By Don Aguiar

Mumbai, Jan 21, 2022: When a society denies human rights to some of its people it introduces a corruption that will rot its way through other people and institutions. Equally where corruption of any kind spreads it will soon eat away at human rights. Human rights are sometimes seen as a list of entitlements that governments and religious must defend by law and regulation. That certainly is part of the story.

But to think to some purpose about rights we need to set them in the broader framework of human relationships and so of what it means to be human. The starting point is the conviction that each human being is precious and unique. They have an innate dignity by virtue of being human. It is not given by law, earned by good behavior or lost by illegal behavior.

The indifference of the Church leadership in naming the crime, failing to reach out to the victims, the lack of transparency, apparent irresponsibility and lack of accountability in the sex abuse case of a priest, ended in the conviction and life imprisonment of the accused in December 2021, are painful and deeply distressing that the sincerity of the Church’s leadership was not manifested in its handling, a corruption that has rot.

Another case that attracted international attention concluded on January 14 when the court in the southern Indian state of Kerala acquitted Bishop Franco Mulakkal of Jalandhar of charges of rape, unnatural sex and harassment. This case too draws our attention to the hierarchy’s response to complaints.

The complaints knocked on several doors including the Vatican nuncio, bishops, a cardinal and bishops’ conference seeking assistance but only received silence as a response. The synodal call of mutual listening is a joke when one considers the Church hierarchy’s stance to abuse children and women.

In the Mumbai case the hierarchy violated all three: it failed to report the case to the police, the victim was not assisted to get justice, and the victim was grilled alone by the hierarchy’s investigation team for eight hours.

So what would Jesus have done in a situation like this? Did the cardinal ask this question to himself? The tragedy with our religious people is that they forget that their primary vocation and duty of being a priest is to bring their flock closer to Jesus. If the cardinal had acted swiftly, prudently, siding with the truth, he could have saved the priest from prison and also given justice to the “wounded son” and his distraught mother.

We are living in the times of Counterfeit Christianity and the Church is teaching their own to adjust in their sin rather than reprimanding them, teaching them to confess and forsake their wrong ways.

The hierarchy’s handling of these cases was not different from the past cases in India. It raises questions about the sincerity of Indian Church leaders, who have promised “zero tolerance” of clerical abuse. The deplorable apathy comes despite leaders’ vocal determination to stamp out clergy abuse.

Church leaders are meant to transmit the healing touch of Christ to the wounded and suffering. Instead Church authority’s reputedly extended support to the accused while the abused minor was subjected to a grueling interview, all alone, as if he was the guilty one.

You have to understand the politics of position and power. Why do the hierarchy go on insisting that they will continue to remain insincere to their promised “zero tolerance” of clerical abuse? Although they cannot rationally support their behavior, the question of reason does not arise. They quote the holy book Bible to support their behavior as they preach– Christ himself practiced the same.

So it is not a question of argument or discussion when the Bible is misinterpreted and taken out of context to suit their needs. You are interfering in their religious thought process (or rather religious misinterpretation process) – it is a question of religion of the king and the subjects….

Politics should have been kept far away from religious institutes. The right wing and the hierarchy have mostly misused the rational intellect as their political tool to water their ideology, to reach masses, a dangerous method which has now become a tradition and in some way has led to the polarization of the Indian nation and the hierarchy.

The mixture of religion and politics has caused adultery in the purity of secularism and the broader framework of human relationship / rights.

When politics and religion are combined, it leads to compromises, even when things are holy from either side. Let alone the fact that Indian politics and the hierarchy are rather a ruler above religion. And the right wing has been a real nuisance in politicking with religion.

Horrifying speeches delivered by Hindu nationalists during a religious conference held in December 2021, when leaders issued direct calls for genocide against Muslims. Inciting violence is a crime in India, but Pandey and the other speakers remain free. The police are supposed to be investigating but have been very slow to act — since they know full well these leaders have the protection of the ruling political class.

As the German poet and playwright Bertolt Brecht wrote – The first time it was reported that our friends were being butchered there was a cry of horror. Then a hundred were butchered. But when a thousand were butchered and there was no end to the butchery, a blanket of silence spread. When evil-doing comes like falling rain, nobody calls out ‘stop!

What is happening in India where the top hierarchy fails to repudiate acts of sexual violence on the community’s children and women? Where unnatural sexual acts are performed on women and children in the dwellings of the clergy/hierarchy? What is happening in India, where calls for genocide and ethnic cleansing are a centerpiece of our political debates? Where the Hindu nationalist who assassinated Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, a global symbol of nonviolent resistance, is glorified by national leaders.

What is happening in India, where the majority Hindu community fails to repudiate acts of terror unleashed in its name? Where Muslims are lynched on the streets, where Christmas celebrations are attacked. What is happening in India, where law enforcement is more likely to investigate journalists over tweets and the sons of critical public figures over alleged marijuana possession, than go after fanatics calling for mass murder?

The answer is as loud and clear as the hate spewed at those events or the indifferent behavior of the hierarchy, as the mobs/clergy that have been given a free pass to attack minorities, women and children.

Not only does the Prime Minister’s top hierarchy’s silence give encouragement to the most dangerous elements threatening India, but the silence of our allies is also enabling them. The Prime Minister and top hierarchy has cultivated this type of hate/silence for decades. We know what’s happening in India now. I fear what will come next.

Which take us to – Karl Popper theory of paradox of confusion. It states that if a society is tolerant without limits, their ability to be tolerant will eventually be seized or destroyed by the intolerant. Popper came to the seemingly paradoxical conclusion that in order to maintain a tolerant society, the society must be intolerant to intolerance.

But in India most people don’t think, they just follow the chain.