Pope Francis is a busy man. He is aware of his age but it
appears that he does have an agenda so he is not letting moss grow underfoot.
I was puzzled to see him bring out the box that supposedly
contains the bones of St. Peter, the so called first pope. I guess the bones
will be on public display for the first time after being discovered under the
St. Peter’s Basilica in the 1940s.
The bones will undoubtedly draw thousands of faithful who
will pay good money to be near the saintly bones so is it a money maker?
The Vatican is not saying that these are definitely the
bones of St. Peter but is sure treating them as if they were certain they are.
In the history of the church, a lot of money was made from saintly relics even
if the bones were nothing but dog bones; people really want to believe.
Pope Francis wants the church to be transparent but I wonder
if he really wants to bring the whole issue of St. Peter out into the public
discourse since it is quite controversial.
The Vatican itself has maintained that the story of Peter
being the first pope of Rome is a long standing “tradition” which indicates it
may not necessarily be true or factual.
Peter has been somewhat problematic for Christians and especially
the Catholics. After the crucifixion, Peter did not take over the leadership
role of the Jesus followers but the bother of Jesus, James did.
The problem with James for the early Christians was that
James was an adamant Jew trying to continue the mission Jesus started which was
to reform Judaism itself and not start a new religion; James was at first, very
opposed to bringing gentiles into the fold until he saw how much money Paul
could bring in.
There is no historical evidence Peter was any type of leader
at all (he was illiterate) and there is not historical evidence that he even
travelled to Rome. The tradition that Peter and Paul (as a team) were the
founders of the Catholic faith is historically laughable since both men despised
each other if Paul is to be believed.
Pope Francis must know that the Vatican / Church is on shaky
historical ground as to its religious legitimacy (Upon this rock I will build
my church) and that Peter was the first pope giving legitimacy to all the popes
who came after him.
Francis does appear to want to start some kind of commotion
within the church; challenging all sorts of long held beliefs and practices.
After recent popes tried to dismiss the work of Vatican II
and go backwards to darker days, Francis is trying to go in the very opposite
direction; I just wonder what his motivation for bringing ole’ Peter’s bones
out into the open is.
No comments:
Post a Comment