By James Tamba Lebbie
One year into the Pope’s appointment of Monsignor Henry Aruna as Bishop of the Diocese of Makeni, the recalcitrance and intransigence of both the clergy and lay faithful in the Diocese of the Makeni - a tiny religious municipality of the World’s oldest institution - is showing no sign of abating, at least on the surface.
When the “rebellion” erupted about a year ago, sections of the public, including my humble self were quick to point out that the refusal to recognize the then Bishop-elect Henry Aruna was politically and ethnically motivated. I said then and I still maintain that such an act of rebellion was unjustified no matter the grievances. And their grievances even if apparently genuine and solid, were expressed very wrongly in my judgment.
The laity in the Diocese of Makeni pointed out that no local representative from the Church in Makeni has held a senior position of the rank of a Bishop for the past fifty years even though it has many qualified and competent priests within the Diocese. They also observed that there was no geopolitical consideration in the appointment of Monsignor Aruna as Bishop of Makeni. In addition, they observed that the Church lacked diversity in the sense that the composition of the Church’s hierarchy in Sierra Leone is everything but diverse. Moreover, that Sierra Leone’s representation at the Inter-territorial Bishops Conference, which made the recommendation through the Apostolic Nuncio in Liberia, is not diversified. It is largely made up of south-easterners. Additionally, the appointment of the Bishop came at a sensitive time when the country is politically polarized along ethnic and regional lines.
The laity in Makeni also pointed out that even though the information about Fr. Aruna’s appointment leaked ahead of the announcement, the Vatican did not cancel its decision as it has done in previous occasions. They said a case in point was the cancellation of the appointment of the late Fr. Rocco Serra, whose appointment as Bishop of the Diocese of Makeni leaked ahead of the announcement.
In a subsequent letter written to the Papal Nuncio, Archbishop George Anthonysamy, the laity in Makeni also took offense over an interview granted to the BBC by Archbishop Edward Tamba Charles of Freetown about his use of languages like “rebellious and recalcitrant priests” while referring to clergy in Makeni. They also noted in the letter that even though the Church was no respecter of geo-political divide, according to Archbishop’s comment on BBC, the Vatican should also be sensitive to the local geo-political realities of countries, cultures and peoples in which the Church has found herself.
Against this backdrop, the decision of the Holy See, to sanction the ordination of Monsignor Henry Aruna in Freetown as Bishop of the Diocese of Makeni while the religious and the laity he is supposed to serve also boycotted the event, probably creates the impression that the two parties are digging in in their heels. Certainly there is no compromise in sight as far as I know up to the point of going to press.
But I have always maintained that the Catholic Church is no stranger to controversy and schisms since the Roman Empire officially recognized Catholicism as its official religion in about 380 AD. Indeed throughout its history, the Church has been rocked with one controversy and another, and criticisms – doctrinal and/or theological and political in nature have not been uncommon. For instance, in 1054, the Roman Catholic Church split into the Western Catholic and the Eastern Orthodox Churches apparently over the primacy of the Pope of Rome. The Church survived! The Protestant Reformation and the ruptures that came in its wake came and passed. The Church has continued to survive.
In the recent decades, news of its clerical sexual abuse of minors and the quiet reassignment of predator priests has been characterized as one of the most damning scandals of the Church.
Last year, Pope Benedict was seen fighting the “worst crisis of his papacy”, even if his problems are considered to be “the latest in a long history of controversies and intrigue in the headquarters of the Roman Catholic Church”. The "Vatileaks" as the scandal is dubbed, in which the pope's private documents were allegedly stolen by his own butler, pales in comparison to the scandals of centuries past when popes were “accused of violence, nepotism and sexual indulgences”.
These instances are being mentioned to make the point that the Catholic Church is structured and programmed to surmount challenges of whatever nature. Therefore, I’m of the firm conviction that with the passage of time, those rebelling will come to terms with the reality of the futility of their actions.
Meanwhile, I have made the argument earlier and I will continue to make it again that the teachings of the Church that bother on obedience and the universal nature of the Communion go contrary to the actions of the rebellious priest and laity. But Catholic teachings aside, the Church is seen as the “opium of the oppressed”, a solace for the marginalized and the light for those that are lost. And when the Church degenerates into a situation where it has to settle it scores through violent resistance, the consequence could be the loss of its moral high ground to perform its moral teachings in society. And while the Church is an integral part of society, which some have used as justification for such a reaction, it is nonetheless seen by many as the moral voice to speak truth to power. And when the Church, which is supposed to provide spiritual guidance for its adherents got embroiled in a secular struggle apparently for material gains, one begins to wonder whether the Church has not lost its moral compass.
Besides these religious implications, the rebellion in Makeni also brought forward the vexed and uncomfortable issue of Sierra Leone’s political polarization. And like the laity pointed out in their letter to the Indian-born Papal Nuncio based in Liberia, the appointment of the Bishop came at a sensitive time – a time when the country is politically polarized along ethnic and regional lines. One is left to opine therefore that while there are religious overtones for the rebellion in Makeni, the political undertones are too visible to ignore.
And as a Catholic, I should hasten to point out again that the resistance to the Papal appointment is antithetically juxtaposed to the projects and programmes of the Synod of African Bishops, which among things calls for dialogue and enculturation among Catholics and peoples of other faiths. And if Catholics cannot bridge the divide that is eating deep into the social fabric of the society, what chance exists for a sustained inter-denominational and inter-religious dialogue in Sierra Leone?
But what could be the solution to this stalemate as we continue to witness an ordained Bishop without a Diocese and conversely, a Diocese without a Bishop within the Catholic Church? Contrary to what some have argued in the papers and in public that the president of the country should not be involved in the matter on the grounds of a separation between Church and state, I’m of the fervent conviction that President Koroma should intervene in the church schism in a bid to forestall the likely calamity that will befall the Diocese of Makeni should the Vatican decides to punish its adherents for insubordination and disobedience contrary to their sacred oath. Put in another way, the Diocese of Makeni will be at the receiving end if it continued to be intransigent.
