Cutting the Pope SOME slack

Perhaps I was too quick to judge his Holiness. Having just seen him trudge past in his famous ‘popemobile’, I witnessed an amazing sense of awe and excitement from the crowds. Children clapped in rhythm, adults cheered and his Rayban clad security entourage only added to the general hype and adulation that in most countries would be reserved for pop stars or football celebrities.

The young security guard I chatted to whilst waiting for Benedict XVI was genuinely star struck and like a giggling school girl queuing up for a David Beckham autograph, gabbled how he was Roman Catholic and was ‘very happy’ to see the Pope today. He left, like many others, beaming with satisfaction.

Whilst I do maintain that his remark in Cameroon about the ineffectiveness of condoms was a fatal and utterly foolish blunder, I am pleased he has spoken out against beliefs in witchcraft and sorcery. Many human rights organizations here are underlining how children accused of witchcraft suffer abuses such as how one US State report put it ‘the denial of food and water, or ritualistic cuttings and the placing of various caustic oils or peppers on their eyes or ears’. Earlier on his trip, the Pope also launched a hard hitting attack on corruption.

I support freedom of religion as long as it remains just that, as long as the general public can openly question and criticize, instead of offering a carte blanche to whoever is at the top, protecting him (and it always seems to be a him) under the pretext that his word is holy and final. On the other hand, if the Pope instills a sense of hope in a country struggling to repair itself after years of civil war, if he does speak sense on some important issues and if he is able to convince masses to share these warnings, then perhaps I should cut him some slack.