Spiritual Garbage

The sixteenth Daddy Goodspeak has signalled a significant break with Christian tradition by urging the Catholic church in Africa to be a voice of reconciliation, justice and peace, rather than ensuring that a man's foes shall be they of his own household, as recommended by the Saviour. The sixteenth Daddy Goodspeak issued a special appeal with regard to Guinea, where soldiers fired on demonstrators last week, killing perhaps a hundred and fifty or so. The sixteenth Daddy Goodspeak appealed for those who had been shot at to speak with and reconcile themselves to those who shot at them, and for those who held the guns to speak with and reconcile themselves to those who didn't. Doubtless the effect will be momentous.

Speaking from the ascetic surroundings of St Peter's Basilica, the sixteenth Daddy Goodspeak scolded Africa for its materialism; speaking as a former Grand Inquisitor, the sixteenth Daddy Goodspeak scolded Africa for its religious fundamentalism. Religious fundamentalists, or "groups claiming to be from religious backgrounds" as the resident theologian at the Associated Press hath it, are spreading across the continent; and according to the sixteenth Daddy Goodspeak "they are doing so in the name of God, but with a logic that is opposed to divine logic: teaching and working not with love and respect for freedom, but with intolerance and violence". The Catholic church, the degree of whose love and respect for freedom is a matter of extensive historical record, is growing rapidly in Africa. The Catholic church is violently opposed to birth control and to the use of condoms; despite this, according to the Associated Press, Africa's "poverty, conflicts and Aids have posed challenges" rather than killing lots of people as they tend to do if unleashed among the white folks. In response to these challenges, the sixteenth Daddy Goodspeak is hosting a special three-week synod "to discuss the church's problems in Africa" and, presumably, to decide what Africa must do in order that the church's burden may be lightened.