People Always Look for a Scapegoat

The Scapegoat - William Holman Hunt

Aid to the Church in Need reports that the "fight against witchcraft" is one of the biggest problems for the Church in the Central African Republic. This aid organization, "under the authority of the Holy Father," is clearly steering through the sometime deadly shoals of the primitive Sacred in its mission to bring the light and life offered by Our Lord through the Church. From the article:

Bishop Marzinkowski, of the Diocese of Alindao, a German Holy Ghost Father, told ACN that in the consciousness of many people in the Central African Republic, there is "no natural explanation for death, sickness or natural disasters." Instead, people always look for a scapegoat who must in their view have caused the misfortune through witchcraft. It can happen to anyone, he explained, to be accused on the smallest pretext of having practiced witchcraft in order to harm someone, and they may even be killed in punishment. Such cases can even occur among Christians, he added, for among many of them the Christian faith is not yet sufficiently rooted, with the result that "at the least difficulty they relapse back into their traditional way of thinking."

Once people realize that "people always look for a scapegoat" not only in the heart of Africa, but inside the Beltway, at church councils, on CNN, Fox, and Al-Jazeera, the Gospel will have begun to get a toe hold. When street rabble put down stones and begin to go home instead of breaking heads, "starting with the eldest" [Jn 8,9b] the worst will be over. Maybe.

Till then, vigilence, chivalry, legitimate defense, and Catholic Resistance.