The previous speaker was asked to present a bird’s eye view; but the topic given to me is so vast that it would require a wide-angle lens to cover it! Nevertheless, here goes. I will attempt an analysis of the six key words – North India – Catholic – Journalism – Challenges – Concerns – Scope. We need contextualising for, as the old adage goes, “A text without a context is a pretext”.

North India: My first premise is that North India (NI) controls the rest of India politically. Unfortunately the Catholic presence in what is called the cow belt is abysmally low. My second premise is that though there is a large Muslim presence in U.P., Bihar and the Kashmir Valley, this vast region is distinctly Hindu. It is here that the major Hindu epics like the Ramayana and Mahabharat are based. They impact the NI psyche. We need to keep this in mind when looking at Catholic journalism here.

Catholics: We are in the historic city of Agra, in the shadow of Akbar’s Church (built circa 1599). At that time there were 1000 Catholics in Agra. Begum Sumroo of Sardhana, who was also baptized in this church in the 18th century, had 2000 Catholics in her fiefdom. By that count there should have been hundreds of thousands of Catholics in these places today. It hasn’t happened. I have with me Catholic Directories dating back to 1902. They show large-scale apostasy. Where have all the flowers gone?

The church here is a migrant, transplanted one; not a Local Church as envisaged by Vatican II. The miniscule local populace feels like strangers in their own land. The church is highly institutionalized, where individuals don’t count. It has become insular and isolated, not inserted and integrated. Though our institutions began as services to the poor, the rich soon commandeered them. Now they are the breeding grounds for an aspirational Middle Class, the type that wants Modi, Malls and MNCs.

The church suffers from the problem of plenty – too many priests, bishops, dioceses, religious, institutions and money. In Ignatian spirituality we may say that our strength has become our weakness.

If the church itself is rootless and weak, both numerically and sociologically; any attempt at journalism, without first taking its own people on board, is a recipe for disaster. It makes me wonder aloud, “Does the Catholic hierarchy actually want an enlightened (and therefore empowered) laity?” My former experience as the National President of the All India Catholic Union makes me say that the answer is a firm “No”.

Journalism: Here I again wonder, do we have journalists who happen to be Catholic, or Catholics who happen to be journalists? Going by the number of journalists that are actually committed to the church I daresay that most of them are journalists who just happen to be Catholics. That bodes ill. Now let us examine the types of Catholic journals we have. I would put them in four categories.

The first are what I would term vehicles of parochial propaganda – diocesan magazines with the “Shepherd’s Voice”, parish bulletins, and pious journals. They flourish. The second category is hierarchically controlled journals that will only publish “good news”. There is no room for dissent or critical awareness. They too flourish among the sheep, the “cattle class’, to borrow from Shashi Tharoor.

The third are relatively independent secular oriented journals like “Indian Currents” published from Delhi. It languishes in comparison to the other categories. But I would single it out as the only Catholic journal in NI that seems to have an impact on both the life of the church, and society at large. It has an excellent array of writers and social analysts. Unfortunately, because of its “serious” nature it is grossly lacking in advertising support, which in turn, affects its print quality. Nevertheless, for all its constraints, it is one journal that needs all our support. Its readership also seems limited to priests and religious, that too of a particular ethnic group. It needs to increase its subscriber base among the laity as also non-Christians.

Recently the Catholic bishops have launched a Hindi tabloid “Buland Prajatantra” (vibrant democracy), and they seem quite enthused about it. Not me. Firstly, the name is skewed. It is a mix of Urdu and Hindi. The word “praja” is anathema in a modern democracy, as it means “subjects of a king”. The journal also seems to suffer from an identity crisis. It is so secular that it ends up having nothing “Catholic” about it; other than the 40 bishops who are funding it. I do hope that they will have a course correction.

Fourthly, there are lay owned autonomous journals, in which I would like to give pride of place to “The Secular Citizen” of Mumbai. As its owner/ publisher Lawrence Coelho says, if he thinks about the finances he would go mad; so he doesn’t think of money at all. For him it is a passion, a mission, and it shows.

Catholic journals should try to strike a balance between being too parochial or too secular. They should not fight shy of criticism, dissent or even controversy.

Challenges: As I earlier said, one cannot view Catholic journals in isolation. Hence I see the foremost challenge is for the church itself to become a truly Local Church, with primacy to the local language, culture and leadership, both lay and clerical. Without a strong base we cannot dream of upper storeys. My experience of the last 40 years, as a Christian who boldly wears a wooden rosary and crucifix, and is involved in all kinds of secular affairs, there is no need to feel ashamed or apologetic about one’s Christian identity. If we are committed Christians, and authentic Indians, it shows; as there is no dichotomy between the two.

Concerns: There was a happy couple that had sorted out its concerns. The husband handled major concerns like nuclear disarmament, global warming, communalism, corruption, blah blah blah. The wife handled minor concerns like the household budget, the childrens’ education, health etc. She was infact in control of the situation, of which her husband was merely concerned. In management we are taught to increase our areas of control, and our areas of concern will decrease proportionately.

What are our areas of control? Firstly, the pulpit; the largest captive audience in the world. It can be used for effective communication. Then there are our institutions. There is nothing Christian about teaching Maths and Geography, or attaining 99.9 percent results. It is no use having all these institutions if we cannot use them to propagate Christian and human values. Let us capitalize on what we have instead of being like Martha whom the Lord reprimanded for being “concerned about many things”.

Scope: There is immense scope for Catholic journalism in NI, if we follow the steps that I have tried to identify. Then we should identify our target group and go in for niche marketing. Wheel, Rin and Surf are all manufactured by the same company. But it has identified the different users, and targeted them accordingly.

We also need to bear in mind that with the advent of the electronic media and constant breaking news, readers are suffering from an attention span deficit. Hence our articles and headlines should be catchy. We need more authentic or original writing. I often come across articles that are obviously “googled.” They are second hand and therefore third rate. Then there are readers’ interests that may not necessarily be the same as that of our bishop “promoters”. And let’s not get too serious. Give us a judicious mix of light and heavy stuff, sweet and sour.

I would conclude by saying that many of us good Catholics may be comfortable with our mediocrity and anonymity. But the good is the enemy of the great. If we seek to make Catholic journalism in NI truly impacting then we need to ascend the dizzying heights of greatness, with all its attendant risks.

(Based on a presentation at the North India Convention of the Indian Catholic Press Association held at Agra on September 28)