Cardinal Ivan Dias, the Vatican’s point man for evangelization, told Anglican bishops at the Lambeth Conference on Tuesday not to be so focused on the present as to forget Christians’ apostolic heritage and traditions. Actually, he put it a bit more pointedly:
“When we live myopically in the fleeting present, oblivious of our past heritage and apostolic traditions, we could well be suffering from spiritual Alzheimer’s,” Diaz said. “And when we behave in a disorderly manner, going whimsically our own way without any coordination with the head or the other members of our community, it could be ecclesial Parkinson’s.”
The Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease societies of England didn’t appreciate the metaphor, and communicated their displeasure in a statement.
“Seeing the challenges faced by people with Parkinson’s disease or dementia trivialised by comments from such a prominent public figure is demoralising. People with dementia and Parkinson’s face the challenge of coping with a physical condition which slowly robs them of their lives. These comments serve to reinforce negative stereotypes surrounding these devastating conditions,” they said.
Catholic commenters have also noted the tackiness of referring negatively to a disease that consumed the late Pope John Paul II.
