I had once argued that perhaps Tirumala is area-wise the biggest temple, what with super-large (I am giving ideas to McDonald’s as to what to name its offerings of fries or Coke larger than large!) swathes of the hills coming under the control of the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam (TTD), the temporal controlling authority of the spiritual. This was when there was a stupid newspaper report about how the Akshardam Complex at Delhi is the biggest. My argument was in the nature of enhancing stupidity. As no one gets hurt by stupidity, however intense it may be, I was safe!
Then, I came to think of the seat of the Roman Catholic Church, supposedly the richest of the religious outfits; another meaningless metric in spiritual matters, wouldn’t you say? In popular parlance we tend to use “Vatican” to denote this power centre, focused and amorphous simultaneously as it is (doesn’t that sound like something spiritual you may have heard from Sri Sri Ravi Shankar?). But, if one dug deep, she would find, this thing is not so easy, it is more like a few hydra tangled up every which way.
Within the area popularly called Vatican, there is a Holy See and also the City of Vatican (like the square kilometer vast City of London, the City of Vatican is only about 44 hectares of invaluable real estate). It is the City of Vatican, with a population of all of 800 people that is a sovereign state, headed by the Bishop of Rome, the pope. Many areas that accommodate the myriad offices of the Holy See – the central government of the Roman Catholic Church – outside the City of Vatican and not the property of Vatican, enjoy the status of embassies in a country, Vatican’s in Italy, perhaps.
Why all these details? As a precursor to the one question that I have been trying to find an answer for – why and how did the City of Vatican become a member of UN? No, I am not talking about the procedures, dates, who moved a resolution in this regard, what was the debate, who voted it in etc. My question, I believe, is deeper. How does the City of Vatican contribute to the UN Charter?
Do you say that it unites all Roman Catholics, perhaps a billion, give or take a couple of hundred million? It is more like the City of Vatican divides the Christian population. Not very long ago, the current pope, Benedict XVI, holder of two passports, of Germany and the City of Vatican, blew the war trumpet against the Anglican Church, aimed at converting those of the latter dissatisfied with its progressive steps. Sure, this was not like the Hutu-Tutsi conflict, but it did come close.
Benedict XVI had also allowed saying some most unpleasant things about Jews by re-instituting the Tridentine Mass. This went outside the Christian religion, yet hovered inside humanity. Likewise, Islam did not escape his ill-informed barrage. The current pope, hoping to increase his flock to confer benediction on, has called for increasing the Roman Catholic population when people are concerned about the growing population load on the earth. All of these must be going against the UN Charter.
So, what the UN tells us is its founding charter does not have much relevance now. It can be violated with impunity and you will be rewarded with the Permanent Observer status.
Now, I am wondering why can’t religious seats like TTD, Amarnath shrine, Vaishno Devi shrine, the Padmanabha Swamy temple at Thiruvananthapuram be conferred such status. In the wake of such conferment, these places will also come to enjoy World Heritage status, just as Vatican, the city or no city, does.
This would only add up to the total harmless stupidity of the world.
Raghuram Ekambaram
Then, I came to think of the seat of the Roman Catholic Church, supposedly the richest of the religious outfits; another meaningless metric in spiritual matters, wouldn’t you say? In popular parlance we tend to use “Vatican” to denote this power centre, focused and amorphous simultaneously as it is (doesn’t that sound like something spiritual you may have heard from Sri Sri Ravi Shankar?). But, if one dug deep, she would find, this thing is not so easy, it is more like a few hydra tangled up every which way.
Within the area popularly called Vatican, there is a Holy See and also the City of Vatican (like the square kilometer vast City of London, the City of Vatican is only about 44 hectares of invaluable real estate). It is the City of Vatican, with a population of all of 800 people that is a sovereign state, headed by the Bishop of Rome, the pope. Many areas that accommodate the myriad offices of the Holy See – the central government of the Roman Catholic Church – outside the City of Vatican and not the property of Vatican, enjoy the status of embassies in a country, Vatican’s in Italy, perhaps.
Why all these details? As a precursor to the one question that I have been trying to find an answer for – why and how did the City of Vatican become a member of UN? No, I am not talking about the procedures, dates, who moved a resolution in this regard, what was the debate, who voted it in etc. My question, I believe, is deeper. How does the City of Vatican contribute to the UN Charter?
Do you say that it unites all Roman Catholics, perhaps a billion, give or take a couple of hundred million? It is more like the City of Vatican divides the Christian population. Not very long ago, the current pope, Benedict XVI, holder of two passports, of Germany and the City of Vatican, blew the war trumpet against the Anglican Church, aimed at converting those of the latter dissatisfied with its progressive steps. Sure, this was not like the Hutu-Tutsi conflict, but it did come close.
Benedict XVI had also allowed saying some most unpleasant things about Jews by re-instituting the Tridentine Mass. This went outside the Christian religion, yet hovered inside humanity. Likewise, Islam did not escape his ill-informed barrage. The current pope, hoping to increase his flock to confer benediction on, has called for increasing the Roman Catholic population when people are concerned about the growing population load on the earth. All of these must be going against the UN Charter.
So, what the UN tells us is its founding charter does not have much relevance now. It can be violated with impunity and you will be rewarded with the Permanent Observer status.
Now, I am wondering why can’t religious seats like TTD, Amarnath shrine, Vaishno Devi shrine, the Padmanabha Swamy temple at Thiruvananthapuram be conferred such status. In the wake of such conferment, these places will also come to enjoy World Heritage status, just as Vatican, the city or no city, does.
This would only add up to the total harmless stupidity of the world.
Raghuram Ekambaram
2 comments:
It's a pity that the Catholic Church got such a hardcore fanatic as their Pope in the person of Benedict XVI. At the age of 85, he can't be expected to improve his wisdom. So we can expect him to utter more inanity... unless he retires (as rumours have it) and a more sensible person takes charge. But will a sensible person be allowed to become the Pope?
The Vatican is indeed a cauldron of politics and that may entitle it to a seat in the UN!
Thanks particularly for the last line, Matheikal.
My post was a response to his birthday that the pope must be celebrating now!
RE
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