Is the Catholic Church a force for good in the world?

Remember! Remember the Fifth of November

The gunpowder treason, the plot.

I see no reason why the gunpowder treason should ever be forgot

Is the Catholic Church a force for good in the world? This was the question posed as a motion before a BBC panel summoned in front of a live audience of over 2000 who would ultimately vote “for” or “against” the motion. Perhaps it was no coincidence the debate was broadcast by BBC on Guy Fawkes Day, the day when a British Catholic conspired to blow up the British Parliament. Further more the British populus lost no love for the Roman Catholic Church when it found out that the Catholic church is making room in its halls for staunchly conservative Anglicans ( led by Nigerians) who oppose the ordination of gay men into the Anglican priesthood. The audience was hostile to the Catholic side to begin with, and by the end of the debate the voters’ inclination towards the Catholics had taken a turn for the worse. This should not be a surprise considering the debate took place in that most anti-papist of domains: the Isle of Britain.

On the left side of the Muslim moderator of the debate sat the Catholic Church represented by a Nigerian bishop and a female British Conservative MP who had left the Church of England when it decided to ordain women as priests.  They were pitted against the fire and brimstone of Christopher Hitchens, and the diatribes of the lovingly gay English gentleman Sir Stephen Fry.

The Nigerian bishop shot the opening salvo by reminding the audience what the Catholic Church is. Apparently it’s not “the church of a bunch of bishops” an accusation made by Origen from almost 2000 years ago. Nor does the Pope command any divisions so that in turn it could command the respect of the likes of Stalin. No. The Church commands the prayers of over 1 billion humans of all walks of life, and is heavily invested in charities and combating the HIV epidemic. Nor is it blameless in its conduct. Yet as the world’s oldest and largest surviving institution it strives to spread a message of hope and salvation to those in despair. Thus it does posses divisions, but not in the way Stalin meant. It divides humanity according to values. It fights consumerism (yet strangely not capitalism) and moral relativism (an assertion which according Stephen Fry amounts to simply ‘fighting against thought’).

Christopher Hitchens took the stand with an air of grandeur that could only be matched by the amount of vitriol spewed against the Church. Hitchens was not happy with the apology to the world offered by the Pope in year 2000. According to him, the sins of the Catholic Church were of such magnitude that the entire institution should be disbanded, the Vatican sold, and the Princes of the Church reduced to the poverty that Jesus preached.  The irony that Hitchens sounds like St.Francis of Assisi should not go unnoticed.

Hitchens moved on to the accusation Catholic Church has been fomenting anti-Semitism.  Unfortunately it never occurred anyone in the audience to explore the issue further, for if they did so, they’d see that a Hitchens’ or Dawkins’ style atheism amounts to a worse form of anti-Semitism.

It is the sons of Shem who are solely responsible for unleashing upon the world the very monotheism that Hitchens and Dawkins  are preaching so hard against.  Indeed, Nazi Germans recognized this simple fact by secretly calling  Christianity “a Jewish disease”. Therefore, one cannot fight against Christian or Islamic monotheistic institutions and at the same time remain untainted by anti-Semitism. Christians and Islamic institutions all carry the banner of Jerusalem.  I would go even further by saying that Hitchens and Dawkins are being  cowards by not openly preaching against Judaism and the way the monotheistic virus spreads: via semitic incursions within gentile societies.

Stephen Fry’s beef was obviously more personal. The current Pope has ecumenically redefined homosexuality not as sexual deviance, but as a moral evil and Stephen Fry would have none of that.

Of course one only need look at the record of gay communities to make an informed decision on the Pope’s pronouncement. In such communities promiscuity is rampant, and not because they are gay but because the couple is made of two guys.  Promiscuity obviously is an obstacle to family formation even if gay marriages were to be legitimized. Furthermore, the couples are naturally infertile and would become at old age a net loss to society as their wealth upon death would literally go to their dogs. In addition, it is obvious that their condition is not genetic since such a potential gene could not be passed on due to the fact that two man or women cannot naturally conceive.

Is homosexuality ‘morally evil’ then? Is the Pope evil for making such a pronouncement? I leave it to you to decide.

In addition, Stephen Fry mentioned that not far from the venue of the debate sir Thomas Moore, a Catholic, was burning Englishmen for reading the Scriptures in English. The Catholic Church has rewarded sir Thomas Moore for his faith by sanctifying him and making him the patron saint of the politicians. As bad as these sound can you not blame the translation of the Scriptures into vernacular for the insanity of sectarianism that decimated Europe for centuries? Seen from this prism, sir Thomas Moore and the Church was trying to take a blunt weapon away from the use of the vulgar masses who, untrained in the reading of obscure passages, would literally unleash hell upon themselves and others.

Stephen Fry then moved on to sum it all up.  “This Church is obsessed with sex”, he said, “much in the same way an anorexic or morbidly obese person is obsessed with food”. Well, no shit Einstein! Lest you think that just because “birds do it, and bees do it” we as homo sapiens are governed by the same Nature “red in tooth and claw”! The Church is merely telling you DON’T FALL FOR THAT! You’re not a monkey! Hence sex is of a paramount importance for a Church with this mission. Hence, the church won’t ordain women as shepherds of a flock of humans because  of the difficulty a woman has communing with the divine due to that disorienting, monthly reminder  She has in common with other female mammals.

In the end, the audience turned even more hostile mostly because the bishop and the MP refused to hit below the belt, and felt morally superior anyway.

Poor Catholic church! Rumor has it that Ratzinger is the last pope before the last pope.