AND
MAYBE EVEN IRELAND!!!!!
Who
would have believed it? Sri Lanka has one cardinal amongst 117 in the College
of Cardinals who will vote for the next Pope. Britain has NONE. The only
Cardinal from Scotland was just asked to resign yesterday by the outgoing Pope
amidst allegations of sexual impropriety, and so will not be able to go to Rome
to vote. It is also interesting to note that Malcolm Ranjith was named as a
possible successor to the Pope due to his connections inside the Vatican! So we
never know!
Anyway
there is pressure on the Cardinal of all Ireland also to refrain from going to
Rome to vote due to serious allegations in the dominant Irish Catholic Church
about a string of abuses, which had not been suitably investigated, prosecuted
and held to account. So if one looks at the Catholic History in Sri Lanka, the
Irish nuns who played a major role in establishing the faith in Sri Lanka,
along with no doubt Irish Priests, the then largest human resource export from
Ireland, may not even have a Cardinal in Rome to cast a vote!
The
world moves in mysterious ways, and it is something to ponder on. It shows that
the Catholic Church is in decline morally and in numbers in the Countries that
espoused it and protected it, and is growing in Africa, Asia and Latin America,
where it is likely that more than even odds for a Pope to be appointed from.
It
is also an exercise in speculation, but what if, Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith becomes
Pope. I know the odds are long, but nevertheless being a Vatican insider and a strong
backer of the current Pope, he may get his blessings.
He
is an administrator who at 65 can be a strong hand in changing the Church to one
that is more in tune with the modern era, and be responsive to the congregations.
What would that make him? The most powerful Sri Lankan ever!!!
How
would the Bodu Bala Sena take that? Insulted or Elated. You can feel my mind turning
summersaults. Hell will have no fury when headlines scream “Is SL a Catholic Country”
to produce a Pope. What will be the aftermath? All SL Catholics lined up and shot,
as revenge for the insult. The mind boggles.
The
lesson in this is as Buddhist as it gets. Life is impermanent and we must know we
know nothing, have nothing, are nothing and above all are free of encumbrance.
When we reach our final destination we are free!
4 comments:
So election of the pope is "Politics" now to you now?
Didn't realise this was about representation and having majority stand!
Malcom Ranjit as Pope???
Just the thought of it makes me want to puke!
How far the church has fallen indeed.
the Pope, and the Cardinals in fact, have much higher loyalties to any particular country or region. The Pope represents all of humankind (unfortunately all other sentient beings are not given consideration) and so you cannot even look at Him in the light of being a Sri Lankan, or a German, Irelander, or anything else.
I get your point about Bodu Bala Sena and from a political perspective think it makes sense to take a strong, well-articulated, principled stand against what they are doing, as they are a very loud minority and don't actually represent the views of the majority (i think) but they're getting a lot of publicity. There needs to be a strong push-back against what they are saying with the basic message that Sri Lanka is a multi-ethnic, multi-religious society in which all members are valued and none will be discriminated against one way or another. Also it's important to bring in the end of the 30 years of war due to the divisiveness of groups such as theirs, and you are working to win the war against ethinic extremism in order to truly with the peace for Lanka. Good luck!
mark my words: there is no chance the next Pope will be non-white
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