Indian Church and the S Word

The “S” word -- When the skeletons tumble out

Responding with truth and humility                                                                     

John Dayal

It has turned out to be a dark joke. But it used to elicit quite a laugh when friends in New Delhi asked young priests “Father, if you observe your vow of chastity as you observe your vow of poverty, God help the Church”.

It is no longer a question of fancy limousines, watches and gadgets, civil mufti -- clothing -- of the latest brands when not in the cassock, or even some murmured rumours of a hand dipping in the Sunday collections.

What has wiped the smile off many a face is the “S” word, spoken loudly in public.

Morals and morality amongst clergy, and some women religious too, once the subject of hushed rumours and smirks, is now being openly discussed by the Laity and religious, and in the non-Christian world outside. Underlying it is not a lascivious pandering to gutter gossip, or a dislike or suspicion of the religious personnel, but a deep concern about morals and morality that may threaten the existence of the Church in the Twenty-first century unless urgent remedial action is not taken.

It has emerged as a major malaise which has grown, like some virulent microbe, in the conspiracy of silence in a highly structured hierarchical Church. But it is not a problem for the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church alone, or of the Latin Catholic Church. Protestant, Evangelical and even Pentecostal Churches, which do not enforce celibacy in the clergy and religious like the Catholic Church does, grapple with their own demons of corruption and moral turpitude.

Many were therefore not entirely unhappy when the Outlook Magazine, owned by a major industrial house which also dabbles in real estate and whose editorial policy tilts towards the Congress Party, chose to take out a sensational issue with an actress on its cover in the role of a Nun in her habit, and the huge headline “Sex, Scandal And the Church”.

Some self appointed protectors of the Church in Mumbai and other places raised the bogey of persecution. They see in it an outrage and a conspiracy.

Some senior Protestant Bishops, such as Dr Joab Loharu of the Methodist Church, also point out that the magazine exposé comes at a time when the Indian right wing and fundamentalist groups have been mounting a campaign against the Church.

That is true, of course. The Church is under sustained attack, and persecution rages, specially in states such as Karnataka. The body politic and governments at the centre and in the states show increasing tendency to try to put curbs on the Church as a political strategy to curry favour with the majority vote bank. Witness the increasing clamour for anti conversion awls in several stages. Even in Maharashtra and other States there is no anti conversion awl, pastors are routinely harassed by the police and civil administration, accused of trying tom convert people. It does not matter which political party does the government owe allegiance to – even the Congress governments are guilty. The BJP governments, of course, lead the pack.

Many other senior Christians preferred a sane response to the Outlook cover story, specially in view of the fact that the magazine had very little of its own reportage. All it had done was to reprint juicy excerpts from the “tell-all” books written by several former Nuns and priests in Kerala. And as a measure of ample precaution, it had carried interviews with important Catholics including the spokesman of the Syro Malabar Church, and for some unknown reason, also with Rev Valson Thampu, the Principal of Delhi’s St Stephen’s college which is governed by the Protestant Church of North India.

The letters column of the succeeding editions of Outlook will show the nature of the response from the established Church and from the faithful mat large.

I can predict that many letters will be of the great work that the Church and the faithful have done in nation building from the Independence struggle down to the building of schools, colleges, hospitals and the entire Nursing profession. I can also visualise some referring to Mother Teresa.

It is proper to remind the Indian people of the work done by missionaries, priests, nuns and others. This is not to claim any special dispensation, or even as a boast, but just as a plain reminder, as a duty done to the homeland and its people. A part of the calling that any good Christian, following in the footsteps of Christ would do.

It would also be important to remind the media in general and the Outlook magazine in particular that sensationalism can tarnish the image of communities and institutions, and that the sins of a few ought not to be vested upon the rest of the Church.

All this needs to be done, but it will be efficacious only if the Church and its leadership stop being in a state of denial. They have to, like good Christians and Catholics, confess that these things happen, and are increasing perhaps at an alarming rate. They ought to analyse the reasons, and it cannot be just as simple as celibacy as being the root cause of all sexual crimes. In the big wide world. married men rape, smoke of them rape little children. Some of them are ministers, politicians, scientists, policemen, artistes and journalists. Married priests in the Protestant Churches covet other people’s wives, when they are not selling properties, and this is true in the Evangelicals Church.

This is of course also true in Islam, Buddhism and most of all, in Hinduism because of its sheer large numbers. TV shows on a daily basis feature the sexual peccadilloes of self styled Hindu god men, some of them of the rank of Shankaracharyas. Even the late Satya Sai Baba of Puttaparthi had been accused, in the now defunct but once the leading magazine of the country, the Illustrated Weekly of India owned by the Times of India group The charge against him was of homosexuality. Lesser “saints” and Babas have faced charges of committing just about every crime under the sun.  

I mention these to assure the Hierarchy that they will not be an exception if they faced reality and said they will look into issues raised in the media and try to do something about it. Denial will not do. It will convince the people at large that the Church must be even more tainted than the Outlook made it out to be.

Many priests and religious men and women have told this writer that they have known of such matters either as hearsay or in their personal experience but have chosen not to speak or write about it. They have spoken of cases in seminaries, parishes, institutions. Many have mentioned priests who have had liaisons with women, or even have a wife. Others’ marital affairs have become known after their death, once in the case of a member of the hierarchy. Some alleged that this situation was the norm. Others agreed such was the exception.

It is important to remember that the expose on the Indian Church -- and it must be said that several Malayalam papers have carried such “scoops” in the past – comes in the context of a global exposition over the last few years of paedophilia and child abuse in dioceses in the US, Ireland And several European countries. In some of the, as in the US and Ireland, the State apparatus has intervened, imposing penalties. In other incidents, the Church has made over massive reparations to the victims.

But the Church hierarchy has to take its decisions in India. It needs authentic data for this. When Chief Justice of India Barucha famously said 20 per cent of the Indian judiciary is corrupt, a senior Jesuit friend told me that would be the percentage of men and women in the Catholic Church who were financially, morally or sexually tainted. Seems on the high side, but it would not surprise many. We expect Zero tolerance in the Church, but priests are human beings and the temptations of the flesh can be very strong.

It is time to take stock.

We must remember that in Kerala alone, as many as 63 priests have faced  criminal charges in recent years, some perhaps falsely, but a few quite rightly. This data is from blogs quoting documents yielded in Right to Information Act applications. The charges encompass murder, attempt to murder, rape, molestation, assault, abduction, theft, break-in and cheating. Two priests have been accused of murder while ten are charged with attempt to murder. One was arrested under Explosives Act. The worst is the charge or rape – and as many as five priests are accused of this.

Fr R S Pinto responded to my intervention in a Google group, “At the very outset, let me state that I believe no Catholic likes to hear about these things, said or published...no one will take pleasure in these things. Its abhorrent. But we have to hang our heads down in shame, specially living in a country where Catholics are less than 4 per cent. India has seen numerous works of charity that dedicated people did. Indeed the works done by yesteryears' missionaries in setting up schools & colleges, hospitals, orphanages and home for destitute is probably unparalleled. But all that is past. Today, apart from Mary Candy, Sr. Jesme, another nun who have written biographies and books to show the world the malaise that lies in the Church because of money and sex. They must have tried to get justice within the Church first, before writing their books, without success Fr. Jeypaul considered a fugitive from US was sheltered in Coimbatore. All these because the Church leaders sweep everything under the carpet. They consider the image of Church as paramount...at any cost the image should not be sullied, even if that means shielding the guilty Whoever airs the view to the contrary is branded as enemy of the Church and news item considered petty gossip, Zionism, imaginary fiction.”

That is the sort of response from most sincere Catholics, Lay or clergy.

 Communications expert Allwyn Fernandes, often a critic of the Church, says “Even if the number of delinquents is not negligible, there is still enough good work that has been done to stand out amidst the filth. Let us rather work to flush out the filth than try to hide it further.”

That is the sort of feeling that is emerging across the country. “We need to introspect in each our of confessionals and work for reform from within. There is a definite requisite for the leadership and Church hierarchy to be more open and provide space for suggestions toward improvement and not to be too rigid and conforming to Church tradition that enslaves and causes one to break in the sly. Let’s set our own house in order.”

Surely work needs to begin from the very beginning. We know that vocation is falling, and is now almost limited to the tribal belts. But even in times of scarcity, a certain level of flittering has to be done. The candidate is the building block of the Church. The seminary is where that block is moulded. If the foundations are strong, the products of these seminaries will be worthy of their training and of their vows.

I think it is time strong signals came from the Indian Church Hierarchy, as they have come from Rome, that the house in general --, and not merely the formation houses -- need s to be set in order. Perhaps Zero-Tolerance may not be possible day after tomorrow, but it is a laudable target and needs to be pursued. The first step would be a roving enquiry, including  social scientists, human resource experts and theologians, and a sprinkling of those with some forensic experience. That would be a good beginning. And it needs to be done before the State, for ulterior motives, seeks to intervene.

Mumbai Church must forgive Rationalist activist Sanal Edamaruku

Forgiveness is the bigger miracle

John Dayal

Sanal Edamuruku, or for that matter Rationalists International, were not names the Indian Catholic Church was familiar with before it ran into them in Mumbai, triggering an obnoxious controversy that has crossed national borders and is making news in the US and the UK. This is a purely Catholic controversy and does not touch the other church denominations in India -- the Episcopal, Evangelical and Pentecostal Independent churches, who for the moment are struggling their secular own controversies of corruption, moral turpitude, land alienation and fundamentalism.

Sanal, of the Rationalists International movement, has been a  fixture on the more sensational Indian print and TV news channels with his exposes of god-men of which India has an unaccounted large number. In the past, he has taken on some of the venerable names in this sector and has survived. He can, in fact, be thought of as an extremist and  fundamentalist himself in his belief  as the subjects of his enquiry.

On 10th March this year, Sanal was asked by the TV-9 channel to investigate the phenomenon of a Crucifix at the Mumbai Church of Our Lady of Velankanni which  had started attracting large crowds of believers because the little droplets of water trickling from the feet of Jesus. Mumbai, like Kerala, Goa and Mangalore, has a pretty large concentration of Catholics, most of them by all accounts active members of the Church. People, and not all of them Catholics or even Christians, collected the droplets as “holy water”.

Sanal in his widely publicised findings claimed the source of the water from the cross was a drainage near a washing room percolating through capillary action. This was the same phenomenon which made the idols of the Hindu Lord Ganesh apparently “drink” milk in a mass hysteria that gripped the nation some years ago.
The laity and clergy of the Archdiocese of Bombay cried foul, describing Sanal’s statement as an insult to their faith. Fr. Augustine Palett, the priest of Our Lady of Velankanni church, and the Association of Concerned Catholics (AOCC) demanded that Sanal apologize.

Mumbai Auxillary Bishop Agnelo Gracias, sought to restore some sanity  saying the Church was “always cautious in attributing supernatural causes” to such phenomena and always striving “to find 'scientific' explanations.”

A criminal case was nonetheless filed against Sanal. The police have been going to his house in Delhi to arrest him. Sanal is not staying at home, but has mobilised a powerful international rationalist community to his assistance. Not surprisingly, extremist groups in the Hindutva brigade have extended him support, presumably arguing that an enemy’s enemy is a friend, but conveniently forgetting when they too were baying for his blood not too long ago.

As someone who is in touch both with the Mumbai church, specially leaders in the Laity, and Sanal Edmaruku, I am pleading  the return of a sense of proportion in this issue.

It would seem a clash of two fundamentalist groups. It also comes in the context of a satellite TV and Internet social media environment in which many prominent Hindu temples, seminaries and their leaders  have been exposed, often in  what are called “sating operations”. Several god men have been caught in compromising situations with women, sometimes gullible devotees, or in audits of their illegal wealth. Many “miracles” and miracle cures” have also been ridiculed in public media.

Unlike the violence and hate campaigns unleashed on the Christian community by Hindutva Parivar strategists and cadres  in many states, and by Muslims Mullahs in the Kashmir valley and  a few other areas in East and South India, Sanal’s is neither “persecution” nor “communalism” as we understand those terms.

A section of the Catholic community is embarrassed and therefore enraged. Sanal is an extremist in own way, especially in the manner in which he believes in his rationalist theories and his often arrogant and abrasive manner of pursuing his point of view. To that extent, he is a bit of a social maverick. But he is “catholic” in his approach, and confronts all mythology and superstation irrespective of which group propagates it, or how powerful are those who believe in superstitions and miracles. It must be remembered that people from Presidents down have had no hesitation in admitting their loyalty to various god men, and yet rationalists have exposed the same people as charlatans.

I believe Christ is absolutely capable of defending Himself, if perhaps not the church in India is in such a position. These statements by Sanal or the probe by his Rationalists, must not be taken as an attack on the Church, or on the Community. It certainly is not an attack on the Christian faith in The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Some of the Faithful of Mumbai think they are defending Faith when they go on hunger strikes against books of fiction or films from Hollywood and Bollywood. But in reality, they are defending their own positions and constituencies and do not want them to be exposed to the sunlight.

Christ does not have to drip water from Crucifixes to prove the love He has for each one of us. His healing is deeper and needs no instruments. I have experienced this in my own life. Catholics of Mumbai possibly realise the controversy is not getting the Church any new friends, nor is it adding to its lustre. Its impact on faith formation in the  Archdiocese is also a matter of conjecture. It is time the Church leadership really forgave Sanal and his faith in Physics and Chemistry. He has learnt his own lesson – not to mock at  genuine faith of the people, and not confuse a passing popular fancy for a “miracle”, however untenable, to say the community is being taken for a ride by the church. The police case against Sanal Edmaruku should be withdrawn as a sign  that a mature Church in India needs no props for the depth of its faith in God.
[This was published in UCAN news agency on 10 July 2012 http://www.ucanindia.in/news/forgiveness-is-the-bigger-miracle/18473/daily ]

Towards a historic Synod of the Catholic Laity in India

To a historic Synod by the Laity

Indian Currents Interviews John Dayal, Immediate Past President, All India Catholic Union, and Member, National Integration Council and National Monitoring Committee for Minority Education, government of India

Indian Currents: What was the context of the first Laity Synod in Delhi

John Dayal: The obvious pretext is,  of course, the fact that the world is celebrating the  Golden Jubilee of the Second Vatican Council where the Holy Father, the good Pope John XXIII  and his successor Pope Paul VI, in council with the bishops of the world – for the first time reflecting the diversity of the Catholic Church with a considerable number of prelates  from Africa, Latin America and Asia – unfolded the future role of the Church, the clergy, and importantly for us, of the Laity.

The historic First Laity Synod called by the All India Catholic Union -- which came into being in 1919 and is one of the oldest Lay movements in the world -- was born out of the experience  of the Catholic lay leadership at the national as well as the grassroots level, with the Hierarchy and the state. Both were often very frustrating. If the Laity, and indeed the Church at large, were playing little or no role in the affairs of the State at  any level, our frustration with our role within the Church had been increasing. I was National President of the AICU for four years, and for eight years before that worked as National Secretary and national Vice President. We saw how the Hierarchy had not fully understood the presence and role of the Lay members within the Church at all levels, from the Parish to the Diocese and all the way to the Catholic Bishops Conference structures. This was also true of the central bodies of the two Oriental Churches which are today present not just in Kerala but through several dioceses in the rest of India, and therefore interacting with non-Malayali Laity in its jurisdiction as well. In the Latin Churches in several state conferences, many diocesan Bishops were seen as virtually not tolerating any assertion by the Laity that it had constitutional rights in the functioning of the Church as Baptised Faithful. In several cases we found that Bishops and Parish priests refused to acknowledge lay activists, much less allow them to participate in Parish Councils, which were a canonical necessity but often did not exist, and Catholic Associations which were arbitrarily dissolved soon after they were set up.

The AICU leadership was also concerned with issues of the faith and leadership formation of the Laity. We had seen in many dioceses that  the Laity was not aware of its canonical rights, sometimes not even of its rights and duties as citizens of India. The AICU has had several training programmes, but it was felt that there needed to be deeper introspection for the evolution of new policies which we could then share with then Hierarchy. Such introspection and dialogue would also help resolve the sometimes seen mutual hostility in some dioceses between the Bishop and clergy on the one hand, and the Laity on the other.

Once we started the process, we discovered that there was perhaps ignorance also at the highest level about the status and role of the Laity not just among the clergy and Religious, but even among the Hierarchy. Our people in some dioceses were told by the clergy and Hierarchy that we could not even call our proposed gathering as “Synod” since the Bishops alone could convene such a meeting. We challenge this understanding and went ahead.

The Delhi meeting for two days at the diocesan pastoral centre Navinta on 30 June and 1 July 2012 is the first of four regional meetings planned before we meet for the actual Synod, the wiser for the experience of sharing viewpoints and discussing major issues across he country. The Consultations were preceded by a study through a national level survey we launched some months ago, and whose results are being tabulated.

IC:  As a participant what do you say about the Synod and its deliberations?

JD: I think the first consultations were a great success and now there is much clarity in how we should progress towards the remaining three regional consultations and then the actual Synod, perhaps towards the end of the year or early next year. The dates are of course to be decided by the national leadership,. The AICU’s yearly general body meeting this year also has to elect its national leadership for the next two years.

The first big success was in overcoming the initial suspicions of the Hierarchy about our motives and designs. The presence of Conference of Catholic Bishops of India president Telesphore Cardinal Topo, who was once also president of the Catholic Bishops Conference, and archbishops and Bishops reflecting the presence of  the Syro Malabar, Syro Malankara and Latin rights in the northern region, was  a great signal that the Church spiritual leadership is now willing to listen to our voice. The assurances given by each one of the Bishops was evidence of it.

The speeches were friendly, though the matter of Rites did excite a sharp response by newly  appointed Syro Malabar Archbishop of Faridabad and the northern region, Archbishop Kuriakose Bharanikulangara. The issue was a perhaps acrid reference to confusion created in some dioceses now given over to the Oriental Churches. This only added to the intensity of the discussions and dialogue. 

IC: What are the main topics the Synod discussed? And what are the conclusions?

JD: We discussed Canon law and the  Documents of Vatican II, of course, which was the main purpose. But we also discussed the role of Church, Laity in governance and human and Constitutional rights,  and explored the potential of existing and future media in expanding the role of the collective Church in society and nation-building. We had people, experts in their fields, to address the representatives in the consultations.  We have tabulated the suggestions, but as these are the first of the  consultations, there has been no formal statement.

But one thing is clear. The Laity assures the Hierarchy of its cooperation and collaboration, but is equally keen to carry out its functions assured in the statutes of the Church. The Hierarchy is responsible for issues of faith and spirituality, and governance in those matters. But matters in the secular sphere are the prerogatives, if not the sole preserve, of the Laity which must be trained to fulfil such functions.

It is clearly also understood that the Laity is eager to assert its rights without acrimony, and expects the bishops to increasingly involve the Laity in Parish councils, the finance committees at the parish and diocesan level, and in a consultative way in other areas of work, including the running of institutions and  development and social work agencies.

IC: What does the Laity suggest to the Hierarchy for a more participatory Church?

JD: The first step is of course to train the Laity in its role, familiarise it with Canon law, Vatican II and the Social Teachings of the Church. Dioceses must have such training programmes and the AICU offers its expertise in this matter. Bishops should ensure that parish priest help form Catholic Associations, apart from the mandatory Parish Councils and Finance committees. The Bishops then have the role to follow suit at the diocesan level.  The AICU offers its help to all Church agencies in training priests and Laity in matters of human and civil rights, running of institutions, and faith formation.

IC: How does the Hierarchy respond to the demands / suggestions of the Laity?

JD: Some of these are revolutionary ideas, and not every Bishop is a revolutionary. Over all there is great acceptance of the demands of the AICU and a great and sympathetic understanding of the feelings of the Faithful in the Parishes and Dioceses. But we recognise and understanding that some of the Bishops are more mellow and understanding than others. We have great hope from the younger Bishops, some of whom are there in their late Forties or early Fifties and have a quarter of a century ahead of them in a leadership role in the Church at the diocesan level. We hope to be able to move them to act on their pledge.

IC: Is there a mistrust between the Hierarchy and the Laity? What are the major reasons?

JD: Nationally speaking, the answer is No, there is no mistrust, just a matter of different understandings occasionally of the Documents and Canons of the Church. But at  the dioceses and parish level, there is unfortunately our experience of a distrust in some places. It is difficult to generalise, but some of the senior and more assertive Bishops perhaps are loath to let go, or are not open in affirming their faith in their people. There are suspicions where Catholic children are not admitted in Church run schools. The poorer Laity feels disappointed when the Church does not help, at least adequately, those in need. The more committed members of the Laity feel frustrated when they are denied a role in the running of the Church in its secular work. There have been the occasional instanced of direct confrontation, and sometimes the language used is not pretty. The situation in mission dioceses in north India is different, and is cause of concern for another set of reasons. But relations are not at breaking point. The Delhi consultations for the Synod show a mutual eagerness to dialogue, which indeed is the main demand of the AICU and at all levels. I personally hope mutual acrimony, misgivings and differences will a thing of the past, and soon. I personally have excellent relations with much if not all of the Hierarchy in India., We are looking forward to the actual Synod and the remaining consultations.

IC: Is the existence of three Rites in the Indian Church a problem for better Laity-Hierarchy working together? What do you suggest for better relationship?

JD: Rites are  a historical entity. We know the universal Catholic Church has several rites, and Oriental Churches exist in many western countries, especially in East Europe, North Africa and West Asia exclusively or in co-existence with the Latin rite. In fact, in the United States, almost every Oriental Church has  dioceses, and there never has been a serious problem. Kerala too has, at the end of the day, the existence of three simultaneously different and overlapping jurisdictions of the Latin, Syro Malabar and Syro Malankara Catholic Churches. Acrimony and confrontations are, hopefully, a thing of the past, and creative cooperation and collaboration between  separate hierarchies and jurisdictions is on display.

But in the Latin Church  in north and west India, there are areas of ignorance leading to distrust between Laity, and sometimes clergy, of the different Rites. The formation of the Syro Malabar dioceses in northern India has left a trail of avoidable misunderstandings, if I may say so. Such differences have not always been openly voiced, though there have been a few isolated cases of aggressive behaviour in some parishes. But the concurrence of Rome to the establishment of Oriental Dioceses is final, and we have to learn to live with them. Personally I am a strong advocate of the involvement of the Laity of the three Churches in the leadership of the AICU and in its work. We seen the same  rights from each of the three Rites.

IC: Like the Hierarchy that is divided into three Rites, so too the Laity. How can you develop a strategy that is acceptable to the Laity from the three Rites? 

JD: Unity will come from working together. This will take training and time. Transparency and an openness to dialogue is the first step. The Hierarchy and Clergy of Oriental Churches in north and west India must cooperate with Latin bishops an ensure that their Laity is participating in the secular programmes called by the Latin Laity of the  States and districts over which their Rite has jurisdiction. In Delhi, for instance, which has a large number of Malayali migrants belonging to the Syro Malabar  Church,  their participation in secular advocacy programmes for Human rights for Dalit Christians and similar secular issues becomes imperative. Without their participation, we will fail to muster the large numbers which are required to show our earnestness to the government. The Oriental Bishops have a great responsibility in this work.

IC: The Laity demand more say in the running of the Church institutions and financial management. The Hierarchy doesn’t trust the Laity much. How can there be better understanding and coordination?

JD: This will take time. The progressive shortage of religious and clergy to run institutions will, in a historical way, ensure the eventual Laity succession to such offices. But Hierarchy must not be afraid to hire Principals and administrators from the Laity. We need to work together for the sake of a vibrant Church and its continuing role in nation building.

 IC: Do you think the Synod can bring in changes in the functioning of the Church?

JD: Of course that is our hope and desire, otherwise we would not have proceeded on the path of calling the Laity Synod. We understand and accept this is not possible in a month or a year. It will take time. But we, like the Hierarchy, are an old organisation and have the patience to wait, the earnestness, and the eagerness to make the wait as short as humanly possible. We believe the Holy Spirit will guide us on the right path.

IC: Do you think the issue of leadership is a problem for the Laity?         

JD: Leadership is of many kinds, but we cannot para-drop leadership. We have to catch them young and develop leaders in the secular field, and within the Church beginning from the grassroots. An empowered Laity can undertake this mission. It is also the duty of the clergy and Hierarchy to collaborate with the Laity in this. The AICU is an open, and open-minded, organisation and is taking urgent steps in Laity formation and development of leadership. We have grown and become increasingly self sufficient in the past years, and tribute must be paid to every National president in the modern age, beginning with George Menezes of Mumbai, chhotebhai of Kanpur, Norbert De Souza, Dr Maria Emilia Menes and the incumbent president, Prof  Remy Denis, for this, assisted as they were by their national executives and the leadership at diocesan and parish levels across the country. I had also tried to do my bit during my days in office.

[This appeared in Indian Currents, 8 July 2012]