THIS weekend, when the Caribbean joins the rest of the world in observing the most sacred of festivals on the Christian calendar – the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ – it is perhaps a good occasion for further reflections on why bigotry and arrogance should give way to tolerance and humility with hopes of fostering better communities, better societies – a better world.

This is a time of not just mind-boggling natural disasters, continuing awesome bloody conflicts, or spreading human tragedies from organised terrorism and deep financial and economic crises.

It is also a period when the world’s most prominent and influential Christian leader, the Pope, painfully bares his anguish before the international community as he apologises for the horrible sex scandals rocking the Roman Catholic Church.

Whether speaking from the Vatican, or during hurried trips to Germany and other countries, Pope Benedict who, amazingly, has to also contend with strong open criticisms from within his huge denomination for being “too slow to act”, now tells the world with teary eyes of his sorrow for the sins and shame caused by those who have betrayed their faith.

In a message specifically directed to Roman Catholics the world over and, therefore, those also of Christian communities in the Caribbean region, Pope Benedict has lamented the sins of sexual abuse over decades involving some Catholic priests in various countries.

“I can only share in the dismay and sense of betrayal that so many of you have experienced on learning of these sinful and criminal acts,” wrote the Pope in a Vatican document released last week.

This Easter weekend can, therefore, be a time for Christians of all denominations, as well as the adherents of the other major (Hindu and Muslim) and minor religions in our Caribbean, to reveal a spirit of brotherhood/sisterhood consistent with the teachings of tolerance and respect for others as located in their own theologies and traditions.

Murder of an Archbishop

It is certainly not a time to cast stones and be judgemental. For which of the religious faiths in our midst is without faults?

Sex and financial corruption have tarnished the reputation of leaders of denominations in every continent of the globe. And the Caribbean has not escaped the shame, as court cases have reminded us.

The bigotry and arrogance that so often surface for the views, religious and/or ideological persuasions of others have only resulted in spreading the diseases of disunity, enmity, hatred and destruction, with even priests and leading religious leaders falling victims.

I was reminded of this harsh reality as church leaders of the Caribbean, Latin America and other countries observed the assassination of Archbishop Oscar Romero of El Salvador three decades ago (March 24, 1980) by a right-wing death squad while celebrating mass in his church.

As recalled, for example, by the English Jesuit Michael Campbell-Johnston, who has spent a great deal of his ministry in the Caribbean (including Guyana) and Latin America, and currently serving as ‘parish priest’ of St Francis of Assisi in Barbados, Archbishop Romero’s murder happened the day after he had publicly pleaded to the military regime in El Salvador “to stop killing your own people”.

It was a very dark period in El Salvador’s history of brutal military dictatorship. And last week, while Pope Benedict was apologising for the sexual scandals afflicting his Church, El Salvador’s President Mauricio Funes (its first left-wing head of state since the end in 1992 of the country’s long, bloody civil war) was apologising for the assassination of Archbishop Romero.

President Funes unveiled a mural of Romero and officially extended a ‘pardon’ in the name of a democratic government in El Salvador for the archbishop’s murder.

In reflecting on the life and times of Romero, Fr Campbell-Johnston (familiarly known as ‘CJ’), who has also laboured in El Salvador and has been an intellectual reference source for the Antilles Episcopal Conference and the Caribbean Conference of Churches (CCC), pointed to memorable quotes from Romero, such as the following statement from an interview with a Mexican journalist two weeks before his assassination:

“Martyrdom,” he had said, “is a grace of God I don’t think I deserve. But if God accepts the sacrifice of my life, may my blood be the seed of liberty and the sign that hope will soon become reality…

“You can say, if they come to kill me, that I forgive and bless those who do it. Hopefully, they may realise that they will be wasting their time. A bishop will die, but the Church of God, which is the people, will never perish.”