RELIGIOUS GLOBAL WARMING AND THE EMERGING FACE OF THE CATHOLIC PRIESTHOOD A Reflection Given this Day, Dec.

12, 2011, on the Occasion of Okigwe Diocesan Priests Monthly Recollection at St. Itas Ibeme Moderator: Rev. Fr. Mark E. Okoro

In Place of Introduction The most interesting spiritual conference that I do not forget during my stay in the senior seminary was given during my early years in Seat of Wisdom Seminary, Owerri. Many reasons could be adduced for its interesting nature: the person of the spiritual director who conducted the conference; the content of the conference and the time factor. Time factor because it took less than two minutes and seminarians normally abhor long abstract spiritual conference. The content was in few questions that made a deep impression on the seminarians and left many pondering for the remaining 28 minutes that it would take to end the conference. The priest came in, said the opening prayer, sat down, remained silent for few seconds and merely questioned: Why do you follow Mr. A to commit crime? Did you come to the seminary together? Do you have the same fate? If he goes free, will you be free? He then said the doxology and departed. I still ponder on these questions even after my five years in the Catholic priesthood. While I do not intend to bother you with what happened years back in the house of formation, this message is still relevant. However, I want us to ponder on the effect of the contemporary problem of religious global warming on the Catholic priesthood. Thus the topic: Religious Global Warming and the Emerging Face of the Catholic Priesthood. Like the spiritual director, it is intended to be short and direct to leave us pondering. What is Religious Global Warming? Anthony de Mello once told a story of an American preacher in Beinjing who asked the waiter in a restaurant what Religion was for the Chinese. The waiter took him out to the balcony and asked, What do you see, sir? I see a street and houses and people walking and buses and taxis plying. What else? Trees. What else? The wind is blowing. The Chinese extended his arms and exclaimed, That is Religion, sir!

Many of us may have different approaches and interpretations to this story but I want to have my approach to explain what I mean by religious global warming. We see streets and houses and people walking and buses and taxes plying, we term it religion nay spirituality! We see trees and wind blowing; we term it religion nay spirituality! We see Chelsea and Man U playing; we term it religion nay spirituality! We see people shouting and blowing off church roofs, we call it religion nay spirituality! We see unholy relationship between the State and the Church; we call it religion nay spirituality! We, like Gandhi observe: Politics without principles Wealth without work Commerce without conscience Education without character Science without humanity Worship without sacrifice (and I add), Religious structures without religious principles and authentic religious lives; And yet we term these religion nay spirituality! These and other lists are what I consider religious global warming! I once had a shock on watching one of our local movies. I saw Makosa rhythms and sexy dances going on in the church. I waved it aside as one of those elements that make me hate watching our local movies; only to discover that these have become a la mode in our churches. People come to warm themselves and the church buildings and go back empty. On one occasion in the chaplaincy where I work, I intoned a Christian chorus with Dr. Sir Warrior and his Orientals rhythm. The excitement in the church was overwhelming and the joy in their faces mega. It dawned on me that with this spirit, you can improve on your financial prowess. This is the dilemma of the modern priests! In the last political election or rather battle that was lost and won, one of my friends told me that some politicians in his parish have stopped coming to church because their party lost the election nay battle. One wonders what could stop a child of God who is a politician from coming to church simply because they lost an election. The answer lies in the spiritual emptiness of our people whose level of spirituality is the religious global warming. The modern man, therefore, tries to substitute noise-making in the church for authentic spirituality. The spiritual progress is determined by the amount of noise and shouting and perhaps financial strength of the so called church, Catholic and Protestants alike! Some people have tried to give justification to this religious global warming basing their argument on the Africanity of our race. The African likes singing, clapping, shouting, and in fact is expressionist in his religious worship. This seeming justification has left me pondering if there is no place for silence in the African worship. Is the African shrines known for such confusion described in the biblical prophets of Baal? Experts in African traditional Religion should help us resolve this issue; whether enculturation is synonymous with religious global warming so described. Perhaps, this will help us to re-evaluate our spirituality where silence has gone to oblivion; meditation and contemplation are bracketed as archaic spirituality that are not relevant to the 21st century spirituality. Concerned spiritual leaders have decried our world that is becoming too noisy. But must we go noisy with the noisy world?

Indices of Religious Global Warming 1. Noisy Church in a Noisy World We have already dealt on this issue and I would not like to waste time on it but I would like us to ponder on the thought of my friend, Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen: The Church asks her children to think hard and think clean. Then, she asks them to do two things with their thoughts. First, she asks them to externalize them in concrete world of economics, government, commerce, and education, and by this externalization of beautiful, clean thoughts to produce a beautiful and clean civilization. The quality of any civilization depends upon the nature of the thoughts its great minds bequeath to it. If the thoughts that are externalized in the press, in the senate chamber, on the public platform, are base, civilization itself will take on their base character with the same readiness with which a chameleon takes on the colour of the object upon which it is placed. But if the thoughts that are vocalized and articulated are high and lofty, civilization will be filled, like a crucible, with the gold of the things worthwhile. The Church asks her children not only to externalize their thoughts and thus produce culture, but also to internalize their thoughts and thus produce spirituality. The constant giving would be dissipation unless new energy was supplied from within. In fact, before a thought can be bequeathed to the outside, it must have been born on the inside. But no thought is born without silence and contemplation. It is in the stillness and quiet of ones own intellectual pastures, wherein man meditates on the purpose of life and its goal, that real and true character is developed. A character is made by the kind of thoughts a man thinks when alone, and a civilization is made by the kind of thoughts a man speaks to his neighbor. (Old Errors and New Labels, N.Y: St. Pauls Pub., 2007, pp.6-7) Anthony de Mello told a story of how a master was in an expansive mood that his disciples sought to learn from him the stages he had passed through in his quest for the divine. Hear the master: God first led me by the hand, he said into the Land of Action and there I dwelt for several years. Then He returned and led me to the Land of Sorrows: there I lived until my heart was purged of every inordinate attachment. That is when I found myself in the Land of Love whose burning flames consumed whatever was left in me of self. This brought me to the Land of Silence where the mysteries of life and death were bared before my wondering eyes Was that the final stage of your quest? they asked. No. the master said, one day God said, today I shall take you to the innermost sanctuary of the temple, to the heart of God himself. And I was led to the Land of Laughter. (The Prayer of the Frog, Vol. 1, India: Gujarat Sahitya Prakash, 2003, p. 173)

Silence is creative and its creativeness leads to laughter or the shouts of Archimedean Eureka! Yes, if we want to be productive both spiritually and otherwise, silence is a sine qua non; meditation and contemplation should be the norm. 2. Materialism in the name of God One of the effects of Pentecostalism is the biblical consciousness. It is not as if there is no consciousness of the bible before now but the way it questions practically everything as if religion begins and ends with the bible. Unfortunately, they twist, distort, manipulate, interpret and misinterpret the contents of this very Book often to suit their worldly convenience. From it they pick and choose what suits their own whims, thus mutilating the totality or integrity of Revelation. One of the consequences of this is outright confusion among their leaders which has given rise to self appointed leaders and prophets. We may not have a problem here, unless one wishes to live outside communion. But another consequence is that some of these leaders look on religion as a means of quick economic break-through. They shout on the Holy name of God as a bait to catch unwary gullible ears, and we have millions of these nave adherents. Unfortunately, prosperity gospel has contributed to the deterioration in the society. The tag prosperity gospel is the taste of time. A preacher who does not dance to the tune may never be a successful preacher to the world. It is a presumable fact that prosperity gospel has devalued and demythologized religion (Christianity). It has indeed enslaved and dragged the world into deep dungeon. It has led to an increase in the number of church goers. But the salient question remains are they really converts? from what operates in the society now, the church seems to have become a refuge camp for the mediocre. Many allocate to themselves the title Christians while they are mostly parasite Christians. They are religious global warmers! Unfortunately, the Catholic folds are not spared here and in order to maintain them and even win adherents, some of our Catholic pastors try to copy from the Pentecostal pastors and try to show that they can play the game even better! Should not this attitude leave us pondering? Should the motivating factor in our pastoral work be materialism? Imagine Socrates, who is not even a priest but a true philosopher that he was, believed that the wise person would instinctively lead a frugal life. He himself would not even wear shoes; yet he constantly fell under the spell of the marketplace and would go there often to look at all the wares on display. When asked, why? He replied: I love to go there and discover how many things I am perfectly happy without
3. Negative Pragmatism Pragmatism is a reaction against idealism and realism, the aim of which is to prove that all proofs are useless. Hegel of Germany, rationalized error; James William of America, derationalized truth. As a result, there has sprung up a disturbing indifference to truth, and a tendency to regard the USEFUL as the true, and the impractical as the false. As a follow up to this is the readiness of the modern mind to accept a statement because of the literary way in which it is couched, or because of the popularity of the one who says it rather than for the reasons behind the statement. In this sense, it is unfortunate that some men who think poorly can write so well or have their poor ideas sold so well. Can we just pause and consider the content of the sermons of the so-called pastors and the style in which they are delivered! Consider also the way people applaud them even when they speak none-sense. What moves the people is not the content of what they preach or the
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way it is delivered but the aura surrounding the person of the pastor; may be, he is considered a miracle worker, foresees the future, exposes evil men and their evil acts, etc irrespective of where the power comes from. So these people or pastors have become reference points even when they utter the untrue. A practical issue at hand is the fake priest that the Sage Newspaper takes time to advertise. The more he is advertized, the more people flock to him, because the negative pragmatism convinces the unsuspecting crowd. The truth that the Sage carries does not make sense to them. Some of us who attended Fr. Mbakas Harvest/Bazaar narrate how millions of naira were flowing like ten naira. But would such donors do same in their home parishes or churches? So the concern is the person of the priest and what he does. This has led some of us, committedly or uncommittedly, consistently or inconsistently, to falsely imitate this way without corresponding spiritual responsibility. But must we follow this false way of life in order to make an impression? Must we play fraud to keep our gullible listeners or flock? I do not lose sight of the fact that some of us are gifted with charism that makes them pragmatic in the positive sense of the word, but why do many modern priests copy the wrong things from the ones that should copy the right things from them; all for the sake of materialsm! When the priest becomes a religious global warmer, what happens to the flock? I do not, however, encourage some of us to turn the church into a sleeping centre as a result of their modus loquendi. 4. The New Form of Superstition When the early white priests came, they had a great task of tackling superstition among our people. They fought to a great extent in eradicating such beliefs. But it is unfortunate that the modern African priest is reverting to such belief. Otherwise, how can a Catholic priest who finished his philosophy and theology open his mouth and proudly convince his adherents that evil spirits directly causes all negative experiences in ones life. The picture is such that ones business failures, inability to rise to great heights in business and work, failures in marriage, disintegration of families, barreness, late marriages or no marriage at all, every sickness, infirmity, poverty, delayed promotions, unrealizable dreams, etc., are all caused by one spirit or the other. Otherwise our ancestors or human enemies through some diabolical means can cause them. No one is suggested to be responsible for ones problems, say by ones own sins, lack of proper planning and management, lack of commitment, inordinate passion or ambition, or even Gods own design, or simply a fact of life constituted in ups and downs. The priests involved claim to have solution to every problem of ones life; to change every negative experience into good, cast all demons, break all causes from the ancestors and all spell from human enemies. With such ideas sold into the consciousness of their adherents, prayer sections and crusades are held. Most of these end up in religious global warming. 5. Spiritual Militancy About the year 2002, I witnessed what may be termed an aspect of spiritual militancy in the diocese of Kafanchan when I was on inter-diocesan apostolic work at their Cathedral. It became very clear to me that the charismatic programs in the seminary are really moderated. Call it karating, fighting with unseen forces, with the scenario described in the prayer battle between Elijah and the prophets of baal before the consumption of the sacrifice with fire! All these were exhibited in the name of prayer. I began to wonder like Elijah who made mockery of the prophets of baal: pray louder! He is god! Maybe he is day-dreaming or relieving himself, or perhaps hes gone off on a trip! Or maybe hes sleeping, and youve got to wake him up! And so the prophets prayed louder and cut themselves with knives and daggers,
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according to their ritual, until blood flowed. They kept on ranting and raving (1 kings 18:27-29). The use of Jesus name, Blood of Jesus, Holy Ghost. Fire! etc. has become so rampant that they are often used as a mockery even in local movies. I have witnessed the above scenario among our people. Must we portray God as a deaf God? Must we encourage such prayer style? Must we always see God as a fighter? Christianity is not all about fighting the devil but primarily seeking out and cultivating the love of God for man. No doubt, spiritual militancy is a fundamental characteristic of modern PentecostalismCatholic or otherwise. But is it really needed? Is it yielding dividends or just causing more harm than good? Should it be merely tolerated or rather promoted; or even just be moderated? Though it has become a prominent part of the popular piety today, is it actually encouraging a Christian living that is really deep-rooted? From my personal experience, I suggest that there are aspects of it that should be allowed but moderated to avoid abuses. We, priests need to lead the pace! Otherwise, it becomes totally religious global warming with empty spirituality. Let us avoid being leaders of empty spirituality. 6. The AMEN Corner Strategy I see this as one of the elements in religious global warming. It was at the last years recollection that I learnt of the Amen corner and how it is often well planned and strategically situated to cheer the preacher even when he is speaking out of the point. But I want to take another side of it. It may sound funny but do not ignore it! What do you think when a preacher starts his homily or sermon by shouting, Amen! Your guess may be as good as mine. Amen simply means may it be so. Traditionally, it comes at the end of any prayer. When one shouts amen before beginning, ironically, it indicates that the person has concluded his homily even before beginning. That is why many modern priests preach in the church undirectionally. Often we use it to cover up our lapses, if not mediocrity. Amen is not meant for entry behaviour for a homily but closure. Sporadic shouts of amen thus become a warmer to impress. Towards Conclusion Sometime in the past, I tried to criticize one of us who tried to over labour an issue during a discussion and he retorted: where have all that we learnt in the senior seminary gone to? I think that such question is most adequate here. It appears that after formation we try to unlearn what we are taught only to learn what the world places before us to learn. Wouldnt it be wonderful if we keep at the back of our minds the right things taught in the seminary and use them to control the worldly influences? Must we not always pray to the Holy Spirit to renew the formation spirit in us? This spirit will help us to avoid religious global warming when placed in the right perspective. Come to think of it, does the nature of Christs priesthood actually change? Does truth change? Let us feed the people of God with truth of Verbum Dei and give enough time, for them internalize the truth of our Catechism; and avoid religious global warming motivated by materialism or exhibitionism. If we insist on the religious global warming brought about by the unchecked wind of Pentecostalism; Im afraid most of our people and some of us will end up in empty spirituality.