be gifted with an object of great significance. A facsimile of the original parchment 1530 'appeal' by peers of the realm to Pope Clement VII appealing for the annulment of Henry VIII's marriage to Catherine of Aragon, to clear the way for his serial marriages.
The Prince will, doubtless, accept the gift with good grace. He hasn't his father's acerbic tongue and quick wit. Pope Benedict will doubtless be inordinately pleased with himself. He hasn't Pope John Paul's humanity and kind spirit.
On the other hand, there are institutions of humankind that seem incapable of adjusting themselves to reality, regardless of the passage of time. Resentment appears to simmer, close to the surface, ready to erupt at the earliest opportunity. Wrongs done - perceived or otherwise - rankle, beg to be confronted and the sinner urged to recant. Or, on occasion, observe the original event, bring it into focus and make amends to suit the tender feelings of the sinned against.
In the instance of the Roman Catholic Church as an institution of longevity and arcane practises true sins are those that give short shrift to what is held most dearly by the Church. One must not sin against the precepts of the Church, for they are immutable, undeniably the expression of the will of God. Sin one may against other human beings, but those are sins that are forgivable, for a confession will allay guilt and condemnation is withheld, the spirit is free.
On the other hand there are certain indiscretions on the part of clergy committed to the fastidious rejection of sex and marriage as they have pledged themselves to total abstinence, primal urges submerged and sublimated in the greater need to commit unquestioningly to God's word, a celibate and sacrificing life. What to do with those priests who feel no great urge to sublimate, and submit to the greater urge to commit sins against those in their charge?
Why, forgive them, Father, for they know well what they do, but they are of our House and must needs be protected from the rage of the mob. Or the long, often disinterested arm of legality. Until public rage becomes too urgent to be denied and the law extends its arm to the extent where justice must be seen to be done. The Roman Catholic Church finds itself of late in a very unpleasant position, having long protected those among its clergy who preyed on the innocent.
They may, withal, be forgiven, the priests who despoiled the innocence of childhood, who hungrily, greedily, unconscionably, ruined the lives of little boys and little girls by their unbridled lust. They soiled the priesthood, but it is a house that looks to its own, shuffles those who succumbed to their inner urgings to other parishes where they broke the faith again, and moved on to newer pastures.
Unless they were clearly gay, and that indeed was intolerable.
So here is Prince Charles preparing for another papal visit. The last one was a jovial affair, when he presented his then-wife Diana, the peoples' princess, to the Pope's predecessor, and all was sweetness and light. On this occasion, the prince and the duchess, his new wife, Camilla Parker-Bowles, Anglicans both - resulting from the 500-year-old schism born of royal rage against Catholic defiance of a king's demand for divorce - will meet a new pope.
Who views divorce askance, as he does abortion, as he does birth control, as he does the order of severity of offences against the Holy Catholic Church. Prince Charles will be gifted with an object of great significance. A facsimile of the original parchment 1530 'appeal' by peers of the realm to Pope Clement VII appealing for the annulment of Henry VIII's marriage to Catherine of Aragon, to clear the way for his serial marriages.
The Prince will, doubtless, accept the gift with good grace. He hasn't his father's acerbic tongue and quick wit. Pope Benedict will doubtless be inordinately pleased with himself. He hasn't Pope John Paul's humanity and kind spirit.
Labels: Human Relations, Realities, religion
posted by Pieface @ 7:36 PM
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