Catholics Rubbish Jesus' Story

Most Rev. Joseph Osei-Bonsu
THE PRESIDENT of the Catholic Bishops' Conference has taken exception to a story which appeared in sections of the media regarding the second coming of Jesus Christ.

According to the Most Rev. Joseph Osei-Bonsu, who is also the Bishop of Konongo, the claim attributed to the Vatican spokesperson, Cardinal Giorgio Salvadore, that the second coming of Jesus Christ may not happen after all, is false.

'None of the 216 Cardinals of the Roman Catholic Church goes by the name Cardinal Giorgio Salvadore,' he said.

'There is indeed a Cardinal Salvatore de Giorgi, an Archbishop Emeritus of Palermo. The two names are not the same, and indeed Cardinal Salvatore de Giorgi is an 83-year-old retired Archbishop, who is not the spokesperson of the Vatican,' Most Rev. Osei- Bonsu explained.

The official spokesperson of the Vatican, he said, is called Fr. Federico Lombardi.

The views stated in the statement, he went on, 'do not come from any Cardinal in the Vatican. If a Cardinal of the Catholic Church made such untrue and blasphemous statements about Jesus, he would be called to order by the Pope.'

The second coming of Christ or the Son of Man sometime in the future, the Bishop explained, 'is part of our Christian tradition.

It is found in the following passages in the New Testament: Matthew 24:3, 27, 37, 39; 1 Corinthians 15:23; Hebrews 10:24; 1 Thessalonians 2:19; 3:13; 4:15; 5:23; 2 Thessalonians 2:1, 8, 9; James 5:7, 8; 2 Peter 1:16; 3:4, 12; 1 John 2:28.

It is also found in the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed that we recite in Church: 'He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead.'

'There is no evidence in the Bible or anywhere else, that Christ was 'drunk' when he made that statement,' he pointed out.