A Healing Mission
(AP Photo/Luca Van Brantegem)
Pope Benedict has embarked on a one-week trip to the Middle East, as a missionary of peace. His intention appears to be to present himself as a conciliator, a bridge to gap the solitudes between the three religions to be found in Middle East; the 'Abrahamic' religions; Judaism, Christianity and Islam. His predecessor wore his office very well, and had no difficulty persuading the world that he was a missionary of peace,anxious to consolidate the presence of the Church within the larger congregation of humankind.
Pope Benedict's visit can also be construed foremost as a pilgrimage to the historical source of his Christian belief, to pay homage to the Christ in the Holy Trinity, to visit all those places sacred to the history and the memory of Christianity. This pope, unlike his predecessor, however, has demonstrated an unerring proclivity to raise hackles. Among Jews there was a subtle reason for suspicion; as a German youth he was inducted into the Nazi youth corps. He represents as a living witness to events surrounding the Holocaust.
His pronouncements have not been supportive of the State of Israel, in the past. His unwise, unwitting decision to restore the legitimacy within the Church of a breakaway group, one of whose signal figures is a Holocaust-denier won him no plaudits as a unifier, a respecter of history. One additionally who accepts the burden of failure to rescue the hapless and the helpless from an impending fate by nominating and fast-forwarding the sainthood of a WWII pope who refused to use his immense influence to mitigate an impending horror.
For the Muslim community there is a still-simmering resentment that in an unguarded moment during a speech while repeating an ancient commentary at Regensburg in Germany, the pope cast the insult of scorn on the Prophet Mohammad as a war-mongerer. As he merely quoted the opinion of an earlier writer, he saw no need to apologize, despite the furor that arose when news of the incident filtered through to the Islamic community of nations. That community still bridles and expects nothing less than an abject apology will serve to re-align the issue as a forgiven transgression.
Perhaps slightly more difficult, to balance the expectations of the Islamist community, the fundamentalist Islamists for whom proportionality and the disparateness of historical events hold full comparison in arguing for equal 'regret' from the pontiff for the "Nakba". As though equating the horrors of the Holocaust - the deliberate, state-initiated-and-led infrastructure to eliminate Jews as a sub-race - to the creation of the State of Israel leading to the departure of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to seek shelter in other Arab countries is justified.
Pope Benedict will likely echo his predecessor's visit to the Wailing Wall, the first-most holy site in Judaism. He will not, however, plan to visit the museum at Yad Vashem where a display harshly critical of the war-time action of Pope Pius is on view, as a direct contradiction to the Vatican's intent to rush him to sainthood. That a pope of German descent, one who played a minor role in the Nazi recruitment of youth, and who was a witness to the history of man's inhumanity to man now visits the country established as a haven from disaster for global Jewry does present as an unusual event.
Pope Benedict will visit the Christian signposts of ancient history and tradition, at a time when there are fewer Christians practising their faith in the Holy Land than ever before. From the hundreds of thousands of Christians who once called that land their own, to the reduced presence of several tens of thousands, he has a diminished audience, albeit a far wider one expressed internationally, all of whom will be riveted on the proceedings as they unfold. How will he acknowledge, if at all, the ongoing persecution of Christians in a Muslim world as being responsible for the exodus of Christians from the Middle East?
Three religions worshipping a single Spirit whose presence is owed to the revelations given to a Jewish prophet. Three religions cherishing their own singular version and vision of the God whom they worship; each convinced their vision is the true and just one. Three religions whose heritage has a common source, but whose violations of the basic precepts of their religions have been legendary.
The fundamental principle of 'do unto others' has been transformed to 'do unto others before they do unto you'. The level of anomie and dystopian response from one to the other represents a direct rejection of the basic founding principle of all three religions. To change that is to alter, through a challenge of human nature, the very basis of nature-endowed primeval 'survival' instincts.
Labels: Middle East, Religion
posted by Pieface @ Saturday, May 09, 2009
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