Religious Extremism of any description is, to everyone except the religious extremist, ugly in its form and arrogant is its belief of infallibility. Roman Catholicism is no exception. The ideals of Christianity and the moral belief that drove the vanguard of the Christian sect are laudable and, tempered with the humility that its founder originally displayed, is a model from which the world could learn. In the hands of those who came after, though, the message has been distorted into a mechanism of control that borders (when interpreted by those whose personal agenda has to be seriously questioned) on fascism of the purest ideal.
On the second last day of the year this was demonstrated in its crudest form in the heart of Spain’s capital city by a gathering to mark the Pope’s Christmas message to the world. It appears that only in Spain, a country of extremes, can such an assembly, the focus of which was a universal message of peace to humanity delivered by a skilled and diplomatic orator, turn the sublime into the radical.
The gathering was outwardly designed to be a celebration of the family. The error, however, was in the delivery as the definition of ‘family’ in the Madrid meeting was not the all-inclusive one of humanity advocated by the Pope in his message but was narrowly restricted to a sharply sculpted definition made by men dressed in the purple and red uniforms that, in this particular case, represented intolerance.
The definition given was limited to a ‘christian’ family consisting of a man and a woman. The formula behind the definition was rigid: the man and woman are brought together in holy wedlock, joined by the indissoluble chains of matrimony on holy ground, splashed with holy water in front of a uniquely qualified gentleman (who, incidentally, has never known a woman let alone experienced the vagaries of a long-term relationship) and they are father and mother to a series of happy, smiling children whose love for one another shines forth; a warm glow of togetherness.
The most powerful insinuation that came across was that it was these selfsame purple clad, dowdy gents and their ancient counterparts that had invented the family unit and that the Christian family was the only one that, in the eyes of God, was permissible and thus sanctioned by Holy doctrine.
Like all extremists, I don’t think those taking part were at all conscious, in their righteousness, that their actions actually constituted a blatant insult to all those that the message excluded: same sex unions, those who had married according to civil law, those living together with children yet who chose not to marry; in fact anyone who didn’t fit into the straight-jacket definition of family as dictated by this particular brand of Roman Catholic dogma.
The message that the bishops of Spain promulgated was as lacking in christian love as it was fatuous. “The law has provided a platform for the violation of human rights” ranted the Bishop of Madrid; the Bishop of Valencia went further by decreeing that there was a process of the “dissolution of democracy” taking place. This was not only a blatant promotion of catholic values (why not, you rightly ask, these people are, after all, the principal salesmen of the brand) but also a broadside against the socialist policies of the last four years of government and, in turn, an open affront to the more than 50% of the Spanish population who voted for this style of government - and this in a political climate where the government is offering olive branches in the form of greater socila relevance to the established ecclesiastical hierarchy…
Listening to the bishops leading a tirade against a system of government that rightly doesn’t want religious values to control social principles, reading their spoken thoughts in favour of the divine right of God, and of God alone (assisted, of course, by the earthly celibates who, uniquely, know how to interpret the mystic messages) to decide over the fate of Man; his birth, education, sex-life and death, left a feeling that, at the end of the year and in the twenty first century, perhaps the Spanish Inquisition never came to an end almost two centuries ago but that it is waiting patiently, a living entity, in the wings, ready to take flight again in the country in which it feels most at home.
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