Concerning Faith and Morality

A forthright statement by Bishop Nunzio Galatino, the Secretary-General of the Conference of Italian Bishops, resonates well with the statement by Pope Francis "Who am I to judge?" Reformist Pope Francis stunned the world in the early days of his papacy and now another major proponent of reform has broken ranks with the traditionalist hierarchy in the Roman Catholic Church.

“My wish for the Italian Church is that it is able to listen without any taboo to the arguments in favor of married priests, the Eucharist for the divorced, and homosexuality," is the money quote in an article by Yasmine Hafiz on the Huffington Post dated May 15, 2014.

Obtuse and harmful pronunciamentos from the Vatican have plagued the alleged sacrosanctity of this religious institution for the better part of two millennia. Statements ex cathedra by the supreme pontiff - asserted by the ordained hierarchy to be beyond temporal dispute, become less credible when couched in pedestrian beliefs du jour. Rigorous scholarship and solid science exist in often fractious contrast to such quasi-divine impertinence and there have been some really rotten, really bloody episodes when ideology has attempted to trump serious inquiry au contraire in the long history of this religious denomination.

I wrote and Huffington Post published my comment on this article. Here is what I wrote:

It took the better part of 75 years in my time on planet earth to accept that the pablum thrust on me as a trusting youth was toxic, ignorant, and life-threatening. Check out works by Wayne Meeks, John Boswell, Phillips Jenkins, and Resla Aslan. Look at solid research, not fairy tales. Embrace the humanity we hold in common.

Mind you, there is a not so subtle hint in what I wrote that intimates that I too am a revisionist thinker in these heady matters. Pope Francis is a couple of years older than me and I don't see myself as anything remotely resembling personal status as a peer of His Holiness. There are other religious traditions quite as doughty as the Roman Catholics elsewhere on the globe and in the history of the human race writ large. Some significant tutelage is to be found in the work of Joseph Campbell and I venture to say that terms like ethos, logos and pathos have a more universal significance than the narrow and judgemental habits to which the apologists of Western Christianity lay claim.

I have no objection to the concept of the leap of faith examined by Thomas Aquinas and more recently by Karl Jung. Reason alone is inadequate.  Faith satisfies a fundamental yearning among humankind, it seems to me, but the "whys and wherefores" are essentially inchoate IMHO. Suffice it to say that anthropomorphizing a deity or deities is suspiciously culturally specific ab origine. Commandments come and go in reality, one notices, and assertions of supremacy for religious reasons are a fool's errand.

Huzzzah for the anti-establishment Italian bishop and more such accolades for Pope Francis in his agnostic comments. There will be an Extraordinary Synod for the Family in October and we shall see how mutually exclusive views on hot-button topics may be reconciled.