Bishop asks to react like Christ and the martyrs when mocking Catholics

The Bishop of Córdoba (Spain), Bishop Demetrio Fernández, has shared a reflection on the controversy over mockery of Catholics that arose in the country as a result of a gesture during the special New Year’s Eve program on public television.

The co-host of the program that broadcast the New Year’s Eve bells showed, as an amulet, a picture of a cow, the mascot of a television program, with a Sacred Heart of Jesus.

In your weekly letterthe Prelate expresses his “most absolute disapproval of acts like this, which cross all the barriers of mutual respect, democratic coexistence and human shame” and denounced that these types of acts “are repeated with certain frequency in this Western world of deep Christian roots on the part of those who want to uproot such roots.”

Regarding those who commit acts of ridicule against Christians in general and Catholics in particular, Bishop Fernández expresses pity because when a person acts like this, “they have greatly lost their human dignity.”

To this he adds that “aggressive mockery hides unspeakable wounds, which make those who suffer them suffer a lot” and that the situation becomes “even more serious” when there is institutional support from the Government or “the reigning powers.”

Natural reaction to attacks

The Prelate asks to go beyond the natural primary reaction of “returning attack with attack, insult with insult” and, although he shows understanding with the protests, he calls for deeper reflection.

Thus, he emphasizes that at the core of the evangelical message is the teaching “love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who slander you.”

Forgiveness of enemies can only come from God

Following this advice “Jesus died, forgiving from the Cross” and, according to this example, “this is how all Christians who have been taken to the scaffold have faced martyrdom.”

On the surface, the prelate continues, this attitude seems “passive, of tolerance, of conformism. And many think that this way we don’t fix anything.”

However, he maintains, those who adopt this way of acting “put into action one of the most powerful forces of the human heart” which is not the mere reaction “of returning evil for evil”, but rather allows themselves to be “moved by a novelty that comes from above. “An attitude of forgiveness towards enemies can only come from God.”

Forgiveness, the Bishop of Córdoba insists, “is the only attitude that will heal the deepest wounds from which insults and humiliation fester.”

Why don’t they make fun of other religions?

Bishop Fernández does not avoid the question of why those who mock or attack Christians do not act the same with other groups of people or religions: “Of course not. The reaction would be of such magnitude and the revenge would be of such magnitude that no one dares even try it.”

In the opinion of the prelate, they only dare to deal with Christians “because they know that only they are capable – not all – of reacting as Christ reacts and the martyrs react.”

“In the face of these facts that we regret and condemn, it is only up to a Christian to love more, to love in a different way, to repair the offense, to heal the wounds from which these insults come with a love that does not spring from flesh or blood, but from God. Christmas is a favorable occasion for this,” concludes the Spanish bishop.