By chhotebhai
Varanasi, Feb 22, 2023: The need for a Synodal Church and secular society was stressed at a meeting organized by the Indian Catholic Forum (ICF), an informal platform of like-minded persons concerned about the renewal of the Church and nation building.
As many as 30 delegates, including seven priests, attended the February 17-18 meeting on Synodality and Secularism at Anjali, the provincialate of the Indian Missionary Society in the northern Indian city of Varanasi.
Shortly after Pope Francis announced the Synod on Synodality the ICF conducted an exhaustive online survey on people’s expectations from the same. The findings were collated and published as “The Pulse of the People.” The report was sent to the Synod Secretariat in Rome, the Catholic media and the bishops of India.
The meeting came up with a five-point Varanasi Declaration that endorsed the recommendations made earlier in an online survey.
They included – improving the functioning of parish councils and finance committees, lay involvement in the selection of bishops who should be transferable every ten years, the establishment of Grievance Cells and Arbitration Boards in every diocese, a more humane and pastoral approach to family planning as espoused by the Church in India Seminar of 1969, a non-condemnatory approach to abortion, ordination of women and married persons.
The participants pledged to create awareness of these issues in their areas of influence.
The declaration asserted that the teachings of Vatican II, its ecclesiology and social praxis are central to synodality. Hence the forum plans to launch a YouTube channel or website to propagate these ideas and values. It will task a special media cell with this work.
The meeting stressed a strong commitment to ecumenism, inter-religious dialogue, and inculturation of our religious expressions as the focus of the forum’s activities at all levels.
The participants stressed efforts at promoting a secular society. “We must educate people on the dangers of the anti-conversion laws and those who propagate them, by creating a counter narrative through the media,” they added.
The meeting called for a special thrust for women’s equality in both church and society beginning with greater participation of women in all forum activities.
The forum met after a gap of four years because its two earlier gatherings at Kottayam in 2020 and Bengaluru in 2021 had to be abandoned because of Covid-19.
The meeting began with the forum convener, chhotebhai, giving a brief report on its functioning since the last meeting in Kolkata in 2019. His paper on Vatican II teachings as central to synodality contrasted the ecclesiology of the pre and post Vatican II Church.
Swami Anildev, an IMS priest of Matridham Ashram, spoke on the centrality of Jesus to synodality. “If we prayerfully reflect on Jesus’ life we find him to be a totally synodal person. He lived among the people, listened to them and stood by them. He was constantly surrounded by people and sensed their feelings.”
Father Amaldev regretted that the Church has lost sight of Jesus as it is too busy cutting ribbons and becoming flower vases. He said like Pope John XXIII who opened the windows through Vatican II, Pope Francis has opened the doors for the laity through synodality.
Swami Sachidananda, a former atheist air force officer who encountered Jesus after an air crash, regretted that the Church in India lacks an Indian face. “The nascent Church had a Jewish face that later developed into a Roman and Greek one. This was followed by the Colonial Face and then the Commercial face. It was time to rediscover the spiritual genius of Indian spirituality and evolve a truly Indian face, rooted in the local language and culture,” he asserted.
Lucile Kuriakose presented a paper on the Status of Women in the Church. There was gender equality in the beginning of creation. It was gradually suppressed by a male dominated society. She observed that in the New Testament while Jesus’ male disciples deserted him, the women stood by the cross.
She advocated ordination for women and married persons, as there was no theological reason to deny this. There was also a need for the Church to change its rigid stance on Natural Family Planning.
Father Sunil Francis Rozario, former editor of The Herald, Kolkata, dwelt on the role of the media in promoting synodality. He said that Pope Francis had to rely on the secular media to express his thoughts as the official Vatican media was inadequate. Tragically, the Pope seemed to be walking the path of synodality all alone.
From Synodality the focus shifted to secularism that was under severe threat in the country.
Isaac Gomes, a lay leader from Kolkata, analyzed how various state governments enacted anti-conversion laws euphemistically referred to as “Freedom of Religion Acts,” beginning with Orissa in 1967.
Some of these laws, he explained, place the onus of proving one’s innocence on the accused, the person involved in alleged conversion.
M L Satyan’s paper on the Threat to Secularism recalled that the 42nd Amendment to the Constitution, in 1976 declared India to be a secular nation. The Hindutva agenda of “India only for the Hindus,” with one language and one culture is striking at the root of secularism and needs to be addressed socially and politically, he said.
John Shilshi, a former Additional Director General of Police, native to Manipur state, explained how Christian majority states in northeastern India such as Meghalaya, Mizoram and Nagaland, now have either BJP governments or those in alliance with it; something that Christians living in other parts of the country find difficult to digest.
Shilshi identified the following key reasons for the BJP’s success in the region: Infrastructure development, improved security, the China threat on the one hand and on the other, the materialistic mindset of the public, blatant misuse of money power, the inability of the Christian leadership to assume the moral high ground, and the lack of cooperation among various sister churches that are invariably competing with each other.
In the last session four priests from Mysore diocese, led by Father Gnana Prakash, presented an account of their struggle for justice against Bishop K.A. William who faces allegations of murder, kidnapping, sexual offences, and other serious offences.
After a four-year struggle, in early January Propaganda Fide ordered the bishop to go on leave of absence and appointed an apostolic administrator. However, the bishop continues to call the shots, planning his comeback.
The participants have demanded that the errant bishop undergo the paternity test as ordered by the Vatican, following strict legal procedures. In the interim he should not be permitted to reside in the geographical territory of the diocese, nor should he have access to diocesan funds.