Neo-Liberalism

It is like a man about to go abroad who summoned his servants and entrusted his property to them.¹⁵To one he gave five talents, to another two, to a third one, each in proportion to his ability. ¹⁹Now a long time afterwards, the master of those servants came back and went through his accounts with them….

(After meeting with the first two loyal servants), ⁽²⁴Last came forward the man who had the single talent. "Sir," said he, "I had heard you were a hard man, reaping where you had not sown and gathering where you had not scattered;²⁵so I was afraid, and I went off and hid your talent in the ground. Here it is; it was yours, you have it back."²⁶But his master answered him, "You wicked and lazy servant! So you knew that I reap where I have not sown and gather where I have not scattered?²⁷Well then, you should have deposited my money with the bankers, and on my return I would have got my money back with interest.²⁸So now, take the talent from him and give it to the man who has the ten talents.²⁹For to everyone who has will be given more, and he will have more than enough; but anyone who has not, will be deprived even of what he has.³⁰As for this good–for–nothing servant, throw him into the darkness outside, where there will be weeping and grinding of teeth." Matthew 25:14-30

Peasants who listened to this parable no doubt identified with the servant who was thrown into the darkness, weeping and grinding his teeth; gnashing their teeth when they lost their family plots, barely surviving because of taxes and tributes, and as day laborers their teeth chattering in the cold because of inadequate clothing and food. Having been kicked out of the rich man’s "system", he is brought closer to the true Lord, who dwells with the poor and the oppressed.
 

India and Globalization

India is full of such peasants. With a population of one billion, 420,700,000 of the country’s people live in poverty. With agriculture being only 26.6% of the Gross Domestic Product, 70% of people in India depend on agriculture for their livelihood. (Industry 26.9%, Services 46.4%) There are 200 million Dalit or "untouchable" members of the extremely poor 1,000 scheduled castes (and tribes) in India. Women, who number 927 to every 1,000 men, make up the largest oppressed segment of the population, within the at least 3,000 castes in India: girl babies are not valued, women are successfully married only with the required dowry provided by her family, widows are ostracized from public society; but almost total responsibility for the family lies with the mother.

As in other parts of the world, India is also being targeted by transnational corporations that are frenetically being driven to produce more and more goods and services, looking for cheap labor and resources, with little or no taxation and few environmental restrictions. The overseers of these corporations are entrusted with huge amounts of funds to make a profit. And if they loyally play the ruthless game of unscrupulous capitalism, they will share in the wealth of the corporate executives. The victims of this rich man’s system of accumulation of wealth are the poor majority of the Indian population. Small farmers, low wage factory workers, child laborers, domestic workers, fish workers, local small business owners, find themselves left behind by new liberalization policies that promote large scale mechanization. The present demand for technological progress gives large industries an affordable advantage over local businesses that struggle only to survive, with the help of loans. In 1991 the country’s workforce had grown to 401 million people and is expected to be 519 million in 2010. But the number of workers in the formal sector has come down to 28 million today. With every job lost in the formal sector, several are lost in the informal sector.

Control over India’s own resources has become an important issue that has surfaced as more and more multinational corporations enter the country. For instance, at least 300 cotton farmers have committed suicide in Andhra Pradesh over the last 3 years. The Monsanto Corporation of the U.S. and Mahyco (its Indian partner) promised good returns to farmers who switched from food crops to cotton, and introduced a new hybrid of seed to try out in India. Most of the village farmers spent between Rs 12,000 and Rs 15,000 ($290 to $360) an acre for pesticides, being assured of high yields by the company. Because the yield was much below the expected level, the farmers were not able to recover the costs for the pesticides. The small farmers who had taken money and material on credit were driven into debt, and then to suicide. The company bore no responsibility, even though in 1997, the Mississippi Seed Arbitration Council, USA, had ruled that the same variety of seed failed to perform as advertised. Regarding control over seed supply, Robert Farley (of Monsanto Company) states: "What you see is not just a consolidation of seed companies. It is really a consolidation of the entire food chain." Only during the past year, Monsanto had taken over numerous small start-up biotech companies and large seed companies, spending over $2.5 billion to do so. Such accumulation has been the driving force of multinationals that transcends all boundaries. Multinational corporations are sucking profits from whatever corner of the world that they can, and by any means. They truly see the world as economic territories for their expansion.

The effects of neo-liberal policies, such as noted above, and the reality of globalization brought about by technological development in areas such as tele-communications, computer electronics, nuclear weapons, and bio-technology, are proving to intensify India’s already existing economic and cultural problems. Issues such as caste discrimination, degradation of women, dowry requirements, child labor, pervasive corruption, extremely low wages, mal-nutrition, lack of adequate housing, impure water, poor healthcare, illiteracy, religious intolerance, and church rite conflicts present huge challenges to government resources, NGOs, church organizations, and social activists already involved, even before the onslaught of new neo-liberal policies and globalization.
 

Christianity in India

India is an enormously rich culturally diverse country; a nation divided up into 25 states and 7 union territories, each with its own language, dress, religious rituals, arts and crafts, and food; with 14 official languages (15 including English), and 200 dialects. It is today’s largest functioning democracy, with one of the world’s oldest cultures, still vibrant and alive in the Indian people. Living in the midst of the approximately 968 million Hindus, Sikhs, Zoroastrians, Buddhists, Jains, Muslims, and tribal Animists, are 20 million Christians, of which are 12 million Catholics. Being such a small minority, only 1.71% of the total population, it is no wonder that Catholics tend to struggle with a minority mentality.
 

Christianity in India traditionally dates back to the Apostle Thomas who is said to have evangelized and died in India. The St. Thomas Christians were originally based in the South of India within the present states of Kerala and Tamil Nadu. They had come into contact with the East Syrian (Persian) Church around the 4^th century, and lived a life fully congenial to their socio-cultural milieu. At the time the Portuguese missionaries arrived in the sixteenth century the St. Thomas Christians were enjoying a privileged position in society, with a large measure of ecclesiastical autonomy. After over 300 years of resisting many attempts to bring the St. Thomas Church under Latin jurisdiction, Pope Leo XIII finally began the steps of recognizing the autonomy of the Syro-Malabar and Syro-Malankara Churches. In 1923, St. Thomas Christian priests were appointed as bishops and the hierarchy was established, but it wasn’t until 1932 that the community was finally constituted as a particular church within the Catholic communion. Today, thousands of these Christians work as missionaries all over India. Much tension still exists between the St. Thomas Christians and the Latin Church. Two views have crystallized: 1) Latin elements are foreign and need to be eliminated so that Indianization can be taken up, 2) Latin and Chaldean elements are foreign and must be eliminated for the emergence of a truly Oriental Indian Church.
 

Until the 16^th century there was only one church in India; that of the St. Thomas Christians. But, with the Portuguese missionary activities new Christian communities of the Latin rite took root in the South West, from Gujarat to Kerala, and from Kerala to Tamil Nadu in the South East. The Portuguese laid a firm foundation for Christianity, although it wasn’t until the beginning of the 19^th century that many missionaries from European religious orders, including those of women, began to actually recruit vocations from among Indians. What really moved this process of Indianization of the Church along were the restrictions on the entry of foreign missionaries by the Indian government. Milestones in this development were the inception of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India in 1944 and the celebration of the national synod in 1950. Indianization, regarding personnel and organization, is complete today, but the issue of cultural structural Indianization in the Church continues to be a matter of concern for many people.

Since the beginning of the Catholic Bishops Conference of India (CBCI) until 1970, the focus of the Indian Church had been centered on charitable organizations, educational institutions, and social welfare programs, both as a way of surviving in an environment that was becoming hostile toward Christians, and as a way of maintaining the good image of the Church. Development projects were initiated on a vast scale in order to reach deeply into the lives of the poor. Caritas India was born which provided many relief services, and during this time after Vatican II, the CBCI began reflecting on the social question and how the Church might become involved in the issues of society with systemic change strategies. In 1970, for the first time, the CBCI took a stand against caste within the Church, "that caste, with its consequent effects of discrimination and ‘caste mentality’, has no place in Christianity."

Presently, even while social service programs continue to dominate its choice of strategies for ministry, the CBCI has become much more aware of the need for structural change toward social justice and equality in Indian society. But, the needed changes are presently too narrowly seen as happening from top to bottom, an approach that fails to pay enough attention to the fact that people need to participate in their own struggle for justice. Social action in India is still more a matter of individual interest and personal choice of clergy, religious, and laypeople, who many times find themselves isolated and without the active support of the institutional Church. Although the Indian Church has made strong statements against caste discrimination and against social injustice, the CBCI has not yet established an effective organ and strategy to implement its suggestions. If the enormous base of people presently benefiting from charitable organizations, educational institutions, and social programs provided by the Church, were trained and organized for power, it would be possible to create the political will to work on the many issues important to the welfare of the Indian population. It is well known that in India there is rampant corruption by an unaccountable political, business, and professional leadership that infects every level of society, creating a parallel economy worth more than Rs 33,000 crores, about the same as India’s Gross Domestic Product. It might be an important matter of concern that India’s poor powerless majority could choose to take control of their lives in any way that they can, by any means. As Professor Rosabeth Moss Kanter, a well-known analyst of world economic activities notes, "Powerlessness corrupts and absolute powerlessness corrupts absolutely."
 

SCJ Indian District

The timing of the "SCJ General Conference: the Economy and the Reign of God" was very opportune for us in India. The topic is connected to the reality in India, and the thinking and conversations that took place in preparation for the conference have been very relevant to our planning for future ministry.

India represents one sixth of the world’s population. Whatever global economic issues are in existence today are especially present in India, to an extreme degree. With all the natural and human resources that are part of this country, the overwhelming majority of its people live in extreme poverty brought about by enormous cultural and societal obstacles that oppress millions of people, as stated above. Among diocesan Clergy and within Religious Orders there is much ignorance and lack of awareness of the needs of the people, and there is little interest in getting involved with the poor. The majority of Priests, Sisters, and Brothers are members of high castes and are simply not prepared to participate in social action. There is a tremendous need for Church leaders who are committed to act on the teachings of the Church regarding social justice. Jesus proclaimed the presence of the Kingdom of God among us. The Kingdom of God hidden in the lives of the "least" of our brothers and sisters needs to be discovered and revealed. As SCJs, we are called to be servants of Christ’s Kingdom by the generous gift of our lives to those who need our support, guidance and encouragement. Our role is to strive to help people discover the power that overcomes despair and allows one to live in the dignity that comes from being a child of God.

As was said in our discussions in preparation for this conference: "If we intend to make some difference in the lives of poor people it is time that we take things seriously." "It is essential that we enter the reality of the people." "It is essential that we place ourselves in the midst of the people; feeling like them, smelling like them, eating like them etc.." It was also suggested that we begin doing business directly with the poor, buying food and materials directly from them instead of the middleman. We are only beginners in India but it would be worthwhile to ponder how we might be participating consciously or unconsciously in the unjust, evil systems active in the society we live in. Our style of life and approach to ministry needs to reflect better our solidarity with the poor. In line with this, SCJ candidates participate in "live in" programs in Andhra Pradesh, giving them experiences where they can witness the social action that some Religious Orders in Guntur District are doing with the poor.
 

Our first priority now is the formation of candidates, the future SCJs that will be active in the apostolate. It will be important that they be capable of evaluating their own society and cultures in light of the Gospel and the social teachings of the Church. The charism of the Priests of the Sacred Heart needs to be considered in the context of India. We need to reread the Social Works of Leo John Dehon and apply his vision to the reality in India, responding to the enormous needs of the poor of this country. The model that our founder has given us leads us to be men of action. The building of the Kingdom of God in India will demand that SCJs be men of prayer that reach out concretely to the people that need to be assured of God’s love, a love that empowers, strengthens and enables for action.

The SCJ community in India is a relatively unique experiment in the Congregation. We are composed of members from Indonesia, Italy, Brazil, United States, Holland, Great Britain, and Poland, who all are temporary in India due to the government’s strict laws on immigration. But even these short-term investments are providing members of the Congregation a perspective of the world that is both challenging and enlightening. We are challenged to identify with and participate in the struggles of people who are living the normal lot of the world’s population, and we are gifted with the possibility of seeing and understanding the mystery of the Gospel through the lives of the peasant servants of the parable; those who are discounted as "wicked and lazy" by the powerful and rich masters of this world. It seems to us that this new approach to the missions, giving first priority to the struggle for social justice, needs to be developed and expanded. Our future investment in India might very well provide the Congregation of the Priests of the Sacred Heart new vision and hope for the future.
 

Dreaming or Doing!
 

In Fr. General’s letter for the Feast of the Sacred Heart, 1999, he called us to reflect on our vocation to be "Servants of Reconciliation," and to make the adjustments in our personal lives, our communities, and our ministries that will bring to new life this aspect of our charism. In this same letter he cautioned us that: "It is easier to dream and make little adjustments rather than produce significant change." We are challenged to do, not just dream! This is a statement that can elicit a variety of responses. For us in India, it elicited a particular response which was inspired by the Kerala Conference of Major Superiors at their recent December, 1999 meeting. They produced the following "directives and suggestions" as expressed by their Executive Council:

1. Each religious house in Kerala will build a house for the poor before the end of the Jubilee Year.

2. Each religious house will adopt one or more poor families and attend to the spiritual and materials needs of these families.

3. Each religious house will encourage poor students by scholarships, books and teaching aids.

4. Religious will cancel all debts.
 

We think that this is a courageous concrete outreach to the poor. We are even more impressed that this call is directed to "each religious house", engaging thereby all the religious in Kerala.
 

As we consider the theme of the our General Conference, "The Economy and the Kingdom of God", we propose caution and concrete action; caution that this conference will not be largely involved only with dreams and papers.

What we do need to develop is a strong consciousness of the enormous crisis of our time, a crisis that has grown much in just the past 10 years, creating perhaps greater misery the world has ever known before; and this crisis is only beginning. What we do need to recognize is that the evil at the root of this crisis is embedded in political and economic systems that are fueled by greed. Our focus then must be on how to change these systems. As overwhelming as this task might seem to us, we must follow the example of our Founder, who courageously challenged the economic and political evils of his time; a task that was equally overwhelming.

Having said that, we hope we will also consider concrete actions that will engage us all and bring us closer to those most affected by these present economic and political systems, people for whom not much will change in their lifetime – unless there are some concrete interventions.

What concrete interventions? We suggest two, that:

1. We commit 10% of our worldwide investments to projects designed to help the poor. Accepting a much lower return of our investments in order to help the poor, we will be taking clear steps in the direction of placing people before profits; something we may have preached more than have done due to our large investments in multi-national corporations.

2. We commit to projects that create living-wage level jobs. This means that we must move beyond criticism of neo-liberalism. As Fr. Dehon and Leon Harmel struggled to create Christian industrial models in France, it is now time for Dehonians to take up this challenge. Our investments in such job-creating strategies among the poor will involve planning and training to create projects that will provide employment with just wages and needed benefits, as well as worker representation in decision-making boards, and profit sharing.

With such a commitment, we could realistically conceive of communities and villages coming back to life with decent housing, education, health care, sanitation, by way of an economy inspired by Christian values. Could we one day produce not papers on social justice, but examples of what a Christian economy can do? Can we breathe new life into the dream of Fr. Dehon of justice? A big order, true. But isn’t this the kind of action that Fr. General is calling for in terms of "significant change" in our way of being SCJs in the contemporary world?