Be Not Offended: Images

First things first: Happy St. Patrick's Day (late now that I've had some technical difficulties posting this). The Bizarro comic can be found here along with an amusing holiday post from 2012 entitled "Drunk Driving Reptiles" by Dan Piraro, genius cartoonist.
 
Many Catholics are no doubt seizing the opportunity to drink, since Sundays provide a free pass releasing the devout from whatever form of Lenten discipline seemed like such a good idea back on Ash Wednesday. Add a saint's feast day to the mix and you've got double prizes. Another reason to opt for alcoholic oblivion, of course, is the saturation media coverage we've endured this week about the election of Pope Francis.

Wasn't it awful? Wasn't it fabulous? I'm feeling whipsawed by the competing images of the former Cardinal Bergoglio of Argentina, now Pope Francis. The mainstream media generally ignore everything the Pope has to say (unless it has to do with scandals) but cannot resist the spectacle in Rome: the antiquated charm of smoke signals, pomp and pageantry, tourists and faithful alike rushing to St. Peter's Square to hear the new leader's first words. It's a cultural happening, meaning that even the non-religious are attracted, especially when the chosen one appears in simple garments and invokes Saint Francis of Assisi, who renounced his family's wealth for a life serving the poor. Maybe this new pope will sell some art, we can be forgiven for thinking.

It's worth remembering the 2009 Encyclical of Pope Benedict XVI, Caritas in Veritate, or "Charity in Truth", which critiqued the excesses of capitalism as a cause of human poverty and misery. Moreover, the Catechism states: 

2439. Rich nations have a grave moral responsibility toward those which are unable to ensure the means of their development by themselves or have been prevented from doing so by tragic historical events. It is a duty in solidarity and charity; it is also an obligation in justice if the prosperity of the rich nations has come from resources that have not been paid for fairly.

Pope Benedict was elected in 2005. This week, amidst the online tug-of war, I found myself wondering how the message of his elevation was received and circulated among virtual "communities" of the time. Certainly the Internet was in full swing eight years ago, but Facebook, established just the year before, was still the playground of college kids. Twitter didn't exist yet. Nor were clutches of cardinals trying to hold press conferences, surely.

There's no need to take the temperature of the Internet today: the weather's perpetually blistering. A place--a space--of  fevered attack and counterattack, on bad days the Internet could be our newest metaphor for Hell. Among the many, many photos and comments circulating, three struck me hard.

Exhibit 1:

This undated photo shows the organization Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo protesting in the hope of finding loved ones lost to atrocities committed during Argentina's Dirty War. The sign says, "Where are the hundreds of babies born in captivity?", referring to infants born to jailed dissidents, stolen and given to families loyal to the military dictatorship then in power.    

The caption that went with the picture (posted on Facebook) attributed the following statement (my translation) to this group: "The church that collaborated with the dictatorship, that lied, that turned its back on us, is the church of Bergoglio and the right."

It is impossible not to feel the suffering of these women, and the questions raised about official church complicity--leaving aside for now Cardinal Bergoglio's individual role, which has been investigated--are troubling indeed. This NYT report gives some useful background information and seems fairly balanced.

And I'm reminded of a powerful Argentine film that dramatizes the plight of a stolen child and her adoptive family. The Official Story won an Oscar for Best Foreign Film of 1986. It's available on YouTube in its entirety here.

Exhibit 2: 

Another photo, which I've chosen not to reproduce, shows then-Cardinal Bergoglio giving communion to General Videla. The image has been altered with red spatters meant to represent blood. The caption states: "The future Pope giving communion to General Videla, the leader of the fascist generals who ruled Argentina in the late 1970s (and disappeared more than 20,000)."

I find it disturbing for its crude and lazy sloganeering. Equating giving communion--the essence of a priest's existence, after all--with political conspiracy shows, at best, a lack of understanding of the basic tenets of the religion in question. This image undermines its own tragic cause, and that is a shame.

Exhibit 3:

Finally, this undated photo of Pope John Paul II with then-Cardinal Ratzinger (later to become Pope Benedict XVI) and then-Cardinal Bergoglio, found here. The caption claims that this is a rare photograph of Pope JPII and his two successors together, and further commentary suggested that the existence of this particular image amounts to some kind of divine foreshadowing. That's probably when I should have stopped reading and looking, because my bullshit meter hasn't stopped spinning yet.

As a record of a moment in history, fine. But do not cardinals flock together? What I can't abide is when the church acts like a government. Official photographs of every significant meeting must exist. I'm willing to bet that the Vatican archives are stuffed with photos of popes posing with individual cardinals and various permutations thereof. If someone else had been elected, another photo would have been discovered.

Pope Francis has a daunting task ahead of him and only time, not instant images doctored and zapped around the Internet, will reveal who he is. Those who can pray should.