By Thomas Scaria
Bengaluru, Nov 7, 2022: The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI) on November 7 started their 35th general body meeting with the inaugural Mass presided over by Apostolic Nuncio Archbishop Leopoldo Girelli at St John’s National Academy of Health Science in Bengaluru.
The nuncio also delivered the opening address on the same day.
The opening session saw CBCI president Cardinal Oswald Gracias giving the presidential address, and secretary general Archbishop Felix Machado presenting the report of the past four years.
The general body, the apex body of the Church in India, is addressing the theme, “Communion, Participation and Mission of the Catholic Church in India,” during the November 6-11 plenary.
More than 200 active and 64 retired bishops from l74 dioceses are attending the meet along with secretaries of the various CBCI offices.
The prelates will “introspect the efforts of the Church in India, as to how to journey together in order to collaborate in the nation building,” said a press release from the CBCI secretariat.
The CBCI office bearers met the press on November 6 to explain the dynamics of the program.
Although the bishops usually meet every two years, they could not come together for the past four years because of the Covid-19 and subsequent nationwide lockdowns.
Their last meeting was February 2-9, 2018, at the same venue, with the theme “I am with you always, even to the end of the ages.” As many as 184 bishops attended the last meeting.
The CBCI represents approximately 22 million Catholics in India belonging to Latin, Syro-Malabar and Syro-Malankara Churches.
The Church in India dates back to 52 AD, when Apostle Saint Thomas, arrives on the Malabar Coast to preach the gospel.
Archbishop Machado told the press conference that the Church in India has been involved in “Nation building as an integrated community” of the country and it continues to do so.
“Today, the Catholic Church in India runs over 54,000 educational institutions, which impart education to nearly 60 million children and youth, and over 20,000 hospitals, clinics, dispensaries and other health care centers,” added the archbishop, who heads the Vasai diocese in Maharashtra state.
The Church is also involved in disaster and calamity relief as well as social work and it assists the poor in remote areas of the country through more than 60,000 priests and brothers, 125,000 nuns and thousands of people.
The bishops are also to discuss on the theme of “Synodality: The Call to be a Synodal Church. “ All the dioceses in the country have gone through the process of discussing Synodality from the grassroots level, the CBCI claims.
New ways have been discussed and are being implemented as to how all sections of the parish and diocese can be involved in walking together for one mission of Christ. Workshops too will be held which will give rise to the final statement of the Assembly where the Bishops will strive to implement in the coming two years.
Synodality with whom, black sheep like Franco Mulakkal and K.A. William? They must have funded the whole event! Recently Cardinal George Allencherry was seen on the altar/stage from which Pope Francis presided over the open-air public mass in Bahrain? Yet Cardinal George sought exemption from personal appearance (in the land scam case) from the Kerala High Court on the excuse of old age and his being busy in multifarious duties! The court did not grant it.
These are my spontaneous thoughts/questions that came to my mind while I read this report:
1) What has the Catholic Church achieved so far in the thematic areas of Communion, Participation and Mission?
2) Communion with whom?
3) Participation in what?
4) What type of mission?
5) It is time for the Catholic Church to introspect about what has it done in the past, doing at present and will do in future towards “nation building”? Through the church-run educational institutions, hospitals and social service centres what has been the church’s concrete contributions?
6) Has the church exercised it’s prophetic role of challenging the pro-corporate and anti-poor government?
7) The Catholic Church, in many ways, still remains like a “frog in the well”, living in its “imaginative world” unaffected by the burning issues of the country.
8) Have the Nuncio, CBCI/CCBI taken stern initiatives to challenge the erring members like Franco (Jalandhar), William (Mysuru) and many other priests entangled in the clerical sex abuses and corruption?
9) The presence of 64 retired bishops is a surprise to me. What is their role in this meeting? Will any of them make constructive contribution to this meeting? if so, in what way?
In reality, meetings of this type are held just for the sake of “formality”. Nothing else! Jesus, his message and mission are secondary for these prelates. We need to accept this bitter truth.
Synodality is being reduced to a farce. Ease first make public the national synthesis submitted to the Vatican.