This is truly embarrassing. As is long known, the Vatican, desperate to shore up a crumbling client base, has resorted to its hitherto most blatant act of populism, namely putting deceased Pope John Paul II on literally a fast track toward sainthood. Though dead for only six years, he will be beatified the coming May 1, after, quote, "Pope Benedict XVI affirmed the judgment of Vatican medical experts and theologians that a French nun's neurological disorder had been miraculously cured after she prayed to the memory of John Paul in June 2005."
As always within the Catholic church, a permanent contradiction: It is not enough to have faith alone, but one is also in desperate need of some physical evidence of the divine being, which of course undermines the very concept of faith itself: You don't believe just to believe, but because you see physical evidence - in this case a nun "miraculously cured" by Alzheimer. I find it hard to believe that even Pope Benedict truly buys this rubbish.
Yet guess who is embarrassing himself and his nation by attending this ludicrous charade? Mexico's President Felipe Calderón is. Los Pinos felt still compelled to declare that his presence at this quack ceremony is "consistent with the principles of secularism of the Mexican State," which is highly dubious at best. But a larger point is: Should a democratically elected president and head of a nominally secular state - he will attend the ceremony as head of state and not as personal believer - lend credence to this spectacle by attending? Of course not.
This is Calderón's second visit to the Vatican: In 2007, he revealed to the Pope that it is "complicated to separate the office of the President of the Republic from own convictions and emotions."
What a sad confession.
You're absolutely right, but I would've added another important argument against Calderon attending the ceremony: wasn't it John Paul II who protected Marcial Maciel, a man who brought shame on the Mexican catholic church? It's an insult to all the victims of Maciel's misdeeds that Calderon should be there. Shame on him twice.
ReplyDeleteA very important point that warrants repeating indeed. As I think Comandante Burro so eloquently expressed it, one might rather consider the fact that John Paul II kept Maciel out of prison to have been his other miracle...
ReplyDeleteSanto Subito!