Why is every move of Pope Francis perceived as a religious service? People (not only Catholics and even not only Christians) have no doubt that this person is living with the belief that his aspirations and dreams are built on the spiritual and divine vision of every person. And why are His Holiness and a number of bishops not perceived by the majority of us, the Armenians, accordingly? They are a part of the ruling elite for us, with their very earthly and material ambitions, dissipated life, and to put it mildly, limited intellect.
I am sure that there have been and are exactly similar Catholic cardinals and bishops, perhaps, much worse than ours are. But the current pontiff, in my opinion, is not the kind. He is really modest, humble, devoid of vanity, giving importance to his life and truly an example for any Christian. And most importantly, Francis is next to the poor, the oppressed and the needy and not like our patriarch and bishops that twirl around the rulers, managers and the rich.
Francis’s action yesterday – washing the people’s feet of different nations and religions, first of all, is a politics, a gesture after the subsequent terrorism that is aimed at mitigating the situations to the possible extent and easing the animosity between different religious communities. But it is also a spiritual move that during these days of Holy Resurrection might compel to think about the divine essence of any person. Let them say that this is naïve and wrong that all the Muslims must be destroyed or driven, otherwise, Europe will collapse and so on. It seems to me just the contrary, the only thing that can destroy the world and particularly the Europe is the hatred.
Our clergy, naturally, should solve not so much global as pan-Armenian problems. In my opinion, one of the most important of them is the creation of spiritual “defense layers” when passing to a free market. In 70-80s, I often used to hear, “everything is a lie, it is necessary to make money.” From the beginning of the 90s, the most cynic ones and, I apologize, the “rabiz” truly became owners of big money. The society, like it or not, love them or hate, is guided by this “successful” people which lead to major value crisis. A clergy is a man who must take out the society from this swamp with his example and sermon. We have a lot of ordinary priests who are doing their job with honor.
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But the “higher shoulder-straps” the clergyman ham, the greater is the likelihood that he is from the “class” of the same extreme cynic and simply, “by force of circumstances” he automatically performs some rituals. This is the reason that good and bright priests do not make a quality. This is why I am saying that much depends on the spiritual leader in this case.
Aram ABRAHAMYAN
