Italy’s Jericho – Vatican City

In the old testament there is the story of the city of Jericho, the walls of which succumbed to the trumpets and cries of the Children of Israel.  Now it is a new, grown up, group of children who are sounding trumpets, and the walls of the city which may succumb to resounding claims of sexual abuse within the Roman Catholic Church belong to the Vatican.

To date, the Vatican has had to defend itself from sexual abuse claims arising in Canada, Ireland, and the United States, as well as more recently, Germany.  Furthermore, this week, revelations from a Norwegian clergyman that he abused a minor have continued to rock the Roman Catholic establishment, which, as most will know, has its seat in central Rome.

Although it is somewhat difficult to believe at times, the Vatican City is a country in its own right, but this does not stop all the cardinals and co from attempting to influence the politics and society in Italy.  And this is despite the fact that, officially anyway, there is no state religion in Italy.  Some Italians do consider that the Vatican exerts an undue level of influence on Italy, and such people would not be overly sorry to see such influence reduced considerably, or, indeed, completely eliminated.

St Peter's, Rome

Some of Italy’s politicians would be rather happy if the Vatican’s propensity for commenting on goings on in Italy could be reduced to zero, too.  On the 1st April, Italian newspaper and Berlusconi mouthpiece, Il Giornale ran a front page headline with the title: Paedophile Priests: Alarm in Milan (article in Italian).

In the article, a Milan judge, Pietro Forno, stated that in all the years he has spent investigating cases of sexual abuse, the Roman Catholic church has not once reported a case to the Italian authorities.  Under Italian law, the Roman Catholic church is not obliged to report such crimes, although if it had, it may have been taken as a sign of good faith on the part of the church.

The sexual abuse scandal is moving closer to home, and the trumpets are blowing ever louder. Even if he cries of victims in Italy appear to have been muffled by Vatican authorities, it seems to be only a matter of time before the sexual abuse scandal hits.

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Confetti, canival, and children

It’s that time of year again. A time of children, and adults, in costume, and streets paved in small fragments of coloured paper. A time of processions and street fairs. Of cars covered in shaving foam and party string.

Yes, it the, for me, mysterious carnival season.

I don’t know what the appeal of it is, and I’ve never been able to get into to it. I feel no urge to dress up either. I guess you’ve really got to have grown up in Italy to understand and feel what the carnival thing is all about.

It’s all about religion that I do know, and this is possibly why I don’t find carnival much of a curiosity. This is odd, because I’m quite a curious person. My better half is not filled with carnival spirit either.

Indeed, my other half made a rather chilling observation, after having seen a procession which took place in these parts this evening. She said that all those people mindlessly chanting the same thing was frightening. Nope, as you might have gathered, she’s not into religion either, although she rather more direct in its criticism. She believes that it is little more than indoctrination.

Maybe she has a point, but I’m not sure I fully agree, or disagree with her.

I’ve got nothing against those with faith. If it works for them, fine, but please do not try and convert me.

When the time is right, I’ll convert myself.  But it’ll take more than confetti covered streets to win me over.

The calm after the storm, and divine, possibly, intervention

Wow! This is a heavy week. I had a long, and quite complex, translation that needed doing asap. I did manage to finish it, but it ate up a lot of time. So much time, that I have neglected my blog, and its readers.

However, this little translating experience sort of restored my faith in the existence of a superior being. Why? Well, on Tuesday I had my usual appointment with my law firm. Now, it just so happens that this group of people cancel once in a while, and I have to admit that I was sort of praying that they would cancel Tuesday’s lesson, as that would have given me a little breathing space. No, I thought, that would be far too much to expect.

Well, as it happens, they did indeed cancel! I just could not believe it. Cancellations are usually a little annoying, but this time I was just about jumping for joy. Someone, or something looked upon me favourably that day.

I’m not great believer in superior beings, but I have to admit after Tuesday’s stroke of luck, I did start to wonder. And should my luck not have been luck as such, but more like some form of divine intervention, I have to say a big thanks!

This little event also got me thinking. I mean, although I am not exactly religious, I do find the argument ‘something or somebody must be responsible for the universe’ difficult to refute. Yes, there may be a scientific explanation, but what kicked everything off? This is extremely difficult to explain, and even science has a more than few problems with it. Big bangs, chemical reactions, and things bouncing around the galaxy for zillions of years may explain how we came to exist, but before that? There was nothing, you might retort. OK, fine, I shall reply, but, I will ask, “Who or what turned the nothing into something?”. Explain that if you can. Although nobody can. And even if the religious types out there say, “It was God.”, I may well ask, “But what or who created God?”. Answers on a postcard, please. Although, I won’t be getting any postcards because there is no answer.

Will we ever find out? Possibly, but not for a long time yet, I imagine. And by the time we do, I shall be long gone, of that I am sure.

In the meantime, I will continue to be surprised when I benefit from unexpectedly fortuitous good luck, and I shall hover somewhere between being an atheist and an agnostic, or visa verce. Then again, maybe I should really be an atheist, for I am not sure that whatever or whoever started everything off could or should, of even would want to be considered as a deity.

What is Religion?

Just what is religion? Why does it exist and why are some of the main religions having problems these days with a loss in the number faithful? Recent world problems and personal problems have found me trying to develop a perspective on these questions.

In answer to my questions, I think that religion started as a means of explaining the inexplicable and then developed into a means of keeping members of society walking along a path that made them easier to control, and, to an extent, operated in the same way as all the laws, rules and regulations which keep us in order today. Whatever the reason, one thing seems to be true, the rules which go to make up the main religions of today were created many moons ago, when life was considerably different. Those who wrote all the fundamental texts lived in times remote from our own and now, or so it would seem, many of the standards and philosophies laid down would seem to be considered irrelevant by the majority in today’s world. This is, in many ways, sad, but I believe it is inevitable. However, it is difficult to up date something which owes its origins to times so distant from our own. The Catholic church is finding conflicts with historical theological principles everywhere, from that bane of the Roman Catholic church, birth control, to Harry Potter. The Islamic faith is finding that its followers are having a hard time fitting the requirements of this religion with the pressures and temptations of today. However, as with the Christian faiths, there is no real leeway (for historical reasons) which could allow them to bring religious principles in line with today’s society.

Attempts at creating new religions have been and are being made, but with relatively little overall effect and instead of embracing one of these new religions, many are abandoning religion completely, quite possibly in favour of other more interesting, for them, pastimes, such as watching TV or blogging, for instance. This is a shame, because some kind of faith, more closely related to our modern society, could well get us through the difficult period which we are facing.

What is needed is some world shaking event involving someone who exists today. Something which could either breathe new life into old gospels or which could lead to the creation of newer religious doctrines. In many ways we need a miracle – something that many can witness, due to the power of technology, but something so inexplicable that it would restore our faith in the distinctly high probability that incomprehensible forces do really exist and that respecting (popular word at the moment ‘respect’, although it seems to be misused) them or it, really would make the world and our lives better. The problem is that such an event would contend with a level of scientific knowledge which never existed when the those who wrote the bible, Koran or whatever, were around.

So, come on Great Being (or Beings) rattle our cages and restore our faith, and maybe a little fear that doing bad things here will lead to problems in any afterlife, should such a thing exist. Too many are now saying ‘to hell with hell’, let’s live for the moment, or at least, pave the way for our offspring.

End of sermon.