By Varghese Alengaden

Indore, June 18, 2022: Two recent articles speak of how Hindutva forces easily trap bishops, priests and nuns by exploiting their ignorance.

Jesuit Father Vincent Perappaden wrote about the conclave organized by the BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) Minority Morcha in Kerala for Catholic priests and nuns and another article by Nirmala Carvalho highlighted Bishop Thomas Dabre of Poona defending the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the umbrella body of Hindu nationalist groups.

Ever since Narendra Modi came to power with absolute majority in 2014 many Catholics – lay people, bishops, priests and nuns — started praising the new prime minister and speaking ill of the Congress party.

After Modi won the 2014 parliament election some Catholic bishops remarked during private conversations, “Congress party has made a mess of the country. Look at the corruption. Now let us give them (BJP) a chance.” I told them, “BJP will remain in power under Modi at least for the next 15 years. They are going to capture the majority of the states.” I had closely observed how Hindu nationalist group had followed a well-focused strategy and plan for several years.

I suggested to a prominent bishop, “It is important for us to have a paradigm shift in our missionary approach by preparing a new strategy and action plan to deal with the new challenges.”

He promised to discuss with other bishops and get back to me. Later I came to know that all bishops of the region unanimously said, “There is no need for any such a strategy now.”

Attacks against Muslims and Christians have intensified since the BJP came to power under Modi. However, the Church leaders have not initiated any steps to prevent and resolve the crisis the Church faces almost daily.

The United Christian Forum, an ecumenical group, recorded 505 incidents of such attacks in 2021 and 107 in the first five months of this year. However, the routine Church meetings at the local and national levels hardly discuss the sociopolitical context of India.

Instead, the Church spends much time organizing routine retreats, chapters and other conferences with little discussion about the threats and dangers the priests and religious face in their mission both in cities and villages. Most Church leaders were either indifferent or ignorant when the saintly and prophetic Jesuit priest – Father Stan Swami – was arrested or when he died in custody.

I have been crisscrossing the county for more than 40 years to conduct seminars, retreats and chapter animation for priests and religious. Whenever I asked them, “How many of you read the newspaper daily?” hardly five to six percent put up their hands. Asked about reading articles on the editorial page just one or two responded positively.

Most priests and nuns have no knowledge of the communal violence that took place all over India after the demolition of Babri Masjid in 1992 or the massacre of thousands of Muslims in Gujarat in 2002.

The Church in India has always been indifferent to such tragedies. It was indifferent even when Christians were killed and Church institutions and houses of ordinary Christians were burned and destroyed in Kandhamal, Odisha, in 2008.

I have warned the Church personnel through my seminars and writings to not be complacent. Don’t be surprised if one day the churches in Goa were demolished. If Babri Masjid (mosque) could be demolished and the demand for mosques in Varanasi, Mathura and other places in India become louder, what would stop the forces from demanding the demolition of Goa churches that they allege were built after destroying Hindu temples during the Portuguese rule?

Christians and their leaders in Goa had fallen into the BJP trap during the state assembly elections. Do they regret it now?

Socializing with the RSS and BJP leaders by some priests and bishops does not save the Church.

Bishops, priests, nuns and some lay people feel happy when invited to meetings organized by the BJP and other Hindutva organizations. But they are ignorant of the Hindu groups’ ideology and strategies. Have the bishops and priests who praise the ideologies and friendship of RSS studied and analyzed their strategy? How many have read M S Golwalkar and Veer Savarkar to find out the ideology and strategy of RSS and Hindu organizations?

We always get disappointed when we address different groups of priests and Religious and ask them if they knew about ‘Sangh Parivar” and the RSS. Very few of them have heard about them.

Over the past 30 years we have conducted Christocentric leadership retreats and training programs for bishops, priests and religious who are in leadership positions to create awareness of the sociopolitical realities and help them prepare new strategies and action plans in the fast changing sociopolitical scenario.

The content of these sessions were based on these questions: ‘What would Jesus do if he were here? What is the mind of Christ? What is the heart of Christ?’ The entire program was to explain about the solution which Christ had suggested to the problems of all times: “Put the new wine in new wineskin.”

Priests, nuns and lay leaders rush to programs organized by RSS, BJP and other Hindutva organisations. The attraction is that these meetings are organized in five star hotels and they get the opportunity to take photographs with politicians and ministers. With all innocence, or rather foolishness, they share their telephone numbers, email and other personal details which the organizers use to trap them further.

These bishops, priests and religious fail to recognize the “wolves in sheep’s clothing.” They fail to follow the teaching of Christ ‘to be innocent like doves and cunning like serpents.’

Many principals who make excuses of lack of time to participate in sessions about practical value education and mentoring the youth are prompt in making time for an ‘education tour’ sponsored by book publishers. The attraction is that it is conducted in five star resorts in India or overseas.

The reason for the deterioration of spiritual values in the Church is due to drifting away from the way of Christ. The poverty of leadership, lack of clarity of vision, spiritual and intellectual bankruptcy of the Church personnel and leaders are due to the absence of contemplation (Dhyan Marg). Bishops, priests and religious who do daily chores (Karama Marg) feel complacent with the time they spend for rituals and various kinds of devotions. (Bhakti Marg).

Contemplation needs content. This content will be available from serious reading of books, articles, news of current issues. Information gathered and knowledge acquired should become content for contemplation (Dhyan Marg) which would make a person a Karma Yogi and visionary leader with spirituality.

Such people will be prophetic in their life and actions. They do not sell their souls under any circumstance. They always call a spade a spade to uphold truth. Today both the Church and country lack such leaders.

Beware of the traps being prepared by political parties, fundamentalists, market forces and ‘hired shepherds’ within the Church.

(Father Varghese Alengaden is the founder director of Indore-based Universal Solidarity Movement that strives to create a new India based on the values in the Indian Constitution. Father Alengaden has been working among young people of India for several decades.)