The Catholic church is the oldest Christian community in the world. The church which was formed a day before Jesus Christ was crucified is as old as the world is today thus AD 2021 (After Death of Christ). That is the age of the Catholic church.
As old as the Catholic church is, it has maintained most of its age-old traditions and practices making it the richest organisation in the world in the midst modernisation.
Celibacy is one of the traditions the Catholic church holds very jealously. By celibacy, I mean total abstinence from sex. This is why the religious men and women in the church do not marry, unlike the other orthodox churches. Although many have criticized the practice claiming it promotes unholy secret acts by some of the reverend ministers, the church’s position on this has not changed.
Another church that is very close to the Catholic church is the Anglican church with Canterbury as its headquarters. The Anglican church does and practices most of the things in the Catholic church and it would take a good observant to differentiate between the two. But in reality, there are so many differences between them. For purpose of this article, I will emphasize on the issue of celibacy.
The Anglican church doesn’t believe in celibacy. As such their ministers are allowed to marry. This the church believes will solve the problem of fornication. The question is has it solved the formication problem?
The wee hours of yesterday through to today answered this question in a shocking manner. A reverend priest of the Anglican church based in the church’s training college in Asante Mampong, St. Monica’s College of Education was captured in a viral video kissing students of the school. Even though the motive of the act was not known immediately, Rev. Fr. Obeng Larbi was seen force kissing the three ladies suspected to be mass servers amidst cheers from the congregation.
The video has since been condemned by many who have watched it. The Anglican church has condemned the act and has commenced investigation into the matter in a statement issued today.
The most disturbing aspect of the story is that the priest forced the ladies to put their lips on his in an era of Covid-19 pandemic where public handshaking isn’t allowed. What if he had covid-19? He would be distributing the virus freely.
Before the identity of the priest was made public, most of the people who watched the video attributed it to the Catholic church. As such the Catholic church was the first to receive the first blows even though it did no wrong.
Many took to social media to curse the Catholic church with others calling for the celibacy tradition to be reviewed. Others made allegations to the effect that some Catholic priests had secret concubines and even children.
Inasmuch as these allegations cannot be brushed aside, it is worthy of note that most of the time, people confuse Anglican priests with Catholic priests.
Lessons can be learned from the unfortunate development. The first lesson is that marriage is not a solution to formication. It takes discipline to deal with it. I was once told by a counselor that no man is content with one woman. Rev. Fr. Obeng Larbi is a married priest yet he did the unthinkable behind the pulpit. The calls for the Catholic church to review its celibacy tradition on the basis of preventing formication are thereby unwarranted.
The second lesson is we need to always have the full story before passing a judgment. Those who pre-empted and insulted the Catholic priests for what an Anglican priest did must bow down their heads in shame. But will the Catholic church complain? I doubt though.
Jesus Christ himself was crucified for no wrongdoing yet he didn’t complain, how much more ‘sinners’. It is unlikely the Catholic church will issue a statement to dissociate itself from the action of Fr. Larbi. Instead, the church will continue to pray for all religious men and women across the world for strength.
The last and most important lesson is that Catholics especially the priests and sisters/nuns should note that the brand ‘Catholic’ sells. People will go every length to bring the name of the holy church into disrepute. As such it is the duty of every Catholic to live modest and decent life to protect the image of the church. When the priest in the centre of the controversy was identified as Anglican, the noise gas cooled down. This means Catholicism sells more than any other religious body.
Of late, the church is being faced with allegations of corruption. This should be nipped in the bud as immediately as possible because it is alien in the faith.
The letter issued by the Anglican Church of Ghana is attached below. Also, the video has been uploaded for the perusal of readers.
