THE CONGREGATION
IN THE LIFE OF THE CHURCH
Wim van Paassen, scj
India, February 2000
The confraters of the District India invited me to spend four months with them in the framework of my service in continuing formation. You have their heartfelt greetings,(i.e. from Martien van Ooy and Ad van der Wilk). They are doing well. From September 1999 until the end of January 2000, I held conferences, retreats and recollections in the state of Kerala for the candidates on our “Dehon Bhavan” (minor seminary) in Kumbalanghy, in “Dehon Vidja Sadhan” (major seminary) in Aluva, and in our noviciate in Ponnarimangalam. I did the same for our candidates in the state of Andhra Pradesh, in their temporary home “Dehon Nilayam” in the town Guntur and for the diocesan minor seminary located in the village Phirangipuram, near Guntur.
I performed the same service for various communities of sisters, brothers, clergy in the diocese of Cochin, in the pontifical major seminary (Carmelgiri) of the dioceses of Kerala, for three new Dehon lay groups and for our own international S.C.J. community.
Furthermore, I had discussions with, among others, the Mother General of the St. Ann’s Sisters in Andhra Pradesh, Archbishop Daniel Acharupurambil of Verapoli, Msgr. Joshi who is diocesan administrator of Cochin, with Bishop Gali Bali of Guntur, and further with parish priests, theologians and lay people here and there.
A stay of four months is too brief to give a complete picture of society and church in India. It is easier not to try. In any case, the text below contains a summarised interview with, among other, “our people”. Some aspects are mentioned several times. Yet this is not merely repetition; these aspects are revealed in different connections. All things regarded, I think that the S.C.J. is in India with good reason, given the training and education it offers candidates in the context of the choice for the poor made by a community that is both joyful and serious. I believe that they deserve all the spiritual, material and personal support we can give them.
Martien van Ooy in Historical Perspective
Martien set foot in Cochin, in the state of Kerala, for the first time in October 1994 with the general assignment to “start up the congregation in India”. You have already had much to read about this beginning. There had already been contact with the co-operative bishop Kureethara of Cochin, who died last year. In all humility, Martien calls him “the founder”. But with his pious, Brabantian, farmer’s smile influenced by traces of the Asian, “Tinus” remains a shrewd communicator, an enticing entrepreneur and salesman, who fits well in the history of the Rotterdam-like port of Cochin. He is someone who is very useful to have at hand given the history of the cursed and blessed landings in Kerale along the Malabar coast (30 million inhabitants; capital Trivandrum).
The Keralis or Malayalis are an enterprising people, critical, assertive, inquisitive, skilled in communication and internationally oriented tradesmen who for centuries have known how to get all there is to get. In the coastal area, with their green floating carpets of coconut palms, flanked by inland waterways undulating in time with the ebb and flow of the Arabic Sea, live poor farmers and fishers beside rich rice farmers, officials and industrialists. Many families have a husband, wife, son or daughter who works in a foreign country, mainly one of the Gulf States, to help support the family. Thanks to successive communist governments,Kerala has the best medical, social and educational provisions in India. Distributed by religion, the population of Kerale is three fifths Hindu, one fifth Moslem and one fifth Christian.
Landing, travelling, moving on! In the bishop’s house in Cochin, built in 1506 as residence for the Portuguese governors, you see a colourful tableau by Ludovic Kurisumkul. It displays on the walls the major events of local history. The trade routes. Trade with the West via the Malabar coast is centuries old. Goods, spices and clothing were shipped to the Middle East as early as the third millennium BC. King Solomon’s fleet transported wood, ivory and gold via the Kerali Cranganore for the construction of the temple in Jerusalem. According to historians, the Hindu’s here learned to write from Phoenician traders. Long before the Christian era, the south-west coast of India was on the trade route for silk, porcelain and spices that connected China, Greece and Rome. But when, in 45 BC, Greek sailors discovered the monsoon winds, they could move their ships in the service of Rome in less than forty days around the Horn of Africa to the present Kerala, which became increasingly an international meeting place. A few years ago, builders in the North of Kerala found a clay pot. From it rolled 1200 glittering coins. They gave archaeologists a golden glimpse of this coastline’s past. The inscriptions were legible: “Caesar, Traianus, Hadrianus” with on the back the image. Greek traders had used them nearly 2000 years ago to buy pepper, tea, cinnamon, and other spices for the Romans. These spices are still grown on the mountainsides of the Western Ghats, which you can see on a clear day from our house in Aluva.
The representation in the old bishop’s house in Cochin depicts the reputed landing of the apostle Thomas in the village Malankara near Cranganore in 52 AD. The Roman historian Pliny calls Cranganore, now just a spot, an important trade centre. Indeed, it cannot be excluded that Christians followed in the tracks of Jews and Romans and so came to the Malabar coast, but there are no proofs that Saint Thomas ever landed here. “See first, then believe” say the historians who do not accept community stories without documentary evidence. Yet the Thomas-Christians or “the Syrians” are convinced that Thomas worked here as architect and apostle.
In addition, the murals portray the immigration of Syrian Christians from Edessa and elsewhere in Mesopotamia in the year 435. They were followers of Bishop Nestorius, who was condemned in 431 by the Council of Ephesus because he is to have denied the unity of Christ’s divine and human nature. The Nestorians fled, bishop and all, when faced with persecution. In the early Middle Ages they sent missionaries to China, Tibet, Kerale and possibly Sumatra.
A few steps further and you see the arrival of Vasco da Gama with his Portuguese army in 1498. Since they were in the neighbourhood, they stopped to convert the pagans. Great was their surprise to discover churches and Christian communities that claimed descent from Saint Thomas but who used the so-called Syriac language in the liturgy and who had married priests. The Rajas (princes) trusted them and gave them good jobs.
The tableaux in the bishop’s house leave no doubt, the King of Portugal and the Pope joined forces using the army and Inquisition to force the estimated 100,000 Thomas-Christians under the Latin Roman yolk. While I will return to this later, I refer you now to the history books. On 6 May 1542, Francis Xavier arrived in Goa and argued continuously for clemency for “the Syrians”. Meanwhile, he turned eagerly to the Parava fishers on the southern coast. He and many confraters after him baptised at top speed, taught catechism, etc. Only this history can explain why the nearly 7 million Roman Catholics in Kerale belong either to the Latin or the Syrian rite, each with its own pope-appointed bishops and seminaries. Both are expanding in India. For one Saint Thomas is the figurehead, for the other Saint Francis Xavier. You find higher cast Christians mainly among “the Syrians” (NB: “Syrian” or “Latin” refers less to the liturgical language than to the church order).
And then suddenly you see red, white and blue flags painted on the episcopal wall: in 1661 the Dutch attack Cochin and are welcomed by the Jewish community, which had been sorely persecuted by the Portuguese. The Dutch commander settled in 1663 in the present bishop’s house. He ordered the priests to leave Fort Cochin. The magnificent St. Francis church, built in 1500 &emdash; then still dedicated to St. Bartholomew, who is also said to have been in India &emdash; was given to the Protestants. When the English came, this church became an Anglican possession. Since independence in 1947, it belongs to the Ecumenical Church of South India.
Doubtless when the time is ripe a new panel will be added to the tableau in the bishop’s house: Martien’s landing. According to my Chinese confrater, the artist plans to depict a broad shouldered multicultural water-buffalo that moves forward contemplatively, almost harmlessly yet indestructibly among the chaotic traffic of honking busses, cars, trucks and scooters, rooting piglets, munching goats and a teaming mass of people. Whenever this highly talented animal leaves behind its scent (and the rest) near some palm tree, a house or seminary springs from the ground. But Kerala is not India. The instinct of this prime example with genes from Zeilberg and St. Quentin drives him in the direction of the down-and-out in the state of Andhra Pradesh. Here Dehon will put aside his bike and roll up his sleeves for the real work, in a manner of speaking and with all due respect. There was no blueprint. General Bressanelli said to Martien, “You have to make the S.C.J. present in India”. “Where?” “I don’t know. Just get going.” A close acquaintance of former General de Palma, Msgr. Kureethara of Cochin, was the contact person, “Welcome, learn English first. Here is a Bible and the reading of the day.” So Martien went into an empty church in Mattancherry and started studying the meaning of Hebrews 10:7: “here I am”. Then it all started coming together, the struggle for funds and people began. Who, after all, knows India? The start in Kerale, now 5_ years ago, was a leap in the dark. Now it is advancing at top speed!
Interview
I have spoken with many sisters, brothers, confraters, candidates and others about India, that gigantic subcontinent with a billion inhabitants spread over 25 states each having its own culture, language, parliament, government and capital. All this resorts under a central government of 70 ministers in New Delhi, a Hindu coalition led by Mr. Vajpayee. India is also very religious. There are Hindus (85%), Moslems (11%), and Christians (2%), plus Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, Jews.
Our own S.C.J. community numbers thirteen, occupied mainly with the training and education of more than a hundred candidates. The British-Irish and Portuguese provinces have promised to send people. At present “Dehon Bhavan” houses Fr. Martien van Ooy and Br. Aloysius (Indonesia), Fr. Valerio Pilati and Fr. Vincenzo Rizzardi (Italy) and Br. Mariano (India). In “Dehon Vidja Sadhan” we find Fr. Tom Garvey (USA), Fr. Angel (Poland), Br. Yohanes (Indonesia), and Br. Placido (India). In Ponnarimangalam we meet Fr. Sebastiao Pitz (Brazil) and Fr. Andrej Sudol (Poland). In “Dehon Nilayam” in the town Guntur are Fr. Teja Anthara (Indonesia), Br. Leonard (USA), in Phirangipuram, Fr. Ad van der Wilk(The Netherlands).
I can still see this popular “Father Adrian” a vigorous baker’s son from Wateringen, who came just before Christmas to Kumbalanghi (the train trip Guntur ? Cochin takes about 24 hours &emdash; when you’re lucky). I see him during the tropical Christmas celebration before the historical Portuguese parish church, in the full moonlight. Prominent as an immovably tall palm tree amid the hundreds of coastal inhabitants with their lit candles, he strummed his guitar while crows and parakeets cringed to deliver a gala-performance in broad Westland accent of our familiar and frisky “Once upon a winter’s night, the gates of heaven opened … etc.”.
Here follows my limited summary of conversations about but a few of he many subjects covered, this time in the form of an interview.
On Formation and Education
Q - Now we “have” about a hundred candidates, mostly from Kerala and Andhra Pradesh, but also a few from Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Goa. This year the total number of professed Indians can reach five. Several new candidates are arriving. What are your criteria for accepting them.
A - The many vocations depend, among other things, on India’s spiritual infrastructure. “Spiritual office” is highly respected. Our District uses several accepted guidelines for vocation and pastoral work in which all participate: students as well as confraters. We visit the home of the boy or youth that writes to us with a motivated request for acceptance. Among the qualities he must show are helpfulness, generosity, and forgiveness. He must be joyful, healthy, pious and reasonably intelligent. He must be involved in some positive group activities in his village or neighbourhood. The pastor’s evaluation also contributes. We are cautious in accepting someone who has already been in another seminary. Given the culture-related obligations (maintaining parents; dowry for sisters), we only accept an only son when he has been freed from these duties. We accept no more than 50% Keralis. We become acquainted with the potential candidates during vocation camps. A selection commission, including among others the district superior Martien, makes the final decision. We should not be afraid of an occasional error. We must all must be willing to learn. Even during training.
Q - When may a candidate remain in training?
A - We are aware that we are and will remain foreigners. We are thus limited in our knowledge of the various cultures, languages, and social problems in India. The candidate must show a growing balance between spiritual exercises, study, work, recreation, free time and pastoral work (catechesis, family visits, and giving cost-free lessons in reading, writing and arithmetic to children whose parents cannot afford tuition fees). We have regular conversations with the candidates about their motives and development. The students in “Dehon Bhavan” have recently been asked to bring, when they return from Christmas vacation, a letter in which they explain why they decided to return. For example, no one with a history of serious personal or academic problems goes on to in “Dehon Vidja Sadhan”. Candidates can only enter the noviciate (after the third year philosophy: “they must first learn to think”), once it has become long clear that they are suitable. For the rest, the bishops decided in 1994 that pre-ordination training must take place in India. That is why we have no noviciate in any foreign country.
Q - When must a candidate leave the seminary?
A - This decision is made when a candidate is unwilling or unable to satisfy the expectations of one or more of the program’s aspects. In other words, when there is no positive development to be found. The candidate receives several opportunities to demonstrate his capacities, except in cases involving a serious risk of scandal or harm to others. During the noviciate whoever does not seem happy (or able to become happy) in a community is not admitted to profession
Social and Christian Background
Q - What is the candidates’ social and Christian background?
A - Most of our students come from a lower cast. In Kerala people of such a cast are generally able to support themselves, but nothing more than that. The daily wage is usually a dollar. The schools, hospitals, huts and houses leave an impoverished impression. Emergencies such as unemployment or serious illness always mean a crisis. The extended family and relief centres for the ill and “basic Christian communities” (BCCs) serve as a safety net that provides social assistance. These BCCs generally are poor local communities in which the members contribute to a community fund, which can be called upon in emergencies. It is thus for all involved not only a question of relief but also of doing something. Nothing much can be expected from the state in India.
Our candidates’ group life has a strongly devotional colour in the house and in the parish. The churches are full for eucharistic celebrations, processions, eucharistic devotion, May and October celebrations in honour of Mary, parish patron feasts, etc. On the streets in Kerala, you see many sisters in habit, and priests in white cassock. Inside and on the outside of public transport (busses, taxis, boats) the names and symbols of Jesus, Lord Krishna, Vishnu, Shiva are interwoven with those of the Sacred Heart, the pope, Mother Theresa, Saint Anthony and Sai Baba. Sacred Heart images are everywhere, even in the houses. This devotion has recently come to stand in the shadow of the charismatic movement. Roman Catholic-Portuguese and Hindu expressions of piety seem to get on well together, in contrast to sober and strict Moslem practices. For the rest, there is nothing wrong with popular devotions when they are an honest expression and not an “opium”.
In Roman Catholic Kerala there is a good understanding of the faith especially the liturgy, but its social aspects are more in the background. The church in India is generally strongly institutional and clericalised. It is a male church in a male society. It is less marked by the People of God idea or by common responsibility. In fact, there are many priests. Many Keralis, including priests from Kerali dioceses, consider it economically attractive to go out of the country. There are many of them. In many cases this does not seem to have much to do with evangelisation. Keralis are very inventive in finding ways to make money, for themselves and/or for their often impoverished family. The bishops here pay their priests in accordance with what their parishes can bear, about three to five hundred rupees. The stipend for a mass is a good thirty rupees (a rupee is 45 Dutch cents). Sometimes up to twelve priests concelebrate a mass for the feast of a wealthy family. Our candidates have come to realise that the church’s recent social teaching is its best kept secret, in particular in the diocesan seminaries. Father Dehon had already seen this in France.
Q - What do you have to add to all what has been written about S.C.J. in India over the last 5 years?
A - 1. When you accept candidates from a lower social cast, you have to accept the consequences. Training and education pose greater challenges. Students arrive with a sub-normal elementary education, from families that have to struggle to survive and have few cultural enjoyments, from distant villages where there is little awareness of their country or the world. Yet in the course of four years you can see the young men take shape with increased mental abilities (ability to learn), strong character (ability to accept setbacks), community orientation (not addicted to radio, TV or internet), a simple life style (pleased with little). New students receive a full year catechesis and an initial study of officially recognised Hindi and English languages. These are important because of the many different languages in India. Seen with hindsight, there will be those who come for the better education, who leave as soon as they see the chance to get a good job. But even then our work remains valuable.
2. Many people do not consider lower cast candidates “worthy”. Therefore, most priests and religious come from the upper casts, often with little understanding or sympathy for the lower cast. India desperately needs priests and religious to serve the poorest people. Among the candidate priests and brothers in our seminaries there is a desire to serve the poorest of the poor. At least it looks that way. Someone like Ad van der Wilk leads the way. In addition to teaching classes in scripture, catechesis, English and … good manners, you can find him every day at the neighbour’s: a fantastic couple who have established an orphanage for about fifty children whose parents, because of poverty, have abandoned them in the station.
In the 1998 Indian Catholic Directory, with the complete address file of dioceses, parishes, congregations, etc. we read on p. 50 a call from the S.C.J. for candidates to “serve in the missions in Northern India and other Asian countries, especially to serve the poor and promote social justice”. Then follows our conditions and the addresses of our seminaries. For the rest, life in our houses is sober. We purposefully do not buy cars. Students travel on the (in)famous busses to a unit of resp. the Santa Cruz high school of the diocesan clergy (Kumbalanghi) or the Carmelite Sacred Heart High School (Aluva). “They must continue to smell daily life and the workers”, says Martien. The state recognises the diplomas of both high schools. The community drinks no alcohol, among other reasons to offer witness against the high degree of drink abuse in the society. Our communities enjoy simple, nutritious and spicy meals taken with the students. The dormitories are very simple.
3. Our students’ life of faith is fundamentally devotional but we familiarise them with a healthy liturgy. They are interested in learning more about “the faith” and to verbalise this is group (sharing).
4. “We can hardly keep pace with the Holy Spirit”. We are an international community of at present thirteen and soon more confraters who know more about this than those who write about it. And it works! Our “mission” now is training and education. For this we need more people. We train the candidates for religious community life, to make them “missionary” priests and brothers rather than parish priests. The relations with the dioceses of Cochin, Verapoli, and Guntur are excellent. The bishops expect us to provide the urgently needed social apostolate. Brother Leonard is working on a social map of Andhra Pradesh. Sacred Heart spirituality, as we now live it, remainsthirthhir current: if you have no heart for the poor, an “option for the poor” remains a ringing cymbal. You could also say that with every addition we give more attention to consolidation and quality. The District directory and training plan are nearly finished.
Q - What are the perspectives in Kerala?
A - This state remains an excellent springboard because of the many vocations. But for the time being we do not plan to build any more houses here. We must not become too Kerali. We do not bind ourselves to pastoral commitments. Even before the noviciate, our candidates go outside Kerala for practical experience with a view to our specific apostolate in the near future. For that matter, there are too many priests and religious in Kerala. If we were to undertake something here, it would not be “official pastoral work” but a new social-pastoral project.
Q - What are the perspectives in Andhra Pradesh?
A - The situation in this larger state (80 million inhabitants; capital: Hyderabad; languages Telugu and Urdu) is comparable with what Father Dehon met in Northern France. Many workers without employment or underpaid, families sometimes far distant, straw huts, drink abuse, fights, many suicides. Sanitary conditions are inadequate and insufficient. Behind the landowners and factory bosses are multinationals. The swift industrial development attracts workers from other provinces. The region around Guntur has, speaking relatively, the greatest death rate due to malaria. Illiteracy and child abuse when joined with drunkenness is alarming. If you throw a stone in the street in Guntur, you will certainly hit a pig, chicken or goat. Your stone will detour around the venerable buffalo. The poor farmers (rice, cotton, cattle and fruit) are victims of the landowners, of alternating hurricanes, floods and drought. Religiosity has been ingrained over the centuries. Every morning at 5 o’clock full throated prayers ascend to Allah, Krishna and God the Father, from the Moslems sharp and severe, from the Hindus giggling and almost seductive and, especially on Sunday, soul and gospel style from some nuns’ convents. Congregations of women religious do good work here in medical, social and educational apostolates. The Jesuits have fifteen provinces in India; the Salesians have seven. Both are actively present in Andhra Pradesh pursuing their respective charisms: free education for the poor and relief and education for the masses of young people. They think the S.C.J. is urgently needed there. Bishop Gali Bali also thinks so. He says, “My priests are not trained for the marginalised masses”. He, like many priests, comes from a higher cast. Yet we should note that Rome has recently appointed several dalits (outcasts) to the office of bishop. This year we start construction in Guntur on a new joint noviciate for candidate brothers and priests intended for the whole District India. The present house in the Kerali Ponnarimangalam is on loan from a congregation of Italian sisters. We will very likely start in Andhra this year with a simple seminary. It is expected that there will be more vocations in this state than in Kerala, where families are becoming smaller. Expansion into Andhra Pradesh is a must because of the great challenges it offers. Moreover, if we become too Kerali, candidates will stop coming from the other provinces. Father General comes on visitation in March. He will then be able to for a suitable impression of our good intentions and of what this needs in terms of support.
Q - Can you keep up this pace? What did your move to India mean for you personally?
A - The congregation should have started in India twenty-five years ago! Without someone like Adri Borst in Rome, it would have been a case of swim of sink in Asia and Eastern Europe. “India” and “The Philippines” can become a stimulus for the whole congregation, not only for “Indonesia”. We must reread the history of the congregation. When as congregation you have said “A”, you must also say “B”: not stay put in Kerala, but become “Indianised”. You have to do more than merely write about “prophetic communities”. Whether we can keep up the tempo depends on:
1. The quality of our community life. Do our local communities give our candidates a positive impression of S.C.J. community life? With daily Eucharist, rediscovered adoration, office, sober lifestyle, sharing? These aspects are current in our groups and seminaries. Our students’ families often attend mass in their parishes, pray the rosary together, say evening prayers. Whoever wants to see our students intensely involved in local popular devotions will also have to translate a choice for the poor into training and practice work. “Medellin” and “Puebla” maintain the South American popular devotion while infusing it with prayer and action for peace and justice. If we do not do something like that here, we will only be exporting cheap, magical, Western rituals to the rest of India.
2. We now number thirteen confraters for a good hundred students. This is a ratio of one to eight. We need more people in various areas.
3. We are taxed with an abundance of programs: two minor seminary programs, two orientation programs, a philosophy program, a noviciate program, a theology program. We need a program for on the job training.
4. Thus we need more, well prepared personnel for training and education.
5. We are gaining momentum, but there is still a lot to do.
6. We must be better prepared in terms of Indian culture, history and languages. The great variety impedes this.
7. The social dimension of our charism especially demands increasing awareness and study, if our efforts are not to be in vain.
We are not growing too swiftly for a congregation of our size and means. Of course, we are moving faster than expected. But plans often have to be adapted to reality. We are moving faster than in any other missions undertaken in the last decades. But we are in India where most religious communities and dioceses grow faster, in terms of the number of priests and religious, than elsewhere in the church. For example, Wim van Paassen held retreats, among other places, in Phirangipuram, in the pre-noviciate of the St. Ann’s Sisters, for thirty-five postulants, and in their noviciate in Nallapadu for thirty novices! The question is not whether we are growing too quickly, but whether we have the desire and strength to invest the people and the finances in an unusual challenge for evangelisation in Asia.
Religious Life-Style: Cars, Alcohol, Smoking, etc…
We cannot simply rely on our experience in our home provinces, which also differ from one another. Over the past thirty years, individual provinces have undergone radical changes in terms of numbers, work, spiritual exercises, motivation, and growth. We remain loyal to them. Here in India we must develop a credible life-style in our own way. In this we are quite successful. This is part of the reason why we have attracted many vocations. The circumstances here have compelled all of us to review our life-style.
When you come here you make, in various ways, a leap. Our main concern is not whether we should buy this or that. It is rather why we should have this or that in our present situation. That is how we approached the question of buying a car in a situation where by far the most people do not have, nor ever will have, a car.
You should see the use of alcohol, cigarettes and cigars in a context where a humble glass of beer or pack of cigarettes every day would cost more than the daily wage of the average labourer, or where the poor quality alcohol leaves destruction in its wake. We want to see our community prayer, which is open to others’ participation, in relation to the widely spread secularisation in the West, where people who seek seriously constantly come here, to the ashrams, for more spirituality. Is one prophetic in the West because of a good Christian life, or is a more radical imitation of Christ needed?
The congregation as a whole should consider itself faced with the extremely difficult challenge of what it means to be credible and prophetic in a materialistic society, where poverty is on the increase, where alcohol and cigarettes devastate the lives of many. In this context, how can we justify a life-style, any life-style? Yes, we have e-mail. Yet not at our impulse or initiative. We do not want to play the know-it-all in this matter. We are simply pleased to share the grace of our mission to and with the poor. In any case, that is what we try to do. Our move to India is much more than merely a geographical relocation. Living with less gives you more.
Q - For which apostolate in India do you seek candidates?
A - By now, you should have clear picture of the situation here. We have prepared several very relevant Indian considerations for the upcoming General Conference in Brasilia. Millions of people here live structurally below the poverty level. Life expectations is sixty-one. Nearly 53% can neither read now write. Our motto is relevant: go among the people! The church should be made to think about its inadequate pastoral training, in which it gives little attention to what Dehon called “the social Kingdom of the Sacred Heart”. Serving justice and human development, spiritual and material, is central for us, especially regarding the poor or Northern India.
In that area there are few priests and religious and no popular devotions. Rather, there is distrust and animosity, not toward Jesus, but toward the churches. Our conclusion: we need fewer prayers and more foot-washing! As “servant of reconciliation” we must become aware of the causes of poverty while trying to eliminate it.
Our candidates must be familiar with our 1999 mission statement. Among other things, we point out there:
- the need to have a Heart for the people for whom we choose, consistent with the congregation;
- our preference for Northern India, with is poor and its marginalized youth;
- the need for a religious community life that does justice to the diversity in India.
This country needs reconciliation: among casts, cultures, religions and rites.
Q - Is there more about the Roman Catholic Church in India?
A - The church, with its 2% of the population, is strikingly strong with its 15.7 million Catholics, many priests and religious, lay leaders in politics and social life. There is a generally positive impression of the church’s presence in schools, hospitals and social assistance to the poor. Hindus, Moslems and Sikhs use them. However, among the fundamentalist Moslems and Hindus there is suspicion and fear that conversion and education will eventually destroy the existing social and economic structure that relies on the cast system with it’s the massive poverty and underdevelopment.
But the church here is very reticent in its public pronouncements ant has done little to arouse the political and civil consciousness of Christians in India. Yet despite this, we need here a counter culture where Jesus is not, in Dehon’s words, a tame sheep or an object of superficial devotion, but a Good Shepherd, who inspires to service, reconciliation and justice. Only because of recent attacks on nuns and priests in Northern India, have some church leaders crawled out of their shell. And only then because the incidents involved their “own people”… But the church hardly dares to speak out on a parish or hierarchical level about the structural injustice of, for example, the casts, the often exorbitant dowries, the arranged marriages. One experience: in “Dehon Vidja Sadhan” one student asked another about his cast of origin (something which seldom occurs). The student put down his knife and fork and said: “I am not ashamed of my cast, whatever it is. But I will not answer your question. The system is unchristian. We are all brother and children of God”.
The church’s pastoral-social activity takes place primarily on micro-level of village, parish or city neighbourhood and is for 98% in the hands of priests and religious. Lay people are a marginalized minority in the church. Bishops do not consider the laity ripe for church responsibility. But they take too little initiative to educate a corps of mature Christian laity. Meetings of superiors have protested to the bishops against the authoritarian behaviour of priests toward sisters and other volunteers in the catechetical and social services.
Another point is the dependence on foreign funds. This leads to excess and a lack of creativity in starting projects. It also nourishes existing distrust toward the church, as if it were a foreign agent. One prelate tries to resist this criticism with the comment that benevolent rain from foreign parts also falls in India.
Among the church’s strong points in India are:
- the percentage of Christians is growing;
- the number of priests and religious is also increasing, despite a light decrease in Kerala;
- there are more social service and other institutions;
- church members are generally loyal to the hierarchy;
- the participate greatly in sacraments and devotions;
- the level of church leadership is the highest in Asia, with as centres Pune, Bangalore and Bombay (Mumbai);
- the Syrian or Thomas Christian especially have higher positions in political and economic life, partly because they belong to a higher cast. But they represent mainly the conservative part of the church;
- the church is most strongly represented among the massive poor.
Weak points in the church are:
- the expressions of faith are often traditional, Mediterranean, devotional, philanthropic without sufficient social dimension;
- there are internal divisions due to casts and rites;
- there is a hierarchical, male and clerical image that coincides too much with the patriarchal society;
- in public debate the church is not able, or not used, to speak with one voice;
- because of involvement in internal problems, its presence in social policy is too weak.
Q - Can you apply this to the church in Kerala?
A - In the 26 dioceses in the state of Kerala, you can speak of a strong church, except in the area of social justice. Noteworthy is the recent jubilee year initiative by the superiors in this province to have every community or convent put some money aside so that hut dwellers in their area, selected by the pastor, can build themselves a house (cost about 60,000 rupees).
Keralis in general consider themselves superior to inhabitants of other states. This is a challenge for educational programs that are now, and will increasingly become, “inter-provincial”.
The division in Syrian and Latin rites originated and is strongest here. Each has its own hierarchy and parochial structure, including seminaries. It is a waste and an irritation.
Although the church is very hierarchical and clericalised, the laity is very militant in the area of, e.g., diocesan planning and parish re-division. Thus some parishes remain with their diocese, although according to territorial division they lie in the territory of another diocese.
Q - Can you apply this to the church in Andra Pradesh?
A - The church here is weaker in numbers and influence, but is growing constantly.
The serious division caused by the cast system is felt in the church (something which is becoming increasingly less problematic in Kerala).
There are many more poor here, with the accompanying phenomena; on the other hand, there is more social action than in Kerala.
Q - How do matters lie in terms of inculturation?
A - In many regards the church here is very Western. After 2000 years it is still seen as a Western religion with bishops that have often been educated in Rome.
Here and there, there is evidence of a beginning inculturation in liturgy, art and music.
There is an Indian rite. Rome forbids it, but bishops give dispensation for convents and seminaries. There you can also find some attempts at “Indianising” church art.
Most Catholics are suspicious about this, because they do not want any “Hindu-like commotion”.
Q - How are relations with “Rome”?
A - “India” has always been an obedient son/daughter. But in recent years opinions on a number of matters have been divided:
1. The synod for Asia closed with the apostolic exhortation Ecclesia in Asia. The pope presented this document on “The Church in Asia” on 7 November 1999 in New Delhi.
a. There is a difference of opinion on evangelisation through primarily a forceful proclamation (pope) or through being there for the poor, as practised by Mother Theresa. Opinions on the pope’s handling of the sensitive situation are divided. Some Catholics do not want any conversion work of baptisms for the time being. They think that living the gospel and selfless service are the best way to be present in this country: less preaching, more service. Mahatma Gandhi and Mother Theresa are the most inspirational icons for all Indians. Their pictures are found in nearly all buildings and homes.
b. There is difference of opinion on jurisdiction. Many people think that many more matters should be able to be decided in Asia, e.g. about the missal, the lectionaries and liturgical books in general.
c. There are also different views on the relationship with the major, non-Christian religions, on the most important christological and ecclesiological themes: how are these people to reach salvation; what is the role of Christ, of the church? Some prominent theologicans were forbidden to speak of publish. This has aroused sharp protest in India and Asia.
2. Different rites. Again, it is not so much a question of the difference in ritual than of distinct church organisations.
If history is active anywhere, then it is here in Kerala and gradually in all India: St. Thomas and in his wake the Syrians of Thomas Christians or St. Francis Xavier, Portuguese, the Latin rite. Foreigners initially have trouble understanding this. So it happened that a Dutch cardinal of the Holy Roman Catholic Church who travelled through Kerala last year and visited the Grand Archbishop of the Syrian rite in Ernakulam, had to be told that it really was essential that he also visit the Latin Archbishop Daniel Acharupurambil. Each has his own cathedral and residence side-be-side in the same city of Ernakulam in the Cochin area. Both have been appointed by the pope, albeit via different procedures (it may be useful to read my separate notes on the Roman Catholic Church in India).
a. In general, the churches in the Syro-Malabar, the Syro-Malankar and the Latin rites are all under the authority of Rome, be it under different Roman congregations. Seen socially, however, their members belong to different casts, they have different socio-economic levels. The Syrian rite Catholics consider themselves raised above those of the Latin rite, with as result one party experiences a sense of being elite and the other feels resentment and jealousy. This makes mutual respect and co-operation difficult and brief. Dialogue and solidarity between higher and lower casts is problematic, even between bishops of these rites. Only a year ago Rome considered it necessary to divide the major seminary in Kerala in a Syrian and Latin campus.
b. As for ecclesiastical matters, there are no essential differences in belief. Rome does not cause difficulties about the Thomas Christian’s or Syrians’ absent “Filioque” (about whether the Holy Spirit does or does not proceed from the Son).
The Syrian united with Rome, in contrast to the Jacobites or Orthodox Syrian, accept the Latin Church’s custom of celibacy. They have their own code of canon law. In Rome they reside under the department for Eastern churches. There are generally allowed to do what they want, to avoid new schisms, given the historical sensitivity.
Within the Syro-Malabar rite here is a discussion between a majority that wants to modernise the liturgy and a minority that wants to return to the original Syrian of Edessa. This last group claims Rome’s support to function as a bridge with Orthodoxy.
Most lay people think that this is carrying matters too far. These are all just clerical discussions for, e.g., pastors who invent sanctions for parishioners who occasionally dare to go to the parish of a Latin “brother in the ministry”. During the international week of prayer, most attention went to prayers for better understanding between the Roman Catholic Syrians and the Latins…
In some Dehon lay groups in Aluva and Cochin, you find Catholics from both the Syrian and Latin rites. That can develop into something beautiful!
Q - Why has SCJ chosen to work only with the Latin rite?
A - We ourselves belong to the Latin rite and church order.
We were insufficiently prepared and knew nothing of the possibilities and advantages of the Syrian rite (more candidates and higher educational and cultural level).
Bishop Kureethara of the Latin diocese of Cochin, who eagerly welcomed us, emphatically advised against working under the Syrians. The patriarch Raul Gonsalves of Goa and cardinal Pimenta of Mumbai advised us against accepting Syrians, “for the sake of unity in your ranks”. There are experiences of religious communities where there is a “marker competition” between Syrians and Latins in the same community and province. The Jesuits and Carmelites have thus established separate Syrian and Latin provinces, with separate seminaries. For a group that is just starting, all this would just add extra complications. The MSC has here a noviciate with seven Syrian candidates for the priesthood.
As SCJ we have had to refuse several young and promising “Syrian” candidates attracted by our social profile. Some confraters deeply regret this situation.
In general we feel more at home among faithful of the Latin rite in terms of our option for the poor. Put simply: we are more in the line of Xavier than of the Thomas Christians, although Syrian Christians contribute much to social programs.
According to the 1999 District-India Mission Statement, we have agreed to look seriously at way to be present among the numerous Syrian Christians and for ways to help heal the ugly wound in the Indian church.
Q - Regarding the so-called love-marriage, arranged marriages, divorces, etc., how do matters stand in terms of the required consent to a marriage?
R - 1. Marriage
An “arranged marriage” is a centuries-old custom in India. Here a family member or trusted friend acts discreetly as go-between to organise a marriage that expects the support of both the partners’ families. These partners hardly know one another. They meet shortly before the wedding while the families negotiate the dowry: a cow, a foreign vacation, a higher and still higher, and sometimes an unreasonably high amount of money. In larger cities and in higher circles, this custom is being abandoned. People are starting to speak of “love marriages”. As for marriages arranged by the families, if the partners do not consent, the wedding does not take place.
The freely given consent (consensus liber) as it is understood in the West, does not exist here. Bride and groom know too little of on another to give a motivated consent. They know something about one another, but only very superficially.
The church offers no opinion. The consent offered is sufficient for the Church’s position that intimacy and friendship are not essential elements of marriage. Furthermore, it is noted that “love marriages” in the West prove more often to be a fiasco.
Some people expect more changes in this area, under the influence of women’s emancipation and the mass media.
There is also a mixed form. A youth can long be in love and intimate with his friend. They wish to marry. They seek someone to arrange matters with both families in terms of the delicate and sometimes intolerable question of dowry.
Dissolution of marriages in a very rare occurrence. In numerous dioceses it has never been requested.
There may be more to say about arranged marriages later.
2. Divorce
In any case, the new couple does not star out with high expectations from their marriage. So, you could say that the disappointments cannot be so great.
Man and wife are ashamed to have it publicly know that they are separating.
A woman, especially, has little hope of contracting a second marriage.
Even in the “Hindu culture” the man is the boss.
Suicide among women - as a result of a “bad marriage”, mistreatment, waste of the painstakingly accumulated dowry - is frequent.
3. Birth control, abortion, euthanasia
In matters of birth control, the traditional teaching of the church is maintained. But the Catholics in India generally chosen for themselves what they want to do.
Little is said about abortion and euthanasia. It doesn’t seem to be a Catholic problem, but abortions undeniably occur.
Q - What can you say about the dialogue between religions?
A - On a higher level and theologically there has been some discussions. The Jesuits, with their bustling ashrams and centres for India-Christian spirituality, have a good reputation in this matter.
On middle and lower levels, matters differ according to where you are. In Kerala there are good relations between Hindus and Christians. Their children visit one another’s schools. The social network in the dioceses of Cochin and Verapoli and the help program against alcohol abuse are open to Hindus and Moslems. In Guntur, Andhra, our students attend a Hindu high school. In general, Christian education is considered highest. Especially on a local level, people profit from social help from the Christians, regardless of their religion. Two Hindus work as cooks in the kitchen at “Dehon Vidja Sadhan”. The students established a children’s choir that includes members from the three major religions. When this house was consecrated last year in March, and more recently at Christmas, they invited hundreds of Hindus and Moslems from the neighbourhood. By no means do all seminaries do this.
In North India, a minority of fundamentalist Hindus persecutes Christians. Now, the propaganda spread by evangelicals from the USA in not always gentle. Not long ago, a bishop done up like a bird of paradise boasted that the church would survive the (Moslem) Taj Mahal by many years.
Some people think he is right, but he have kept quiet. Contact with Moslems is not so obvious. In Aluva we went to congratulate the Moslem neighbours with the end of the Ramadan.
Relations are generally friendly, but distant. Relations between Hindus and Moslems are always tense.
Q - Finally, I discussed a future oriented question with some church leaders and professor: will secularisation overtake India?
A - This question seems to occupy Western foreigners here more than it does Indians. The future is unknown. Who in Western Europe could have predicted in 1950 the changes that occurred later in society in the church? The new diocese of Rotterdam was established in 1956 and it constructed a minor seminary that by 1962 had ceased to function as such. My informants seem to trust that Western secularisation will not easily take root here. They point out that the people of India are deeply religious and are only very gradually growing toward greater prosperity. The high numerical participation in church and devotional life is partly determined by social pressure in villages and neighbourhoods.
The progress in science, technology, provisions and media will certainly and correctly liberate people from a simple fatalism…. Purely external piety that lacks heart will be abandoned, but no dramatic shifts are foreseen.
Bishops and priests mention strong prayer and charismatic groups in their churches, primarily of lay people and including strikingly many students. During the celebrations I noticed conspicuously many young people. God and Jesus are simply a part of their conversation. While the diocesan pastoral centres may be administered and staffed by priests, very many volunteers, especially women (and seminarians) are active in parochial catechesis, particularly with regard to sacraments of initiation and preparation for marriage.
Two important conditions are mentioned with regard to this question.
a. A far-reaching inculturation and Indianisation of liturgy, theology, catechesis, religious and church art is needed. The official pious Mediterranean folklore will have to become more involved in social problems. It remains true that a Hindu is more attracted by a celebrating Catholic with candles, incense, water etc., than by the sober display of some Christian denominations. Hindus and Christian often celebrate Diwali, Christmas and other feasts together.
In the chapel of our major seminary in Aluva, I found a beautiful representation in stained glass of Christ in the lotus position and a tabernacle modelled on the same flower. The paintings in the chapel of the Lourdes hospital in Ernakulam are also worth seeing. In the same context of reasonably successful attempts to Indianise Christian art are St. John’s church in Merhauli, New Delhi, and the chapel in the Vidya-yoti seminary in Bangalore by the well-known symbolist Jyoti Sahu. I had no time to visit the Lotus temple in New Delhi. Yet most of the representations of Christ are syrupy sweet although they have clothed him for the occasion in a dhoti or lunghi. The church buildings in India look like poor imitations of Portuguese baroque and Victorian styles.
b. Another condition for facing oncoming secularisation with confidence is educating believers to share in responsibility on the basis of their baptism and confirmation. Since Rerum Novarum is still a contemporary document here, more attention for the social teaching of the church in all theology programs is very important, especially for our own people. If this is does not happen, all talk of “choosing for the poor” is just that, talk.
A Few Remarks by Way of Conclusion
1. Is India a nation or a loose, permanent confederation of states? Will the adventure India turn out well, with its tempting natural and cultural riches and its many sources of conflict?
2. Is Hinduism with its tendency to consider all elements of creation divine, a religion or socio-economic system of consciously or unconsciously interested parties? Is it a way of life?
3. Catholicism seems to be a Western religion that has never really been able to inculturate without producing serious problems.
a. a Western face;
b. a call to evangelisation that is understandable but which can be misinterpreted;
c. marriage that more closely resembles a contract that a union;
d. a one-track approach to religion, either as sacramentalism or as service.
As for the SCJ here, a tangible cohesion is growing in our whole community in India, as witness our Christmas celebration, retreats and other celebrations.For them, the move to India means a new situating as religious, as SCJ members, regarding their view of themselves, of one another, of lifestyle and of God. The world here - one of a totally different culture, of human tenderness, culture, material shortage, of so many inquisitive and resilient young people - is a challenge that renews. While new establishments are being built, many plans are being made for consolidation and programming in education and training. There is high regard for District superior Martien, who bursts in brightly everywhere, to report that all is working out well.
The real founding phase will only start in a year or so. Then the foreigners that we will always remain can step back in favour of a fine group of Indian confraters, who can “think globally” with the whole SCJ while being free to “act locally” in India as Indian SCJ in Asia. A good transparent communication with a competent general administration is, however, an important precondition. One example relating to an interesting development: a small number of candidates in our seminary told me that they want to become brothers “so that they will mean more to the poor”. Clearly with this they are abandoning a strongly sacramental view of priesthood that we hope will not spread to our areas. But may God grant that no Western confrater tries to influence candidates who seek to become their confraters because this approach does not please them.
As we moved into the third millennium, we commemorated in the concelebration our thanks and the hope, united with the whole congregation, that our future will be even greater than our past in the service of the Kingdom of God. In this light, what our confraters have lived and done in the past five years deserves our respect. The District’s magazine is called the “Mustard Seed”. This worthwhile periodical arrives in several of our houses. Indeed, the image of the mustard seed is eloquent. It grows quickly, harbours promising birds and it revives “the people”.
Brief Historical Notes on the Various Roman Catholic Churches in India
1. The Syro-Malabar Church
This goes back to the Apostle Thomas who, according to tradition, came to India in 53 AD. The church members call themselves the St. Thomas Christians. In 345 AD, the eastern patriarch sent seventy-two Mesopotamian families to Cranganore under the leadership of Thomas of Cana. They originally came from Edessa, on the left bank of the Tigris. Others came from Seleucia and Persia. In any case, by 500 AD, there were Christian communities that went back to the third century. The Syro-Malabar Church is one of the four Eastern churches that have as common element the Old-Syrian tradition.
In the fifteenth century the Portuguese attacked the Malabar coastal area. They, the Inquisition and the Jesuits felt called to force these “remarkable” Syrian to submit to the Latin regime. Matters only went very wrong when the young archbishop Aleixo de Menezes of Goa landed in Cochin with an army in January 1599, ordained 100 priests of his choosing, and summoned a synod that convened on 20 June 1599 in Udiamperur of Djamper. 153 priests participated, among them monks, as did twenty newly ordained deacons and “lay people”. There were also Syrian priests led by their archdeacon, who understood little if any Portuguese. They signed a decree that put an end to the relative independence of their church that was governed by the patriarch of Babylon, resp. Antioch. Msgr. Menezes burned their books in Angamali. This is one of the reasons why there is so little historical data about these first Christians.
According to historians, the Syrians were never against the pope. Their aversion and resistance was directed against Menezes and the Jesuits. For fifty years the Syrians were humiliated and pestered by the Latins. When the few privileges given them during the synod were revoked, they had had eough. On 3 January 1633, a group of Syrians gathered in Mattancherry, near Cochin. They took a solemn oath to drive out the Jesuits, to transfer authority to their archdeacon and to request the patriarch of Antioch to send a bishop. This is the famous oath of Koonan Cross, in and before the Maria church of Mattancherry (worth seeing; Martien lived in the rectory for a while).
The patriarch sent bishop Mar Attali, who on arrival was taken prisoner by the Portuguese and who was burned for heresy in 1654. Three years later an Eastern bishop managed to travel safely to the Malabar Church. Rome reacted by sending many Spanish and Italian missionaries who eagerly began to baptise in the poorer villages.
The Syrians who continued to favour Rome, gathered in the Syro-Malabar Church, while the others stayed away, particularly because of the Portuguese domination. They made contact with the Jacobite patriarch and became Jacobites. Some of the latter were reunited with Rome in 1930. This group became the Syro-Malankar Church, of which I speak below.
A few years earlier, in 1923, after 230 years of Latin domination, Pius XI established the Syro-Malabar hierarchy, with the major archbishop Padiara in Ernakulam (he lives next to the Latin archbishop Daniel. He has his own cathedral and dioceses in Kottayam, Changanachery and Trichur). Since 1950, the Syro-Malabar Church has been expanding over the whole of India. It now number 22 dioceses. John-Paul II granted this Church the status of Major Archdiocesan Church.
2. The Latin Church
The Latin Church in India has its roots in the missionary activities of primarily Portuguese missionaries in the 16th century. The best known is St. Francis Xavier. Leo XIII established the hierarchy in 1886. Since a meeting of the Latin hierarchy in 1988 in Kottayam, they established their own body: “The Catholic Conference of Bishops of India - Latin Rite”; abbreviated CCBI-LR It comprises 18 archbishops and 95 diocesan bishops.
3. The Syro-Malabar Church
When several Syrians reunited with Rome, the other formed the Syro-Malankar Church to establish relations with the old church of Antioch as an independent church community.
Attempts continued to unite with Rome. A small group was successful in 1930. They were recognised as the Malankar Catholic Church. The archbishop lives in Trivandrum. There are three further dioceses. All together there are about 300,000 Malankari Christians. The Non-Catholic Malankaris number three million.
The Malankar Catholic Church follows the Antiochene liturgical and canonical tradition, which goes back to the church in Jerusalem and St. James. Meanwhile, the faithful of this Church have spread over all India.
The Roman-Catholic church in India is thus a community of three separate churches: the Syro-Malabar, the Latin and the Syro-Malankar.
Corresponding to their order and rites, there are three Episcopal conferences:
a. the Syro-Malabar Episcopal conference: 4 archdioceses; 18 Dioceses;
b. the catholic conference of bishops of India (CCBI-LR): 18 archdioceses and 95 dioceses (latin rite);
c. the Syro-Malankar episcopal conference: 1 archbishop; 3 dioceses.
For question of common national interest, there is the national Catholic Bishops Conference of India (CBCI).