Pope Francis corruption fury: Tie them to a rock and throw them in the sea

Here is an article by Heather Saul, The Independent | Nov 12, 2013

This message is most relevant to the hierarchy, clergy, religious and the politicians.

My comments are in brackets in italics

Pope Francis delivered an impassioned sermon on Monday, during which he quoted a passage from the bible that said some sinners deserve to be tied to a rock and cast into the sea. 

[First in queue is K.M. Mani; next Ooman Chandi followed by a number of Kerala Archbishops, Bishops, many priests, few nuns and most politicians.]

The Argentinian religious leader said Christians who donated money to the church but stole from the state were leading a "double life" and were sinners who should be punished. 

[Pope is referring to the people in the above list.]

Quoting from the Gospel of St Luke in the New Testament, he said: "Jesus says 'It would be better for him if a millstone were put around his neck and he be thrown into the sea'," because "where there is deceit, the Spirit of God cannot be". 

In most Bishop’s Houses and presbyteries ‘the spirit of God’ cannot be.]

Without directly mentioning corruption within the Catholic Church, in his sermon he described those involved in corrupt practices as "whitewashed tombs", explaining that "they appear beautiful from the outside, but inside they are full of dead bones and putrefaction." He said, "A life based on corruption is varnished putrefaction." 

[Red/purple sashes or long cassocks or white starched khadi shirts and dhotis cannot camouflage the putrefaction within.]

On Friday, he also condemned corruption, asserting parents who earned through bribes or corrupt practices had "lost their dignity", and fed their children "unclean bread".

[Jose K Mani and his sisters and their children must be eating ‘unclean bread.’]

He said: "Some of you might say: 'But this man only did what everyone does!'. But no, not everyone! Some company administrators, some public administrators, some government administrators... perhaps there are not even very many. But it's that attitude of the shortcut, of the most comfortable way to earn a living. 

"These poor people who have lost their dignity in the habit of bribes take with them not the money they have earned, but only their lack of dignity!" 

He compared receiving bribes as "like a drug" as people become "dependent" on the habit of bribes. 

The Pope has made clear his intentions to tackle corruption within the Vatican and held a meeting with the Church's highest ranking whistle blower in October, after telling the Church in May that it "must go forward... with a heart of poverty, not a heart of investment or of a businessman" reminding it that "St Peter did not have a bank account".

[How many of Kerala’s Catholic Cardinals and Bishops have read this last paragraph? I have a strong suspicion that they all must be praying for the early demise of this sincere and holy man to continue with their empire building.]

Quotes/thoughts that come to mind on K.M. Mani’s fall:

“All power tends to corrupt; absolute power corrupts       absolutely.” 

Lord Acton, in a letter to Bishop Mandell Creighton, 1887.

"Suspicion always haunts the guilty mind; The thief doth fear each bush an officer". 

                              William Shakespeare: King Henry

            

       “The evil that men do lives after them; 

        the good is oft interred with their bones.” 

                                       William Shakespeare: Julius Caesar.

Biju Ramesh:

Friends, Mallus, countrymen, lend me your ears.

I come to bury Mani, not to praise him.

The evil that men do lives after them;

The good is oft interrèd with their bones.

Humpty Dumpty

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall
All the king's horses and all the King's men
Couldn't put Humpty Dumpty together again

There are many folklores associated with this nursery rhyme. The rhyme refers to King Richard III and his defeat at the battle of Bosworth. Others believe that Humpty Dumpty was based on the sudden catastrophic fall of Cardinal Wolsey from Henry VIII era. The cardinal became ill on the way to his trial and soon died. He was Henry’s most trusted friend for a long time until Ann Boleyn appeared on the scene and turned Henry against him. No one expected him to be toppled so quickly.

Sr. Abhaya’s sainthood and the miracle of Ex. Minister K.M. Mani’s resignation

I am back after a long break.

The immediate provocation to restart my ‘musings’ is the ‘forced’ resignation of K.M. Mani as minister of Law and Finance from the present Omman Chandi government of Kerala.

Strong rumors have been floating around regarding the involvement of Mani in the cover up of the murder of Sr. Abhaya and in protecting the priests. nuns and even someone at the Episcopal level suspected of involvement in the case.  The story doing the rounds in those days was that the ecclesiastical crowd went to the C.B.I. Director along the following path – Mani – Kerala Chief Minister K. Karunakaran – Indian Prime Minister Rao – C.B.I. director. That was how the clerical establishment manipulated to get the entire investigation derailed, not once but thrice. The case will go on and on until perhaps the accused and episcopal kingpin are dead. Neither Sr. Abhaya nor her financially poor parents will ever get justice from the notoriously corrupt political or investigative agencies of India.

However, there is something called ‘natural justice’. This is a mysterious force. It is similar to the mysteries of the Holy Trinity (One God in Three Gods), virgin birth, and the bodily ascension of Jesus to ‘heaven’.  Unlike these mysteries which no learned theologian has been ever able to cogently explain to the understanding of the common man, natural justice is a mystery in the sense that it is something that we experience all around us on a daily basis. If A does something good to B, B may not return the favor, but it may be C who does something good to A. If I murder someone, there is a strong possibility that I will get my comeuppance. It may not necessarily be from that person’s relatives but from a totally strange person. These rewards or retaliations may not happen in every case, but from experience, there is a strong statistical possibility of this happening. It may not happen even in one’s lifetime. Often it is the children who are the beneficiaries of their ancestors’ good deeds and vice versa. ‘Sins of the fathers often visit the children’.

Is Mani getting his comeuppance for siding with the forces of evil in the Abhya murder case?

Mani has been in politics for more than half a century. He is rightly regarded as a crafty politician by many. He has become the blue-eyed boy of Kerala Catholic clergy and hierarchy. He has always been for them, acceding to their demands and solving their problems. Apparently, he has helped clerics and nuns involved in sexapades, pedophilia and murder by using his political clout. In turn, the Kerala hierarchy has been urging the faithful to support Mani and his party the Kerala Congress.

Mani, his son Jose K. Mani and recently his wife Kuttiamma have often found a place on the podium during most functions of the Kottayam Knanaya diocese along with the usual crowd of justices and chevaliers. Their photos are flashed across the diocesan publication “Apna Desh”. There is no doubt that the Knanaya community and its clergy is a grateful group. I have been told reliably that some members of the community have achieved high positions in different wings of the government, not so much through their own merit, rather by pulls and pushes by the ever manipulative Mani.

The fall of this man from the high pedestal he propelled himself through backstabbing and money power could not even be imagined a couple of month back. This is nothing short of a miracle. I am quite convinced that this miracle happened through the intercession of Sr. Abhaya. This is part of the mystery of natural justice.

Mani’s fall is all the more hurting because he has fallen from very high. And that too for a paltry bribe of some 15 lakh rupees. According to P.C. George, his nemesis, Mani has accumulated wealth to tune of 15000 crores of rupees in various parts of the world. Time will tell how far he or his posterity will enjoy this windfall of corruption. Here the mystery of natural justice will hopefully unravel.

Sr./St.Abhaya

Back to Abhaya and the miracle of Mani’s resignation through her intervention.

It is high time for the Kottayam Knanaya diocesan authorities to initiate the canonization of Sr. Abhaya. If Sr. Aphonsa can become a saint because of her suffering and dedication to Jesus, Sr. Abhaya has all the more right to sainthood for having protected her chastity and womanhood from lustful clerics. She must be regarded as a martyr like St. Maria Goretti who was only 11 years when she was stabbed 14 times to death while defending her chastity from a would-be rapist by name Alessandro. Besides, like St. Alphonsa, St. Abhaya can become a source of enormous riches for the church. There is one hurdle in the process of canonization that is often difficult to overcome – a miracle through the intercession of the proposed candidate for sainthood. In Sr. Abhaya’s case this intervention/intercession/involvement has already happened in the resignation and fall of Mani, the so-called giant of Kerala politics – more of an ogre with feet of clay.

This one miracle should satisfy the Catholic Church’s criteria for declaring Abhaya a saint.

There are many aspirants from the Knanaya community to sainthood. I suspect that in this race some less deserving candidates are already laying the foundations for their canonization post-mortem. Unless Sr. Abhaya’s case is fast tracked for sainthood like John Paul II, I fear the Church will end up with a St. Steffy as patron saint of women who have undergone hymenoplasty.

St. Maria Goretti