Pope Paul VI was the first to come out of Vatican and travel outside world. His first visit after ascending to the Papacy was to the Holy Land – Jerusalem – in the early sixties followed by his trip to Fatima in Portugal. The third trip of His Papacy was Bombay in India in 1964 for Eucharistic Congress. As the head of Roman Catholicsm, in India at that time He received highest official welcome, also as head of Vatican. When He visited Bombay, Cardinal Gracias a Goan from Navelim Salcette was responsible for organising so successfully the Eucharistic Congress and Government of India both at Centre under Lal Bahadur Shastri as Prime Minister and under V.P. Naik as Chief Minister in Bombay gave total support for the success of Pope’s visit to India even though some Hindu fundamentalists under Jana Sangh Party were trying to disrupt the visit of Pope to India.
As a matter of pride nowhere in the world Pope received such a tumultuous welcome as He received in Bombay when almost the entire Central Cabinet of India came to Santa Cruz Airport in Bombay to welcome the Pope, headed by Premier Lal Bahadur Shastri. Indira Gandhi was Information and Broadcasting Minister of India at that time. Among all the top officials, Pope was pleased to meet with the Philosopher President of India Dr. Radakrishnan who also came to Bombay to welcome Pope with highest respect and reverence meant for the head of the Roman Catholicsm.
When Pope went to Jerusalem during his first trip abrod, many Arabs objected to His visit to Holy Land because of Israeli annexation of Holy Land but Pope never cared for this opposition.
When Pope Paul VI went to Fatima in Portugal somewhere in 1963, He was received with highest reverence by the Premier and the big man of Portugal Dr. Antonio Oliveira Salazar, popularly known all over the world and in Goa as SALAZAR. While welcoming Pope on Portuguese soil, Salazar knelt down on both his knees and kissed the right hand of the Pope thereby showing his highest respect and reverence for the holiness of the Pope.
When President Kennedy met Pope, instead of showing his reverence to the Pope, he wished Him just by bending low and not by kneeling down even though President Kennedy was a pure Roman Catholic and probably the only Roman Catholic President of USA.
When Pele went for his Honey Moon trip to Rome after his marriage to his first wife Rose Marie, he went to Vatican to meet Pope and while wishing Pope, Pele bent his knee thereby showing his reverence to the Head of Catholicsm. Pele himself is a devout Catholic.
When the Christian President Gemayel of Lebanon first time met the last Pope John Paul, he broke all the barriers and sat on his Chair much before Pope could touch His chair, while wishing the Pope, the Lebanese President even failed to bend down his head while shaking Pope’s hand. President Gemayel forgot to maintain the necessary etiquette while dealing with the religious head.
During His latest visit to Portugal and Fatima, the current Pope Benedict XVI was welcomed by the first citizen of Portugal and his wife just by bending their heads and not the way earlier Salazar received the then Pope Paul VI by kneeling down.
During his brief statement in Portugal, the Pope showed his regret and sorrow for the children who suffered sexual abuses from our Catholic priests. Because of such sinful priests our Pope is suffering from guilt conscience. Why Pope only, eve the lay Catholics are also suffering under the same shame. There is a nice saying in Konkani “Adaum korta khuim pap ani sonsot dita zap”.
Day by day the reverence to the Pope and to other clergy is decreasing because of the sins of the clergy and Bishops towards lay Catholics. Child Sex abuses by the Priests in Roman Catholicism is the biggest sin that is committed and because of this worst sin the image of Clergy is getting corroded and thereby creating a very bad image of our religion. Good people has lost their trust in Priests and other Clergy because priests and other Clergy started using their priesthoods not for holy work but for devilish and satanic work.
In order to save Catholicsm from further disorder it is time now for all the Catholics to raise their voices in unison against the brutalities our Priests are committing against innocent kids thereby making these kids sexually defective throughout their life. Pope is very disturbed to know the brutalities of our Priests against innocent children. Earlier our Pope was doubting the truthfulness of these stories appearing in the media because that time our Pope was possessed by the influence of doubting Thomas. Media and journalists should be thanked for exposing this devilish crime of sex abuser priests. Those priests who are criticizing in their sermons writers and journalist are cowards and crooks of first grade and must be suffering from some satanic sins. They are afraid that their worst sins may also get exposed thru the pens of the writers, journalists and bloggers.
Beside performing the sin of child sex abuses, the other sin many of our priests are committing is the sin of pride and arrogance by acting as ruffians against their own faithfuls and that too in the Church and Church premises. It is said, “pride has its fall”, and those priests who think they are omnipotent and too smart, they should change their behavior towards positive side. By acting as ruffians, priests are crushing Christianity under their feet and as such they are not fit to be priests. In such situation their priesthood is a joke if not a barbarity. If priest does not have patience to deal with the faithfuls then he has no right to be a priest. It is not enough to preach big and lengthy sermons till faithfuls are fed-up, the priests must have humility. To serve God and Jesus Christ, priests must have humility and not arrogance and pride which go against the teachings of the Christ. It is this type of arrogant and proud priests who drive away Catholic faithfuls from Catholicsm and away from the Catholic Church. This type of arrogant priests must know that they are like one eyed persons among the blinds; their world is only the Church and Church premises; they must also know that their “dadagiri”, pride and arrogance with faithfuls are like that of “Monarchs of what they survey within their Monarchies”, i.e. Church compounds and Sacristy ONLY.
The Bishops and High Priests in our Churches must check the behavior of their priests in and around their Churches especially of those priests who are already on record to disturb the peace of the faithfuls. The destruction of religion will be done only by our sinful and arrogant priests because our enemy is within ourselves and this is what our Pope has admitted two days back in Portugal at Fatima.
A. Veronica Fernandes,
Kuwait.
