What should we protest? Part 1 – Jose Paul (Delhi)

Our Church Leaders must protest. But on what? Agnes of God? Pure blood Christianity? Tearing the mystical body of Christ? The Church Act on property? Shall we do it together as the one and only mystical body of Christ?

It has become a fashion for all religious heads and leaders of religions to raise their voice against any posters, stories, poems, pictures, cartoons, plays, movies, books etc l which they perceive as  against their feelings and beliefs of their own religion. They make a lot of noise, organize public meetings, burn effigies, and request the government to ban the above items. In this process, they are giving free publicity and attention to the thing which the very same people don’t want the public to know. Many of the plays and movies become houseful because of the free publicity they get by these protestors’ actions. Some books become bestsellers only because of the controversies created by these people.

In all religions, we believe that God is omnipresent and all powerful. We believe that God look after the universe and everything in it. We believe that He is the protector of everything and everyone. Unfortunately, the so called official leaders of all the religions believe that God is to be protected by the strength and positions of power these people enjoy due to their wealth and human resource. They are not spiritual or religious people in the core of their hearts. They are mere administrators of the wealth and managers of manpower which is in their custody. They only want to sustain and maintain their own powerful position among the religious followers and in the society at large

None of these proud religious leaders are concerned about faith in God, religion, spirituality or the lives of followers of their religion. They are just like kapp panchayat to their followers.  Before going to protest or request for ban for their perceived threat from outside, they would have taken concrete steps to spiritualise their own religious organisations. They should go out of the way to cleanse their own organizations.

In the case of Hindu community, lots of changes have taken place due to governmental action as in the case of Sati, untouchability etc. But as a religious entity, the religious priests and leaders have not done much in the case of the practice of sati, widow remarriage, child marriage, caste disparity, untouchability, dowry system etc. These are touching the lives of people of that religion. Most of these are unjust and inhuman practices. The Govt is trying to stop these practices. Many religious leaders are also helping the govt. At the same time we hear a number of the so called pseudo leaders of the religion who also have no genuine spirituality openly support the above evils and create rivalry between different castes and different religious groups. Though there are many women sanyasinies, the community is mostly controlled by men of upper caste.  More of gender equality is required.

In the case of Muslim community, in spite of the fact that modernity is slowly entering into the community, a number injustices and evil practices are prevalent even today. Polygamy for men, divorce by talak, Women in Pardha, alimony for the divorced wife, gender inequality are some of the areas the religious leaders of the community has to actively consider and take action instead of coming out with illegal fataws on people for their individual actions.

In the case of Christian Community, the catholic community is the biggest in India. So we may concentrate on that community. Since I am a catholic, I am more concerned about my community. We appreciate the voluminous and extensive work in the field of Education, health and social work being done by the catholic hierarchy and the convents  for the society at large. The Catholic Church includes all the hierarchical people (cardinals, archbishops, bishops we have 170 of them in India) then the priests, Sisters and lay members of the Church. All these together form the mystical body of Christ or Catholic Church. This is the theological description of the church. But in practical life of the Catholic Church in India, means really the Hierarchy. The laity in the Catholic Church is leg soldiers of the hierarchy. The movable and immovable property of the community of Catholics is in the hands of the hierarchy. But almost every bit of it is contributed by the lay people. The hierarchy has the ownership of the material Church. Then there are priests to help them. Many of these priests are wonderful people. But their main mandate is to be a connection between the hierarchy and the people. They have to make sure that the people are kept happy, obedient, and submissive to the hierarchy in spiritual matters and at the same time to help the hierarchy to grow in wealth, power and popularity. Then there are sisters in convents. They are supposed to be the people, to pray, to serve, to be absolutely obedient and subservient to the priests and the hierarchy and do the major part of the Christian charity, education and social work.

Basically they are two churches in the Catholic Church. One is the hierarchy and the priests who own and manage the material Church where the lay people are mere outcasts. The second is the hierarchy along with the Lay people who live as the followers of Christ (the mystical body of Christ). The lay people have only spiritual membership and they have only obligations and responsibility of obedience to the hierarchy. The lay people have no right in the management of the material church or religious matters, though their names are in the Church register as members. The hierarchy is the owner of the visible (material) church and the lay people are members of the invisible divine church.

The hierarchy possesses the exorbitant wealth, which is fundamentally belonging to the community. The hierarchy twists the rules of the church so that ownership of the material wealth is absolutely in the hands of the Hierarchy. Every Church and the Immovable property of all the churches are registered in the name of the Bishop of that place. Is it moral? Is it Legal? Can we call it justice? Can we call it dacoity?  Is it not time that the members of the hierarchy realize that this is against any form of spirituality of Jesus Christ. Is it not necessary that the Hierarchy also internalize and practice the teachings of Christ or also the laws of the nation they belong to?  Is it not time that the hierarchy become more a part of the mystical body of Christ and hand over most of the material Church under the administration of the laity?

Some of the top leaders of the hierarchy request the Govt to ban a play saying that it is against the Catholic faith and that the reputation of the thousands of celibate priests and nuns will be tarnished. They believe that any hurt to them is a hurt to Jesus. So they are going to save Jesus and the Church from any form of injustice and humiliation. Nobody is suggesting that we should not protest or not ask for ban or anything. The question is when do we protest?  What do we protest?  Whom are we protecting? Jesus Christ? He is God and He protects us. He is omnipresent, omnipotent. We need His protection. We are not capable of protecting whom we believe as God. Jesus does not need your protection from any outside forces.

Before we try to protect our Jesus from outside enemy, He is asking us protect ourselves and our Church from enemies from within.


In a second part of this articles, some aspects of protection that we the church needs from within are examined – editor

You may also like...

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.