Bill Gates & Warren Buffet are atheist and the two greatest philanthropists who have already donated BILLIONS of dollars to various ngo’s & charity groups involved in helping poor christians as well as poor non-christians. It doesn’t matter if Bill Gates & Warren Buffet are atheist because by serving the poor they are serving Jesus. Jesus Christ said “Whatsoever you do to the least of my brothers, that you do unto me”.
Here in Bombay the Catholic Clergy should follow the philanthropic example of Bill Gates & Warren Buffet and utilize church assets, resources, wealth & vacant church properties for the benefit of the bombay lay catholics. Unfortunately the Bombay Catholic clergy have become selfish and greedy and don’t care about the bombay lay catholics this is the reason why many of our poor catholics in bombay have left the catholic church. During Sunday sermons the clergy which includes parish priests, bishops & cardinal preach from the pulpit about poverty and helping the poor with cash and kind which includes housing but the Clergy themselves don’t practice what they preach. HYPOCRISY AT ITS BEST IN THE CHURCH OF BOMBAY!!!!!!!
One Bombay based English newspaper came up with the article ‘EastIndians oppose sale of church land’ the clergy reacted with anger another Bombay based English newspaper came up with the article ‘Church Land Going Going Gone’ the clergy reacted with anger. Just as the catholic clergy have the right to react with anger similarly the catholic parishioners also have a right to react with anger and stop the clergy from selling away church land.
The official weekly magazine of the Archdiocese of Bombay which is available for Rs.10/- is filled with one sided content which gives an impression that whatever the catholic clergy say and do is right it’s a different matter that there is hardly any bombay lay catholic who reads that magazine because the magazine does not have any content in it that will improve the health, wealth, housing of the bombay lay catholics. What we need in Bombay is for some lay catholic group to start a subscription based monthly magazine and provide information on the corrupt activities the clergy are indulging in as well as put content in it that will improve the health, wealth, housing of the bombay lay catholics and make the magazine available through the courier service because the catholic clergy will not allow the sale of this magazine in & around the church premises. As of now most catholics are not internet savvy and information posted on internet may not reach them hence the need for a magazine.
Ask the average Indian what they think of the Christians in India, and you will get the reply -- "peace loving." Dig a little further and you will probably be told that they are a contented lot, who don't easily get agitated or involved in public life. You may also hear that they are not particularly ambitious.
There was a time when the clergy was financially dependent on the contributions of the laity. In turn the laity was dependent on the clergy for spiritual solace. Two factors have changed this bond of mutual love and respect. One partner (the catholic clergy) has become too powerful and dominating, while the other (lay catholics) has correspondingly become more docile. This imbalance is unhealthy.
Prior to Vatican II the clergy and religious lived an ascetic and arduous life. They have since abused the responsible freedom of Vatican II to jettison all forms of asceticism. They have "secularised" themselves in work, thought and dress, even more than the laity who are supposed to live and work in the secular sphere.
With the easy accessibility of foreign funds, dollar mass stipends, money from sale of vacant church properties and mushrooming growth of money-generating institutions, the catholic clergy are now self dependent, leading to self-complacency.
The only other time that the catholic clergy requires the laity is when a priest or missionary has been killed by right wing hindu organizations. Then the laity must come out in vast numbers to support the clergy.
The Church cannot walk on one leg if it seeks to get anywhere. This is precisely what is happening. The clergy and religious are using the laity as a crutch to prop themselves up. This is crippling the church. Both legs must be strong and walk in tandem. Since the laity has been reduced to a peripheral and passive role, it has become increasingly uninvolved in church life. This is evident also in the growing diffidence to Catholic associations, which are or should be the public face of the church in socio-economic, political and media affairs.
What is the vast majority of lay Catholic's involvement in the life and mission of the Church? We are often referred to as Sunday Catholics. Those who are involved in the catechetical ministry refer to it as a petrol-filling station, where you just come to get something, to fill up for the week.
Others sense that catholics are united. This is akin to saying that bodies laid side by side in the graveyard are united, because they don't raise their voices. There is no true unity in the Catholic community which every catholic knows.
First there is the clergy-laity divide, which is widening by the day. Then there is the ethnic divide -- the Malayalees are separate, the Adivasis are in their own cluster, the English speaking don't mingle with the local folks, and so on. This is why, in many urban areas, there are strong associations of Malayalees and adivasis, who have more members and better finances than the cosmopolitan and heterogeneous Catholic associations.
Homogenous groups are comfortable in their own familiar milieu, and don't want others to rock the boat. To add fuel to the fire is the increasing divisiveness of Rites. This particular phenomenon was earlier restricted to Kerala. However, with Malayalees now spread all over India in sizeable numbers, this historical divide has spread like a virus throughout the Church. Unfortunately, its flames have been fanned by the hierarchy and clergy, further dividing a fractured framework. In certain parts of south India, which boasts of being an older Christian community, the caste divide is shamefully rampant. So the image that we see of us is divisiveness.
As per information provided in one newspaper, only 25% percent of Catholic children and youth (between the ages of three to 21 years) are actually studying in Catholic institutions. This is a startling figure, which the bishops of India are unable to face. The harsh reality is that three out of four Catholic children are not in Catholic institutions.
The Catholic Missionaries, Caritas, Catholic Relief Services & other Catholic social welfare services operating in India are not catering to the needs of poor and deprived Catholics instead they are catering to the needs of poor Non-Catholics with an intent to convert them.
Just as India is a country of many hues, so is the Catholic community that is spread out from Kashmir to Kanyakumari, and Gujarat to Arunachal.
GOD'S OWN COUNTRY, KERALA: Described as God's own country, it was the first place in India where Christianity was established in apostolic times. Today Kerala accounts for more than two-thirds of the number of personnel joining seminaries and missionary groups. Whether it is clergymen or nurses, the image of Kerala Christians is that of assimilation and hard-work on the one hand, and a tendency to be CLANNISH on the other.
Moving up the coast from Kerala comes MANGALORE or South Canara. An important aspect of Mangalorean Christians is that they too remained rooted in their local culture and language. Their attitudes are influenced by the Kerala Christians to their south, and their northern neighbours, the Goans.
GOA, WHERE HISTORY HAS BEEN FAR FROM IDYLLIC: Goa today is projected as an idyllic destination for honeymooners, and an ideal place for setting up pharmaceutical, cosmetics and software industries. But the history of the Church in Goa has been far from idyllic. Because of Portuguese repression, and limited opportunities, Goans were among the first Indian Catholics to migrate to other parts of the country in substantial numbers.
THE NORTH, A POTPOURRI OF MANY PEOPLES: This vast expanse, in ecclesiastical terms, covers the entire non-tribal regions of north, central and western India. It is a potpourri of many peoples, with just small pockets of local Catholics. The Church in north India is a Church of outsiders. The first migrants to the north were the Goans, followed by the Tamilians. There were of course the Anglo-Indians, who have since migrated in large numbers to Canada and Australia. Today the major groups that form the bulk of the Church are the Malayalees and the adivasis. There are hardly any local vocations to the priesthood and religious life. Ahmedabad in Gujarat is the first diocese to have a local bishop. All the others are either Malayalees, Mangaloreans or a remnant of Goans.
One the WEST of Maharashtra are the EastIndian Christians (or North Konkan Christians or Salsette Christians) who have been devastated by the Land Acquisition Policy…..The Land Acquisition Policy which the British Raj invented & carried forward by the State Governments has ruined and displaced many communities across India that includes the East Indians. From human security angle, displacement involves ‘impoverishment risk’ the common elements of which are: “landlessness, joblessness, homelessness, marginalization, food insecurity, increased morbidity and mortality, loss of common property assets, and social disarticulation”……East Indians are the only large Christian community in India who are indigenous to a metropolis. Being sons of the soil they find themselves strangers in their own lands. All their ancestral lands in Bombay are acquired and their houses in the gaothans are ruined. For want of money their children cannot get higher education, and for want of higher education, they cannot get better jobs……..Some of the East Indians who were unable to maintain their dilapidated houses and gave away their properties to corrupt mafia backed builders for redevelopment are now living in penury. Small time builders with political connections, conned the East Indian bungalow owners, with the connivance of the local administration and constructed repair permission houses which have leakage, monsoonal problems and walls as thin as papers. At the moment Repair Permission is passe now towers are coming up, within the same Gaothan infrastructure, whatever is being done in widening the drainage, roads or laying of new water pipelines is not for the old residents but for the new residents who will move into these towers. The construction of these towers has resulted in water shortage in gaothans. Most of the political giants in Bombay are builders by default we all know it only the paper thin walls don't know it…. The Roman Catholic Church in Bombay did nothing to help the east indians....the Church has no political will.. it only believes in numbers and head counts at the Sunday Mass. So this is it, the EastIndian community, is a peaceful quiet community, controlled under duress, a few leaders but all rubber stamp type.. the only fire and brimstone is during the sermons in the Church. Peace Marches happen, Candle light marches happen but the East Indian lives in darkness.
Few practical suggestions for improving the economic conditions of Catholics in India :
1. The Lay Catholic Associations should be the public face and spokesperson of the Church in all socio economic and political affairs. Catholic associations and sabhas must become more active and representative of their people. Bishops and clergy must "let go" of domination in temporal affairs. It is not enough to pay lip service to the role of the laity. The hierarchy must humble itself to actively encourage the leadership of the laity.
2. We need many more Catholic historians. As it is said, those who are ignorant of history are bound to repeat its mistakes. Those who know history, including Church history, can be conscience keepers, to guard against repetition of the same.
3. We need many more journalists in the print and electronic media, and especially in the vernacular press.
4. We need parish priests who are selected & elected by local catholic parishioners and not by the Bishops house. Only those parish priests should be selected & elected who have indepth knowledge of Bible, current affairs, environment who are good, humble & honest who will disclose how church funds are utilized in parish bulletins who will disclose the vacant church properties in possession of the church in parish bulletins who will utilize vacant church properties for the housing needs of poor christians who will not refuse admission to children of poor christians in parish schools who will be prepared to lead from the front who will be prepared to take up the problems faced by the lay christians with the goverment, muncipality, etc.
5. We need reservations in central/state government undertakings, municipality, banks, etc.
6. We need nomination of special representatives from the catholic community in the Indian Parliament & State Legislative Assemblies.
7. We need to put up our people to contest Lok sabha, Assembly and Muncipal/Corporator elections. Ofcourse winning elections is not possible because of our small numbers but that is not the issue the issue is to make catholics politically active.
8. We need 50% seats in catholic institutions including convent/catholic schools reserved for catholics.
9. We need to encourage the Catholic youth to work towards becoming IAS-IPS officers, Doctors, Lawyers, Engineers, etc and not just call center workers or hotel workers.
10. We need to provide some of our people who are addicted to alcohol with free anti-alcohol medicines.
11. We need to utilize the parish halls not just for some wedding functions or parties but also for political meetings.
Heart wrenching poverty, potholed roads, traffic jams, overcrowded trains, encroachment of mangroves-openspaces-saltpanlands, inadequate water supply, overflowing gutters, garbage, an all pervading stink, increasing slums, stress & frustration due to poor management. Who is to be blamed ????? Ofcourse the Politicians in rural & backward districts of India who neither care about strictly enforcing the two child policy and who neither care about improving infrastructure, electricity, water network, road network, telecommunications, industries & job opportunities as a result the people from the rural & backward districts of India are left with no option but to migrate into Bombay & other cities of India for job opportunities and to improve their standard of living but in the process they end up crowding the cities and not only make their lives miserable but also the lives of others.
Corruption breeds crime in India. Recently a Politician in Maharashtra has demanded from the Central govt. to pass law giving death penalty to those who are involved in milk adulteration. Can this Politician also demand death penalty to those politicians & sarkari babus who are involved in corrupt activities ????
People come...People go...Life goes on. Amen.
Gabriel D'souza
Bombay.
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