February 22, 2006

He took up the White Man's Burden

Father Michael Gajere, a Nigerian priest, died during the recent violent protests in northern Nigeria inside a burning parish compound after staying behind to save a group of altar boys from rioters. [See my blog entry TU ES PETRUS.]

My friend Romanreb, The Sage from Texas, sent me this by email. I think it merits its own blog entry:

Father Michael is a true Martyr and will receive his place of Glory in Heaven. Black Father Michael took up the White Man's Burden and died for Western Civilization and the Holy Catholic Faith! St. Michael Gajere, pray for us!

3 comments:

c nadeau & t johnson said...

I enjoyed your blog but I don't post on blogs that approve my comments so...ta ta.

Anonymous said...

Two major problems:
1) Father Gajere was black, as is the whole Nigerian Church. "White man's burden"? You mean the burden of the cross of the Jew Jesus of Nazareth, as defined by people such as the Africans Augustine and Athanasius?
2) The original "White Man's Burden" poem was written by Kipling in approval of America's imperialist war against Spain; the "captives" whose "needs" they were supposed to "serve" were the Catholics of the Philipines and Puerto Rico. Most unsuitable quotation here.

The_Editrix said...

I am sure my friend Syler went for meaning 1). That poem is much analysed, probably over-analysed, and often taken in a transcendent, spiritual meaning that Kipling maybe didn't intend it to have. If that is the case, it would be an unsuitable quotation indeed.