1st May 2014
BACKGROUND: I happened to
see a news item in the Hindustan Times dt 31/3/14 with a statement attributed
to Cardinal Oswald Gracias of Mumbai on the “global survey commissioned by the
Vatican “. The report quoted the
cardinal as saying that “the data from India was not quantified, and only
showed general perceptions.” I immediately
wrote to the Cardinal seeking a clarification, more so since he was one of the
8 handpicked advisors to the Pope, and also the then President of the Catholic
Bishop’s Conference of India (CBCI). My
query was on “unquantified data”, which in itself is an oxymoron, a
contradiction in terms. My letter to the
Cardinal was printed in some Christian journals.
On 1st April I sent a
copy of the Cardinal’s statement and my response to the same, to several
persons on my regular mailing list. On 7th/8th
April I independently received a request from James Kottoor/Bob Kaiser/Rene
Reid to join up with the efforts of “Catholic Church Reform International”
(CCRIL), pertaining to the forthcoming World Synod on the Family, and their
efforts to obtain feedback on the same.
Since we seemed to have common goals I had agreed to co-operate in their
effort. That is a separate matter.
CARDINAL’S RESPONSE:
Cardinal Gracias responded to my letter on 15th April stating
that the Conference of Catholic Bishop’s of India (CCBI- which is the body of
Latin Rite bishops only) had sent the questionnaire to all the dioceses. The responses were collated and sent to
Rome. However in the same letter under
reference the Cardinal also stated that the process of data collection was
still continuing, and forwarded my letter to Bp Lawrence Pius, the Chairman of
the CCBI Family Commission.
VERIFICATION: Somehow the
Cardinal’s letter did not ring true.
Hence, by way of abundant precaution, I sent out a query on the 17th
April, enquiring from my group if they were aware of any Survey on the Family
conducted in their respective dioceses.
RESPONSES: I got responses
from eminent lay leaders all across the country stating that no such Survey had
been conducted. The response came from
people in the following dioceses: Bombay Archdiocese (the Cardinal’s own),
Delhi Archdiocese, Bangalore Archdiocese, Pune Diocese, Ernakulam Archdiocese,
Chennai Archdiocese, Allahabad Diocese, Bareilly Diocese and Meerut
Diocese. I consider these responses
sufficiently representative to state that no Family Survey had been conducted
across the 167 dioceses in the country.
QUALIFYING OBSERVATIONS: One respondent then stated that she had received
a questionnaire in Mumbai, but decided against responding as she found it too
“technical”. I received another response from Pune that some kind of a survey
was responded to by a group of priests of the diocese. It was not circulated among the laity.
FURTHER CORRESPONDENCE:
Based on the responses received till then I again wrote to Cardinal
Gracias on 23rd April, informing him, among other things, that the
feedback indicated that no survey involving the families had been conducted,
and expressing the laity’s disappointment at the same. This letter was circulated to my group on 24th
April. In the interim I received another
response from Mumbai also stating that a questionnaire had been received but
not answered, for reasons similar to what I have already stated. Cardinal Gracias again replied on 24th
April reiterating that the matter has been forwarded to the CCBI (Latin Rite)
Family Commission, and that the Synod Secretariat (in Rome?) was dealing
directly with the Oriental Churches (Syro-Malabar and Syro Malankara Rites)
BOMBAY SURVEY: At about this time we also received information that
the Questionnaire had been put up on the Diocesan website, and published in the
largely circulated diocesan weekly “The Examiner”. Bp Angelo Gracias candidly admitted that there
was not a single response to the Questionnaire!
This raises two very fundamental questions: (ii) Was there a mismatch between
the Questionnaire’s content and the respondents to whom it was addressed? (ii)
Was this a case of deliberate obfuscation?
THE INSIDE STORY: I recently
met a bishop who is a close friend. We
discussed several issues for over an hour.
I asked him about the Questionnaire.
This is what he had to say: He had received the Questionnaire with the
instructions that it had to be replied to in 15 days. The bishop (a very sincere person) declined
for the following reasons: (i) There was not enough time to translate it into
Hindi, the local language, disseminate it, and then collate the response (ii)
Several of the questions relating to homosexuality, same sex marriages etc are
non-issues in India.
On my persistence I was told that
the Family Survey was NOT discussed
by the CBCI (supra-ritual body) during its Plenary Assembly in Palai in
February. However, it was raised by some
Latin Rite bishops at their meeting of the CCBI, but nothing concrete emerged.
CONCLUSION: If several countries like Japan, Germany, England, etc
could conduct the Survey in the stipulated time frame , why was it not done in
India, more so when one of the Pope’s handpicked group of eight advisors is
here, and was at the time heading both the CBCI and CCBI ? Does this not amount to disrespect for Pope
Francis’s stated intentions? Does it
also not amount to betrayal of the aspirations of the laity in India, and its
families who are the Domestic Church?
Has there been a deliberate cover up, to avoid facing embarrassing
questions; and presenting a rosy, but grossly distorted picture, to Rome? Unfortunately, the Catholic Church in India,
and the universal Church, are the poorer for this.
It is worth pointing out that
when the Vatican organizes a Year for Priests or a Year for Faith, then the
entire church apparatus goes into overdrive to organize a yearlong campaign,
with prayer cards etc. However, when something is aimed at the families (laity)
then it is treated much too casually, almost scornfully.
In the circumstances the
enlightened lay leaders of India are left with no option but to organize their
very own National Consultation on Catholic Families, and forward the findings
to Rome, and to empathetic organizations in differed parts of the world like
CCRIL. It is also their duty to expose the fraud and betrayal of the Catholic
hierarchy of India. It would have been one of its best kept secrets, had it not
been for a seemingly innocuous report in the Press, that this writer took up in
right earnest.
DISCLAIMER: The averments made in this report are based on inputs
received from various sources, and believed to be true.
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