By Matters India Reporter
New Delhi, Oct. 30, 2021: Catholics in India seem overjoyed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has invited Pope Francis to visit the country.
Prime Minister Modi met the Pope in the morning of October 30 at the Vatican and the Indian leader invited the Pope to visit the country. The meeting scheduled for 20 minutes reportedly lasted nearly an hour.
“We are confident that this meeting will result in a better understanding and a deeper mutual respect between the Church and government,” says press statement the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India issued later in the day.
The bishops noted that the two leaders had “very pleasant and a warm meeting” where they exchanged “meaningful gifts.”
The prime minister gave the Pope a silver candelabra and a book, The Climate Climb: India’s strategy, actions and achievements. The Pope gave Modi a collection of his main teachings and a bronze medallion featuring a tree and the words in Italian “The desert will become a garden.”
Meanwhile the bishops of Kerala hailed the invitation to the Pope as commendable and “a matter of great joy for all Indians, especially Christians.” The whole world looks at the pope as the voice of spirituality and humanity and the decision to invite him to India will enhance India’s image among the nations, says a press statement from the Kerala Catholic Bishops’ Council (KCBC).
The papal visit, the Kerala bishops say, will enhance brotherhood and cooperation in India’s multicultural society.
Capuchin Father Suresh Mathew, editor of Indian Currents, a leading Catholic weekly, wants Christian leaders in India to shed diplomacy and express their concern for religious freedom and protection of human rights. Father Mathew wants Christians in India to become faithful to Jesus’ teachings and redefine the Church’s mission against “the backdrop of the sociopolitical changes” in India during the past seven and half years.
The editor of the Church weekly says Modi’s “courtesy call” could be exploited for electoral advantage by Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party in Goa and Manipur, among the five states where assembly elections are due in early 2022.
Father Maria Stephen, the public relations officer of the archdiocese of Bhopal, too thinks that the BJP could exploit the meeting for electoral advantage. The nation looks forward to the “courtesy call” to impact on religious freedom, change in sociopolitical scenario where Christians have become “soft targets.”
John Dayal, spokesperson of the All India Catholic Union, expressed the hope the papal visit “will materialize early next year.” The lay leader noted that the Pope had told Modi “politely that countries prosper if there is good governance assuring the rights and welfare of the common people.”
Jesuit social activist Irudhaya Jothi sees the invitation as “very shrewd” move and part of the global corporate agenda of the Indian leader and his advisers. “Apparently the Church will be excited in the centers but the periphery will as usual be going through the daily dose of annihilation,” warns the Jesuit who now works in the northeastern state of Tripura.
Father Ajay Kumar Singh, an activist in the eastern Indian state Odisha, views the Modi-Pope meeting an important event in the backdrop of large scale violence against Christians in India. The visit will give the Pope “firsthand experience of the ground realities of Christians in India.” Father Singh warns that the papal visit could provide the BJP “a foothold in northeastern India and other parts of the country with substantial Christian presence.”
Joseph Sodder of the Association of Concerned Catholics, a lay movement, wants the papal visit to lead “to better ties and a change for the better.” The lay leader, a lawyer, too wants the Pope to visit India in the near future.
Divine Word Father Babu Joseph, a former CBCI spokesperson, says the Pope-Modi meeting will go down in history as “a momentous occasion that will prompt a perceptible change in relations between India and the institution of the Church.” The meeting, he adds, “promises a better appreciation of the Church led service delivery systems in India that have done immense good to this country’s progress trajectory.”
Capuchin Father Thomas Sebastian, former President of Vignananilayam, College of Philosophy and Theology, at Janampet in Andhra Pradesh says, “If something good comes out it instead of political gain, well and good.”
Father K M Sojan, an Indian Camillus priest serving in Uganda, sees the meeting as part of diplomatic relationship apparently to appease the minority Christian community in India. “I don’t, right now, expect anything positive will happen due to this meeting, only because it is Modi,” who has given “plenty of promises that have remained mere promises.”
John Mathews, a lay leader in Ahmedabad, hopes the prime minister will not let the invitation to remain a “formality” but “really proves the strong leadership by addressing the concerns of the Christian community in our great country.”
Ingrid Rosario, the former headmistress of Ahmedabad’s St. Xavier’s School, Loyola Hall, views the invitation as a good gesture that sends a message of good will. The visit will boost ecumenism and prove that Christians are peace loving people, who are open to others, she says.
Angeleena Mantosh Jaslani, the first woman president of Catholic Association of Bengal, really hopes the Pope would take “the invite and comes to India. West Bengal should be on his visit as it is the city of our mother.”
Father Faustine Lobo, the spokesperson of the Church in Karnataka, welcomed the meeting and Modi’s invitation to the Pope. “We will cooperate with the government in hosting” the Pope, said the priest, who remarked that the prime minister could have consulted the Church heads in India before going to Rome.
“We hope this invitation is not just to New Delhi as a political guest, but to the Catholic community as a recognition of what the Church has contributed to India,” he added.
Archbishop Kuriakose Bharanikulangara of Faridabad says India has been waiting for the Pope’s visit for a long time. The meeting and invitation will help improve the relationship of the Catholic community and the government,” said the archbishop, a former Vatican diplomat.
Bishop Antony Prince Panengaden of Adilabad says the Pope’s visit “will be an occasion of blessing for India and it will be a historic moment.”
Father Abin Kunnapalli, assistant priest of St Francis of Assisi Church, Dilshad Garden, recalled his personal meeting with the Pope in 2019 and expressing Indian Catholics’ eager waiting for the papal visit. “The Pope replied that he is also eagerly waiting to visit India, but need to get an invitation from Prime Minister Modi,” the priest told Matters India.