Vatican Official Notes Decreasing Missionary Spirit In Indian Church
June 8, 2007
BANGALORE, India (UCAN) -- A Vatican official and other Church people say the missionary spirit in the Indian Church has been declining, but an effective evangelization way to help reverse the trend is life witnessing.
At a colloquium held May 28-31 in Bangalore, southern India, Father Theodore Mascarenhas, who heads the Asia Desk at the Pontifical Council for Culture, offered this view. "Many priests and religious have conveniently forgotten their basic missionary vocation," the Vatican-based priest said.
Several Catholic missioners have no time for missionary work, he also said, because they get so "immersed" in establishing schools, colleges, hospitals and "business complexes," buildings that are let out to shops and offices.
According to Father Mascarenhas, a member of the Goa-based Society of Pilar, the "main threat" to the Church is "from within," and several participants told UCA News they agree with this assertion.
Tony D'Mello, a lay leader from Vasai diocese in western India, said today's missioners lack a "living role model." In the past, he noted, "we had several missioners from abroad who were burning with the passion of Christ. That is why we are Christians today."
In the layman's view, Protestant Churches in India attract more people than the Catholic Church because "our priests and nuns have hardly any time for missionary work." D'Mello also observed that most Church workers are now involved in schools, colleges, hospitals and other institutions.
Father Lawrence Lakra of Rourkela diocese in eastern India said that many young priests and nuns at first actually opt for missionary work. However, they begin doing education, social and health care services and eventually "get stuck as managers and directors" of the institutions in which they work.
Father Joseph Puthenpurackal, a Salesian from Shillong in northeastern India, said Catholic missioners are now more "conscious about what others say about them than what they are supposed to do."
The Church "cannot exist in isolation, but only in dialogue with others," the 68-year-old priest asserted. Being missionary, he said, does not mean "only preaching or converting people, but introducing Jesus to others." Even so, he said that he agrees "many of our institutions are closed to real evangelization" and engage only in educational and health services.
According to Father Chinnappa Sebastian, some Church-managed schools in his region of West Bengal in eastern India even refuse to teach catechism to their Catholic students, on grounds that most students are of other faiths. "What use is it to call them Catholic institutions when they do not spread Christian values?" asked the priest, who directs Baruipur diocese's Board of Education.
Father Mascarenhas later told UCA News the Church must not run schools if it cannot witness and give the message of Christ to students and parents. He said the message of Christ is love, and this cannot be negated "by any group."
He advised the colloquium participants, "Give love, preach love and be love yourselves, wherever you are." Stressing that the most powerful tool for "evangelization is witnessing," he said, "We should proclaim Jesus by our lives in schools, colleges and health centers if we want to call them Christian institutions."
The recent colloquium came in the wake of the 2006 Asian Mission Congress held in Chiang Mai, Thailand. The Office of Evangelization of the Federation of Asian Bishops' Conferences (FABC) organized the meeting in Bangalore, along with the Commission for Proclamation of the Conference of Catholic Bishops in India. The conference comprises Latin-rite bishops.
Reproduced by Konkani Catholics with permission from UCAN (www.ucanews.com)
