Archbishop Gordon: Carnival isn’t the only mirror

Archbishop Gordon: Carnival isn’t the only mirror

The uncomfortable truth is that Carnival is a mirror. It reflects what we already are, our joy, our creativity, our communal genius, our appetite for excess, our wounds, our contradictions.

So yes: critique Tribe. Critique predation. Critique commercialization. Demand balance, music, pan, mas, satire, history, artistry, spirituality, and yes, sexuality understood as part of life, not the whole story.

Carnival doesn’t need another sanctimonious scolding. It needs honesty. And if we’re going to talk about “virtue” and “decency” and the state of the culture, we can’t pretend the only bodies worth policing are the ones in beads and bikinis.

Archbishop Charles Jason Gordon’s call for virtuousness in Carnival, on the face of it, sounds reasonable. Any society benefits when public leaders encourage restraint, responsibility, and respect for human dignity. From a business standpoint, yes: brand reputations matter, family audiences matter, tourism optics matter. From a social and psychological standpoint, yes: alcohol abuse, coercion, harassment, and predatory behaviour are real, and they intensify in festival spaces.

But from a spiritual standpoint, the Archbishop’s intervention is both relevant and compromised, because the deeper issue is not merely moral. It is theological, and it is institutional.

The hypocrisy problem isn’t “people”; it’s formation

The easy target is the “Monday and Tuesday behaviour, Wednesday ashes” contradiction. Many Catholics (and plenty non-Catholics too) will revel hard, then line up for Ash Wednesday as if ashes are a spiritual wet wipe.

The moral panic spikes for Carnival because it’s visible. Meanwhile, plenty of “respectable” sin​, exploitation, domestic violence, corruption, workplace harassment​, hums along in air-conditioned quiet, and gets far less pulpit energy.​

If we’re invoking “imago Dei,” apply it consistently

If the argument is that certain forms of Carnival presentation “misrepresent the imago Dei” (the image of God in the human person), then the critique has to be precise.

Because not all of those are the same. A woman in a costume is not automatically a moral collapse. A culture that increasingly sells “sex-as-the-only-story” is a legitimate concern. But the Church must be careful not to confuse “sexuality exists publicly” with “dignity is being destroyed.”

And if human dignity is the metric, then the Church’s credibility depends on whether it has protected dignity inside its own walls with the same intensity it critiques outside them.

Afrocentric roots: fertility, harvest, satire, and resistance

Carnival can absolutely be read through African-centred frameworks​, fertility rites, abundance, embodied celebration, the sacredness of life-force, the ritual release after labour, the mocking of elites, the survival of memory through rhythm.

So yes, the “too sexual” argument can be a signal that people don’t have the tools to talk about sexuality maturely. Comprehensive sex education matters. A society that only discusses sex through scandal will always be reactive, not wise.

But let’s be honest again: not every invocation of “fertility ritual” explains today’s corporate staging. A ritual is one thing. A sponsorship-driven erotic aesthetic designed for social media virality is another. We should be able to defend Carnival’s spiritual and historical depth without pretending every modern excess is ancestral wisdom.

The state isn’t the referee of morality​;but the Church isn’t either

Public discourse often says morality isn’t for the state to manage. Fine. But then neither is it for religious authorities to “manage” by decree, especially in plural societies. The Church can teach its members. It can discipline its clergy. It can propose an ethic. What it cannot do, credibly, is posture as the nation’s moral police while allegations about internal abuse, cover-ups, and institutional silence continue to stain its witness.

The global Catholic Church has a documented history of mishandling abuse.Where transparency is lacking, trust collapses.

A Church that demands public virtue must model internal accountability.Moral authority is not claimed; it’s earned.

Until the Church practices radical transparency and survivor-centered justice, its Carnival sermons will sound like noise, not because morality doesn’t matter, but because integrity does.

 Carnival isn’t the only mirror

The uncomfortable truth is that Carnival is a mirror. It reflects what we already are​, our joy, our creativity, our communal genius, our appetite for excess, our wounds, our contradictions.

So yes: critique Tribe. Critique predation. Critique commercialization. Demand balance​,music, pan mas, satire, history, artistry, spirituality, and yes, sexuality understood as part of life, not the whole story.

But if the Archbishop wants to speak about virtue, he must also be willing to speak​, loudly and consistently​, about:Otherwise, the public will keep doing what I have done: walking away from religion, not because they love “wining,” but because they grew tired of sermons that travel only one direction.

Sarge

CC Archbishop Gordon