Dear Ms Yeagle & Mr McElwee,
I have kept in touch with NCR off and on for some 20 years. You will
surely agree that the Church is in a state of crisis and has
little influence on society.
The NCR may claim to be racially diverse but sadly, it continues to be
Eurocentric and it is certainly not catholic.
You seem to be catering mainly the Whites. The views of two columnists
(Winters and McElvee) seem to be dominant. Some of us would welcome more
diverse and catholic voices.
Pope Francis may be Vicar of Christ, Supreme Pontiff etc but like his
predecessors, he plays safe by pontificating in generalities and
dispensing pious platitudes.
The Popes (all European) fear to challenge the western centres of power
(mainly the US and Europe) and just shuffle along the periphery. His
encyclical 2 of May 2015 is made up of 246 paragraphs, and Pope Francis
must be well aware of the history of western transgressions over
centuries but he
cannot find the courage (or support of the the Holy Spirit|) to name the
transgressors and condemn their policies
that have led to today’s global crisis (socio-economic and
environmental).
Sri Lankan theologian Tissa Balasuriya stated it plainly:
“It started with the expansion of Western Europe in 1492, an expansion
based on ‘violence, theft, seizure of land, murder, slavery,
genocide and untruth.’ The Christian churches have yet to recognize
their supporting role in this process. They benefited from it.
The West, by its military, economic, social and cultural power,
continues to siphon off the wealth of the Third World.
Globalization of capital and production, and the standardization and
homogenization of consumer tastes, is the method.
The World Bank, International Monetary Fund and the World Trade
Organization are among the main weapons”.
[National Catholic Reporter, Jan 22, 1999]
The German Pope Benedict 16 did not agree with Tissa's views on the
Virgin Mary and instead of resolving differences by calm discussion, the
Pope took the extreme step of excommunicating Tissa in 1997, that is,
expelling him. The Church is after all a European institution and racist
Benedict as boss simply dismissed Tissa as an unacceptable brown
upstart. The Holy Spirit (wherever he is located) did not intervene.
Pope Francis went on with his banal utterances:
(Encyclical, Para 90) “…some are mired in desperate and degrading
poverty, while others vain show off their supposed superiority.
We should be indignant at the enormous inequalities in our midst,
whereby we continue to tolerate some considering themselves more worthy
than others”.
If Francis is talking of race discrimination, why doesn’t he say so
explicitly?
The usual failure of nerve from a top religious leader who called
himself Vicar of Christ.
1. The encyclical tone and material still Eurocentric
It’s not just the women that are missing in his commentary but also
non-western voices.
It is a pity that Pope Francis did not break with tradition and share
authorship with a few respected leaders from
Africa, Asia and Latin America, at least in the End Notes.
His European leanings show in the very first paragraph in which he
quotes his beloved Francis of Assisi, a nature lover (13th century), and
he re-appears several times (in paras 10-12; 66, 87, 218). It is
understandable that Pope Francis, as Italian, is fond of Assisi and may
be other Europeans too but is it fair to thrust him on everybody else?
How insensitive can he be?
As head of the universal church, why didn’t he reach out to
knowledgeable African, Asian or indigenous persons for one of their
nature icons?
He also refers to two obscure early Euro saints: Foucault and Norcia
(para125,126). Who has heard of them? How
inspiring or relevant are they to non-Europeans?
2. Past Popes were grossly insensitive if not racist .
Many encyclicals have been written but none on the violence against the
non-Europeans and theft of their lands.
The popes seem barely aware of their sufferings. On 13 Jan 2003 (two
months before the Iraq invasion), John Paul II boasted:
“Europe is the bearer of the values which have borne fruit for two
thousand years in an "art" of thinking and living from which the whole
world has
benefited.” And what of the Euro art of bombing brown countries?
What did the earlier popes think of non-Europeans? Terms like
‘barbarous’, ‘savage’, ‘superstitious’ were routinely used.
Way back in 1493, the year after Columbus set his eyes on the Native
Americans, Pope Alexander VI (one of the most
dissolute of popes), issued a bull (edict) instructing Spain and
Portugal that “barbarous nations be invaded and brought
to the faith”. He is the pope who sired 10 children with different
women.
Could he possibly be a man of God and leader of the Church??
The so called Catholic Church is afflicted by grave problems, mostly
created by Europeans.
Let's quote from the NCR BLUEPRINT issue of 2002:
For some time now, many Catholics have ceased to be inspired by the
church, they feel it has lost its way. The hierarchy is autocratic,
inaccessible, fears to offend the powerful, will not consult with the
laity and treats people of colour with contempt. Meanwhile the Vatican
keeps offering platefuls of platitudes on every issue but no concrete
prescriptions. Can this be the church of God?
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Eddie D'Sa
