Well, I guess this was a surprise to a lot of people. The media has been rife with unseemly stories about the Papacy over the last several months. First there was the mafia money laundering scheme involving the Vatican Bank. Although the bank reports “directly to the Pope,” the bank director took the heat and sacrificed his “reputation” to avoid “telling the truth or upsetting Pope Benedict.” What kind of choice is that: telling the truth or upsetting the Pope? So the director could tell the truth and not upset the Pope, or he could not tell the truth and upset the Pope. What!
The next scandal was a real classic, a true scandal. The Pope’s personal butler provided source documents for a tell-all expose about the workings of the inner circle, an airing of the dirty laundry as it were. Much of the leaked information involved corruption and what the butler termed “evil” within the church. Although the butler was convicted of stealing documents, the Pope pardoned him.
Now, the coupe de grace, the Pope is in danger of being arrested on an international warrant accusing him of conspiracy and crimes against humanity. He reportedly asked Italy’s Prime Minister for a meeting to request amnesty. The voluntarily self-defrocked Pope is now hiding out in the Vatican to avoid arrest. No wonder he resigned! Pope panic has taken hold. Protect the Church’s vast wealth at all costs!
So why am I writing about this. Surely, you know that I am not interested in engaging in the media free-for-all speculating on the reasons for the Pop’s resignation. Nor am I interested in scandals and the soap opera circus surrounding this once in six-hundred-years event. What interests me is the profound meaning that I see in this event and how it will effect our world.
I believe that what many of us have long expected has begun – the collapse of the institutional structures of the modern world. It is quite fitting that this collapse begin with probably the most corrupt and morally bankrupt institution in the world, the Roman Catholic Church. It shouldn’t be any surprise that the Church is the first to go. After all, it has had a good 1,700 year head start on every other western institution. The list of crimes is has committed over the centuries encompasses just about every one known to human kind. Murder, rape, pedophilia, slavery and even burning at the stake are or were standard operating procedure for the Church. How many institutions do you know that proudly practiced burning humans alive still exist today? Right, none!
I think that the significance of the impending collapse of the Church is not only important because it is the first but also because of the way in which it is happening. The Roman Catholic Church is collapsing not because of an outside force or attack, but because it has eroded and rotted from within, like a pear left on the tree too long. Not since the collapse of the Roman Empire has any institution as significant at the Church rotted and collapsed before us. Of course, the collapse is not yet complete, but it is only a matter of time before we witness its total demise. Likewise, other institutions are also beginning to fray, showing blemishes on their surface indicative of internal decay. The thing with this type of rot is that it is not visible on the outside until it breaks the surface. By the time that happens, the decay has gone too far to halt it. Nothing in the short term can stop or even slow down institutional decay.
Watch as the rotten egoic structures of our hubris crumble before us. As they fall, rejoice in the light of a new day that will finally shine upon the human race. This is the time of our liberation, a time all have waited for. We no longer need to fight each other, our masters are destroying themselves along with their institutions of human slavery. Our task is to take care of each other and build a sustainable society and live in harmony with our natural world. I believe that the global shift in consciousness is making itself known in a new belief and demand for human dignity which is echoing from every corner of the globe. From the indigenous peoples, ethnic tribes and the brainwashed citizens of the “developed” countries around the world, we are awakening. There is nothing any of the institutions and their leaders can do about it. In fact, their efforts to oppress and divert us are instead hastening their own demise. When a decaying and decrepit structure is subject to the slightest stress, it collapses like an old termite-infested log. Institutional efforts to close ranks, hunker down and defend themselves simply waste resources in a useless reactionary strategy that fails before it even starts. This inept defense, this circle the wagons approach is all they have. They are done.