Image
courtesy of Stjohnchurch.net
Disclaimer: This article is not an attempt to speak
ill of the church or mar its image and shouldn’t be treated as such. It is strictly an “imperfect” observation and
opinion of the writer.
Some topic seems to be so sacred that nobody wants
to talk about or discuss it even when some have given it serious thought. We
stopped existing in the medieval times a long time ago and nobody would cut off
your head or hang you on a tree for speaking your mind even if it is not in
favour of the church. Last time I checked, the era of the Spanish inquisition
is no more. I refuse to be one of those that would put religion before God. The
subject of this article is with reference to the Roman Catholic Church.
Let me state emphatically that I was born and bred a
catholic before those thoroughbred-soldiers-of-Christ set of Catholics would
start hurling stones/arrows of criticism at me. Silence or shying away from
issues has never been proven to be a solution to problems. And although this
may not be a problem to millions of Catholics around the world, it is to me.
When you take a look at all the popes in the Catholic
Church from Saint Peter to Pope Francis, there is no single black man amongst
the 266 men that have become pope till date and it leaves one wondering if
black men don’t serve God too or if they are not good enough to be popes. I may
be ignorant of the procedures or criteria for selecting a pope but I believe
that all things being equal a black man should have been made pope at one time
or the other since the church came into existence, if it is to be fair. There
have been black cardinals if I am not mistaken and I have been privileged to
have the understanding that two of them presently are Nigerians. It was said
that one was among the preferatti /papabile
to succeed Pope John Paul II and I guess that is the only level that a man
of colour would attain in trying to become pope.
I was talking to an acquaintance who happens to be a
writer about this subject and he mentioned that Papacy could be coming to the
blacks soon since it has moved from Europe where it was situated to a third
world country as seen in the current Pope emerging from Argentina. His tone
could be perceived as saying: All we have to do as coloured people is hope that
it would come down to us someday. Truth is: As long as internal politics are at
play in the church, I doubt if we would be seeing a black pope soon. Some people would say, “why not serve God and
forget about who becomes pope or not?” And my reply would be that I have always
been an advocate of justice and equality and would not shy away from asking
necessary questions. The only proof to
ascertain equality as humans is by making a position of power open or available
to qualified persons no matter their race or colour. This was at play when a
black man became the president of the USA for the first time.
Another area where I think racial profiling could be
found in the church is in canonization or the art of making someone a Saint.
You can count the number of black men that are Saints (in the church’s
standards) but when it comes to those on the other side of the divide, the
number is overwhelming. Growing up in a catholic family, I attended the block
rosary crusade which was almost mandatory for young Catholics and in several of
our meetings, we read the Lives of The Saints. Several saints were mentioned in
the book and their life and works chronicled. If memory permits, the only black
saint I could recall coming across is Charles Lwanga and his companions from
Uganda. To be on the safe side, I tried searching for black saints on Google
and the only result of note took me the site of a catholic diocese where eight
saints were mentioned, just eight. Although, I may be ignorant again of the
criteria for someone attaining Sainthood but I know that if the church is being
fair, there should be more black saints in the church. The late Iwene Tansi has
been called “Blessed” ever since I learnt how to read and Late Pope John Paul
II who died in 2005 was beautified last year. I don’t know what the church’s
reasons are for not Canonizing Fr. Tansi but I would state that apart from
whatever reasons there are, his skin colour and the part of the world where he
is from could not be far away from it.
I may not have read the Canon Law of The Church from
cover to cover but that should not stop me from saying what I believe is
obvious and should be looked into. The Roman Catholic Church may not appear to
be liberal and I am not suggesting that it should be but some things have to be
readdressed and of course with divine guidance. Conservatism have worked for
the church over the years but little changes like equality, I believe would not
collapse the structure of the body of Christ.
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