A Rejoinder to “Jesus Was Drunk, There Is No Second Coming”

By Most Rev. Joseph Osei-Bonsu
President, Catholic Bishops’ Conference, and
Bishop of Konongo-Mampong

I write in response to a publication on Ghanaweb, in the Ghanaian Chronicle (Thursday April 24, 2014) and other news media that claims that a Vatican spokesperson called Cardinal Giorgio Salvadore “has officially announced today that the second coming of Jesus, the only son of the God, may not happen now after all, but urged followers to still continue with their faith, regardless of the news”.  According to the publication, “Cardinal Salvadore went further to state that Jesus made that promise in his state of drunkenness and it was a promise that he couldn’t keep”.  The Cardinal is quoted to have said further: “Having the ability to turn water into wine had its ups and its downs.  We all make promises we can’t keep when we’re drunk. Jesus was no different”.

Let me begin by saying that at the moment there are 216 Cardinals of Roman Catholic Church and none of them goes by the name Cardinal Giorgio Salvadore.  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.   The official spokesperson of the Vatican is called Fr. Federico Lombardi.

The publication is the fabrication of a mischievous and malicious person.  The views stated in it 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.  This is because the views mentioned in the publication go against Catholic and indeed biblical teaching.  The second coming of Christ or the Son of Man at some time in the future 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”.

However, no one knows the time of Christ’s return, as we read in Mark 13:32, “But of that day or that hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father”.   “That day” here clearly refers to the Parousia, the return of Christ at the end of time.  If neither the Son (Jesus) nor the angels know the time of the second coming, how will any Cardinal, or any person for that matter, know?

The last thing that I would like to comment on relates to the claim that when Jesus made the prediction about the second coming he was “drunk”.  There is no evidence in the Bible, or anywhere else, that Christ was “drunk” when he made that statement. The publication is just malicious and blasphemous, and I would urge all Catholics and indeed all Christians to ignore it and to treat it with the contempt that it deserves.