Dr Nsungbemo Ezung
Wokha Town
The Church of Rome, officially the Roman Catholic Church, has got for the first time in its 2000 years history an American Pope. This means the new leader of the more than one billion Catholic faithfuls worldwide will come from the epicentre of the world’s Protestantism. A Pope from America should chart a new direction in Catholic-Protestant relations, bridging divides between the two sects of Christendom that have persisted for the last five centuries. The new Pope can take the lead in exploring ways for engagement and ecumenical dialogue and cooperation, fostering greater unity within Christendom and confronting the modern challenges together that are affecting humanity.
A conservative, if not a conservative-leaning, as his position records suggest, Cardinal Robert Prevost who had assumed the name Pope Leo XIV aligned with the traditional teachings of Christianity on the issues of Life, gender identity, marriage and the role of women in Church ministry. This should be a pleasant news for Christians worldwide seeking a return to the Biblical-based faith and conservative approach to religious faith and social issues.
What brings together the Catholics and the Protestants are the pressing moral and social issues that not only threaten the Christian religion but the very survival of humanity. Pope Leo XIV, whose voice and opinions matter to more than one billion of the world population and whose writ is large in the world, assumes enormous responsibility in steering the direction of Christianity and promoting moral and social clarity, providing the right guidance as the world confronts numerous challenges facing humanity and striving to create a right world order.
The key issues that confront the Christian world today, Catholics and Protestants alike, where the new Pope will be the central figure while combating these issues are:
1. Doctrinal foundation of Christianity: Post-Truth rejects the idea of a single truth in a single religion or a single philosophy. Truth in a diverse world, according to the post-Truth philosophy, is no longer absolute but relative to the society, culture and religion and thus presents a convincing-to-many and a powerful multi-truth philosophy in the world. This post-Truth is a part of the implosion of knowledge in the West and thus poses the single greatest threat to the doctrinal foundation and the survival of Christianity. A secular Christian has today instituted a belief system that holds that human beings within the framework of his/her reason have the freedom to interpret the Scriptures (Holy Bible) according to his/her own understanding and opinions. Many Christians today no longer feel obligated to the Word of God and obedience to it, and rather give emphasis to the primacy of human reason and enlightenment. This post-Truth philosophy has therefore threatened Christendom and religion as a whole to be reduced to a mere institution to be operated by human wisdom and not by the will of the Divine.
The new Pope should take Christianity back to its doctrinal foundation, reversing the course as it rapidly drifts away from its roots. And to do so, the Pope needs courage and resolve as he will face the daunting task of confronting powerful and complex liberal elements that have already taken hold within the Church establishment. Should the Pope succumb to the pressure of the liberal factions of the Church, Christianity is bound to suffer irreparable damage that will destroy its very foundation.
2. Woke culture: Identity is an ultimate gift of God to be kept sacred and to be honoured and celebrated. But Wokeism had demeaned that God-instituted human identity and made it a subject to human choice and interpretation. Woke culture is not about having a constructive engagement or dialogue with different human genders, race and identities, as it claims, but an attempt to challenge the divine order and nature of creation. Woke culture reduces human life to a mere tool for the influential group of people in the world to exploit and manipulate the weaker sections of society. This woke culture has taken humanity to a state of madness. Questioning the nature of human identity, which is the hallmark of the Woke’s discourse on Life, is in itself an act of rebellion against the sacred design of the Creator.
The Church should be the last line of defence for the vulnerable individuals whose lives are increasingly threatened by the ever growing influence of woke culture. The Church needs to be a beacon of hope for the world promoting the sanctity and sacredness of Life as ordained by God.
What the Christians need today is not a Church or a Church leader who is obsessed with progressive woke ideology. When it comes to Wokeism, the challenge for Christendom is not about reconciliation or finding common ground to work together but rather resistance and resilience against its influence.
3. Moral and spiritual decadence: We live in a world where murder is no longer a crime or an exception but a norm. A woman is legally protected to terminate the life of an unborn human being in her womb on the pretext that it’s her choice and that she has freedom over her body. Human life, for the Woke, is no longer to be celebrated but rather to be demeaned and degraded. The Woke world is a world where it is a crime and no longer safe to declare publicly one’s religious faith and identity but institutions like governments, colleges, universities and sports can collectively promote exclusive social and political ideologies to serve the interest of a few individual elites. Today’s world of madness has given the right to a confused male to use a female washroom and compete in female sports threatening the privacy and the competence of the female community.
Taking a middle path while addressing these challenges will not help Christianity nor will it help solve the problems of humanity. The Pope cannot be a fence-sitter on the pretext of being a reconciler for different conflicting parties. Instead, he needs to take a position and let the world know where he stands on the issues challenging Christendom. He should draw the line between what is black and white, right and wrong and good and evil for the Christian community of the world. This will help the Christians to see the divide clearly and then make their own conscious choice without confusion.
Amidst the moral and spiritual decline where chaos and confusion reign in the world, can this new American Pope, who commands the loyalty of more than one billion faithfuls, be a lone, unpopular and crying voice from the wilderness boldly standing on the Word of God and preaching the Gospel of Truth to the unreceptive and the hostile crowd of the world? Or would he be a powerless Pope who would be helpless to confront the powerful tide of the liberal wave that is sweeping across the length and breadth of the world?
