Tuesday, February 12, 2013

A courageous decision.

Pope Benedict XVI has taken an extraordinary decision to step down from the papacy by the end of this month. He's decided to step off the limelight and that, according to me, is a courageous decision. He'd hinted at such a decision in a book - way back in 2010 - that he wouldn't hesitate to resign if he was no longer 'physically, psychologically and spiritually' capable to run the Catholic church.

He was quiet compared to the late John Paul II, the charismatic and globetrotting pontiff, his predecessor! He is more of a professorial type who relaxed by playing on the piano. He shall be remembered for confronting his country's past when he'd visited the Nazi death camp at Auschwitz and prayed for the millions of victims who'd died in the Holocaust!

His papacy will be remembered for the controversies and the scandals that had plagued it. He was wholeheartedly supported by the conservatives for reaffirming the traditional Catholic identity while the liberals accused him of turning the clock back and for hurting the sentiments of the Muslims, Jews and other Christians. To go through them dispassionately, I'm listing down the causes as they had occurred:-

        (a) In a university lecture at Regensburg, in Germany, he'd quoted a 14th century Byzantine emperor as
             saying that Islam had only brought evil into the world and that it was spread by the sword.

             Protests had erupted, churches in West Asia were attacked and a nun was killed in Somalia. He'd
             later regretted for the 'misunderstanding' that his speech had caused and in a conciliatory move,
             prayed in Istanbul's Blue Mosque, in predominantly Muslim Turkey in 2006.

        (b) The Jewish world, as well as many Catholics, were outraged after he lifted the excommunication of
              four traditionalist Bishops, including the one who had openly denied the 'Holocaust'

        (c) He incurred the wrath of the other Christians when he approved a document that reiterated the
             Vatican position that all other Christian denominations, apart from Catholicism, were not full
             churches of Jesus Christ.

        (d) He prompted international outrage when he told reporters on an aircraft, taking him to Africa,
              about the use of condoms to fight AIDS.

And then there were the scandals.

         (a) Child abuse cases had hounded his papacy. He'd initiated official enquiry in Ireland leading to
              the resignation of many Bishops and the nadir in relations was reached in 2011, when Dublin
              shut down its embassy to the Holy See.

              Further, the victims insisted that he be investigated by the International Criminal court but the
              Vatican had said that that he could not be held responsible for others' crimes.

         (b) And the one closer home, when his butler was found to be the source of leaked
              documents alleging corruption in the Vatican's business dealings.


Tailpiece.

Was the Pope disenchanted with the goings on in his fiefdom that led to his sad decision? Or is it that his health is so precarious, which precludes him from carrying out the strenuous duties of the papacy? Whatever said and done, his decision must have been hard to arrive at.

Here's wishing that god takes care of him.
            

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