"Habemus Papam"

Surely some revelation is at hand; Surely the second coming is at hand.

The second coming! This is what W.B. Yeats wished, looking at the disintegrated world led by anarchy, mayhem and hatred. He believed in ‘the second coming’ of the Christ who would be malevolent unlike Him, the most benevolent, compassionate and humble. Well, do we actually need a Christ of this nature, to bring in religious renaissance and revival of the true principles of Christianity, when ‘we have a Pope’ (habemus Papam)? The question is as old as the fight between the religion and reason. This is the reason why the Holy office is often challenged by the rationalists and the religion incessantly remains under the cloak of controversies by preaching what its representatives actually interpret and at times command. It was an argument on Faith (Religion) and Reason that brought Pope Benedict XVI in confrontation with Islamists. His lecture on the subject cited the expression of the Byzantine emperor by quoting, “Show me just what Muhammad brought that was new and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached…” This passage originally appeared in the “Dialogue held with a certain Persian, the worthy Mouterizes, in Ankara of Galatia”. His comments further strained relations between Christians and Muslims bringing in apprehension and fury against the highest office of the Faith preaching religious intolerance. He is said to be a cerebral in contrast to the dogma of reasoning. He is an ardent believer who is sceptical of ‘Muhammad’. Really, this sounds unusual. Then what made him say things like that? Well, he later on explained that it was said and told as a context. He said that he was "deeply sorry" about the fury spurred by his speech about Islam and holy war as the text did not reflect his personal opinion. In his first words Pope Benedict XVI quoted the Apostle John Paul: "God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him." He is known as John Paul, the adequate, the staunch Catholic, the ponderer of deepest knowledge of Christianity in its purest of forms and a tough theologian. His orthodox theology believes in the traditional Catholic doctrine which is averse to changes introduced by modernists. Whether it is the issue of use of protection to combat HIV/AIDS or political stand on Iraq war or even the Harry Potter books, Pope signalled zero tolerance. In an address to a conference of the Diocese of Rome at Basilica he objected to the practice of same-sex marriage and abortion. He maintains, “The various forms of the dissolution of matrimony today, like free unions, trial marriages and going up to pseudo-matrimonies by people of the same sex, are rather expressions of an anarchic freedom that wrongly passes for true freedom of man and woman, to the profound vocation of man and woman, to systematically close their union to the gift of life, and even worse to suppress or tamper with the life that is born…” Talking politics, he told America,” There were no sufficient reasons to unleash a war against Iraq.” He called Communism of Soviet Union as “the shame of our time”. Very tactfully, he wrote to Gabriele Kuby, “…it’s a very informed book. It is good that you, esteemed and dear Mrs Kuby, enlighten the people about Harry Potter because there are subtle seductions that act unconsciously, deeply distorting Christianity in soul, before it can properly grow.” He snubbed Da Vinci Code as it falsified the Word of Christ. According to the novel Jesus is said to have fathered a daughter with Mary Magdalene whose bloodline continues to this day. Talking to an Italian journalist, Vittorio Messori, Benedict said, “It (Christianity) is a revelation; it is a message that has been consigned to us, and we have no right to reconstruct it as we like or choose." On the positive side, Pope continues the tradition of Papal concern for animals. He opposes any kind of exploitation of any being on the earth. According to him, animals too are God’s creatures. He is an astute critic of war and its glorification. He in fact chose the name ‘Benedict’ from ‘Benedict XV’ “The peace Pope” and stressed on his predecessor Pope John Paul’s watchword “War never again!”