|
ring is getting at the point that has been rolling around in my head: iron-clad proclamations are really easy to profess and cling to when they are handed down in times that do not fiercely test them. Now I think you would find relatively few Catholics (especially in the West) who would suggest that Africans abide by Catholic dogma on this issue because they themselves don't abide by it. Imagine if the Pope had been talking about America? I think the outrage would be palpable in comparison. But the Catholic church has been attributed so much domain over Africa that when he says something like this the response is pretty much 'well, I don't agree with him, but it is Africa, after all.' The Pope doesn't speak for all Africans. He doesn't even speak for all Christians in Africa. So when I heard this statement coming from him I wasn't only outraged because, if given his druthers, he would stop the distribution of condoms in Africa, but also because this man who sits in absurd luxury in Rome has established such power over the people in Africa - and through some means of persuasion (not understood by me at the moment) the Vatican has pretty much situated themselves in this role in world opinion.
And, you know, I like to think that ring is right and that the pope really is hanging onto dogma because he has to, but I don't know if it's that simple. I think the Vatican's relationship with Africa is much more complicated than that. And, I believe that those who are attuned to extremely metaphysical worldviews about cause and effect and their place in 'the plan' are much more complicated than that. After all, just look at the real implications of what they are suggesting: the people who have died, who are dying, who will die in the interim before this 'spiritual transformation' are expendable. Of course, they don't come out and say that - they sugar coat what they do say with professions of friendship and compassion, but the implications that the people who have died and will die are meant to die because they don't 'get it' is still there. Saying that, I don't mean to say that I think the Pope and other officials at the Vatican are cruel or evil, I mean that they are coming at this problem from a very extreme religious viewpoint and are very adept at couching their words for public consumption.
__________________
Most people go through life dreading they'll have a traumatic experience. Freaks were born with their trauma. They've already passed their test in life. They're aristocrats. - Diane Arbus
PESSIMISM, n. A philosophy forced upon the convictions of the observer by the disheartening prevalence of the optimist with his scarecrow hope and his unsightly smile. - Ambrose Bierce
|