Where were you?

Trying to keep up with WYD proceedings, I was delighted to receive an unsolicited email from people identifying themselves as Olive Wood Market.

The CEO of the group says he’s leader, also, of a religious singing and dancing crew, Al Raja, who’ll perform in Sydney in July.

Should I have been suspicious already? Why? It all seemed admirable. The Olive Wood Market offered online sales of many devotional objects e.g. rosary beads with bits of Holy Land soil impregnated. Jerusalem Christians make them.

Proceeds from the sales go to support beleaguered Holy Land Christians. So claims the online blurb. So far, so good.

But alas, no sign started flashing “Go Back. Wrong Way”, as I clicked on the box
labelled “Rosary and the Real”!

What followed was a long diatribe against the “false Catholic church of John Paul 2 and Benedict 16”. It included, even, a hip segment called “Heresy of the Week”.

How, said I to myself, can a WYD website include the ranting and raving of cyberterrorists? Settle down, I answered myself, it’s the nature of the internet, silly.

The young, wired, generation attending WYD will sort out the weeds from the e-wheat, I reassured myself.

My alert doesn’t amount to a “holywatergate” but just an advisory from a sympathetic observer.

Maybe WYD organisers got Google to sponsor the blurb from Olive Wood. It’s Google’s name on the site.

When you go as big as WYD – half a million at Mass with the Pope – you need to make strategic alliances.

You can’t give to God, so this formula demands, without giving to Caesar. Enter Telstra. “Simply purchase one of the products below and activate your Telstra SIM by 16 July 2008 and you’ll be automatically entered into the draw to win 1 of 10 double VIP invitations to the WYD 08 Final Mass! Click here”. My advice – don’t mass out.

And for another thing. Should the Pope apologise in Sydney, for sexual abuse perpetrated by Catholic officials over 150 years? Let me reprint a piece between a bloke, Ron, who is writing a book about the South Church. Quote!

“I see a figure today in the press,” says Bob, “which I am contesting in my Blog page – ‘tens of thousands of cases of clerical abuse.’ Now that’s popped up this morning – will the Pope come to Randwick and say, ‘I’m sorry on behalf of the Roman Catholic Global Church . . .’ ” Father Bob says in his high-faluting voice. “I am saying, ‘would our Melbourne headquarters mind checking this number – tens of thousands . . . ”
“That’s an astounding figure.”
“It’s gross!” exclaims Bob.
“Does he mean just for Australia?”
“Yeah, he means just for bloody Australia! What does he mean by it? I’m asking our officers in charge, as in fact, with Abu Ghraib in Iraq, if some of the soldiers in the ranks committed atrocities, then the easiest thing to do by high command is to put the heat on the soles of their feet, court-martial them, execute them, do whatever they do – but the high command itself will not answer questions as to how this came about. The Roman clergy is the same. They put the heat to the feet of Father Bloggs, lock him up in prison, strip him of his uniform, ridicule and humiliate him . . . ” Father Bob runs out of ideas for punishment. “Do whatever,” he says lamely, but then comes up with more, “Flog and hang Father Bloggs!”

“What I’m asking of the bosses is, ‘Where were you? because this all happened on your watch’ They’ll say, ‘Don’t talk to us like that. How could we possibly know what was going on?’ My answer to that would be, ‘Well, you are supposed to be an organization as well as a movement. That’s what you pride yourselves on, with Roman diocese  and headquarters, let alone little parish headquarters – but you’ve got a diocese and headquarters that is supposed to be responsible for two hundred and fifty clergymen. If you don’t know what is going on, you should stop being an organization and become something else!”

“You’ve got them flat footed,” I declare.

“I haven’t though. They’ll wriggle out just the same as the high command wriggled out of Abu Ghraib. No one at the Pentagon was sacked because of Abu Ghraib – only little Miss Whatshername who was running around taking photos of naked men.

“I’ve got nothing against the bosses. I’m simply saying that as in all authoritarian models when things go well they accept the honour and the glory. When things go badly they say we don’t know anything about it. You can’t have it both ways. If your Archbishop stands up and says, ‘Excuse me. That happened on my watch and I accept responsibility. Goodbye and good luck,’ then . . . he would then be portrayed as an honourable man by even worldly standards.”

R.J.M.