By Jacob Peenikaparambil

Indore: The Church urgently requires new solutions and responses to challenges it faces in India, asserts a Catholic priest, who has tried to develop enlightened leadership, responsible citizenship, and harmony among religions and ethnic groups for the past four decades.

“If you let the past control you, you will have no future,” Father Varghese Alengaden, founder director of the Indore-based Universal Solidarity Movement, warmed 110 priests and Religious of Indore diocese attending an online seminar.

The January 9 webinar was organized at the initiative of Bishop Chacko Thottumarickal of Indore. The Divine Word prelate welcomed all participants and the speaker.

By citing various proofs Father Alengaden pointed out that the Hindutva Rashtra (nation) has already become a reality under the rule of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the minorities have been reduced to the level of second class citizens.

In his one and half hours address, the priest highlighted the internal and external challenges faced by the Church in India in its mission, the most important being the hostile Hindutva forces and an unfriendly government.

The Church also suffers from declining credibility or trust deficit mainly because of its internal problems and scandals. According to him, the root cause is drifting away from the way of Jesus. The consecrated women and men are called by God ‘to become prophets to the nations and conscience of society.’ They are called to bear fruits that are lasting by being prophetic voices and involving in prophetic actions, he added.

Father Alengaden started his talk by challenging the participants to introspect on the effectiveness of more than 160,000 priests and religious with their infrastructure and wealth on the Indian society.

Why is the Church at the receiving end despite having about 60,000 educational institutions with about 50 million students and their 100 million parents,? Why doesn’t any of the students or alumni of the huge educational network come forward when the Church personnel and institutions are attacked by the extremist groups?

The rich and the middle class, including a large majority of the students of our schools, are already brainwashed with the hate filled exclusive and discriminatory Hindutva ideology, Father Alengaden alleged.

The priest stressed the need for new solutions the Church and its people urgently need to meet the new challenges in India.

“Put the new wine into the new wineskins,” he said quoting from the Bible.

As a solution he appealed to the participants to ask themselves, “If Jesus were here today what he would do?” Returning to the way of Christ is the ultimate solution, he said.

Some responses he proposes are:

• Become the light and the salt by being proactively involved in the issues of the people
• Adopt transparent and participatory approach
• Stop frequent and routine transfers of Church personnel in view of building sustainable relationship with people, especially in the context of increasing opposition
• Become sensitive to the religious and cultural sentiments of the people
• Practice round-the-clock hospitality
• Develop personal spirituality through self-discipline and self-education
• Make use education ministry for building leaders with character and competence and who are committed to the values of Indian Constitution.