Signs of our times

WE BELIEVE that even if the call to abandon Carnival came directly from Heaven itself, Catholics will still be playing their mas come Monday and Tuesday. The spirit may even be willing, but the weakness of the flesh would be irresistible. The trauma of withdrawal would be too much; the prospect of giving up the two-day revelry which is entwined in the country's culture, buried in the psyche of our people and helps to define their mentality would be impossible to contemplate.

So the call by Moruga parish priest Fr Ian Taylor on Catholics to quit the celebration of Carnival may seem unrealistic but, in our view, it is far from being unreasonable or without justification. Indeed, Fr Taylor's ringing denunciation of the moral deterioration of our Carnival is welcome since, hopefully, it may shock us into the realisation that our once proud national festival has degenerated into one big bacchanalian revelry in which the display of scantily clad bodies, instead of creative and original costumed portrayals, has become the central compulsion. Indeed, it seems the decline in the quality of our Carnival provides a dramatic index to the moral decay of our society as a whole, coinciding over the last few decades with the lack of respect, the dwindling of discipline, the draining of spirituality and the amorality among our young people.

TT's Carnival did not deteriorate by sheer chance from its glory days when epic portrayals created by bandleaders such as Bailey, Saldenha, Lee Heung, Edmund Hart, McWilliams, Velasquez and Berkeley provided the height of its splendour to the present time when the urging of the flesh predominates and the lust to imitate the scantily-clad merry-making of Rio is the major motivation. No, "the greatest show" descended to this meretricious level because it was what younger generations of revellers, reflecting the loosening moral restraint of their time, demanded. And a younger generation of bandleaders, no longer concerned or committed to the quest for grandeur, were only too happy to oblige.

So what confronts us at Carnival, the semi-nakedness, the vulgar displays, the sensual abandon, the mind-boggling yet popular inanity of so many of our calypsonians, is simply an index of the moral deterioration of our society. Fr Taylor is right when he says it would take a man, both blind and deaf, to deny the degeneracy which is symptomatic of a national moral decline, greatly intensified and widely multiplied at Carnival time. The outspoken Moruga parish priest, then, in calling on Catholics to abandon Carnival and its depravity, must understand the enormity of his challenge; he is, almost like the prophets of old, summoning the wayward faithfull back to the path of their calling. He asks: "How can a 'Carnival' Catholic consider himself or a serious Christian, a true disciple of Jesus?" He reminded them that they are required to be a powerful witness, a light to the nation.

At another level, since the demands of morality can hardly be an exclusive concern of Catholics, Fr Taylor may also be seeking to shock the entire country into recognising the sensual morass into which Carnival has fallen and to drive home to all participants the necessity for cleaning up the act. We must commend Fr Taylor for his conviction and his courage; our fear is that his timely and unequivocal declaration will be regarded like a voice crying in the wilderness. The decadence of Carnival, the decline of its greatness, is really part of the signs of our times. It may be a test of Catholic faith, but the moral turnaround that the parish priest calls for would require more than his exhortation, however strong and divinely guided. Prophecies may be coming true.