James Kottoor
I never thought I was
throwing a stone in a hornets’ nest, when I tried to answer Roshan Francis’
request to clarify his confusion on Bishop/Archbishop issue surrounding
Delhi/Faridabad Eparchy. Today – had been out of station -- I find
Almayasabdam humming with too much activity. As long as civilized language is
used I support and encourage any amount of sparring and discussion, which helps
us to learn a lot from everyone else.
This is what Francis
Pappa told his fellow bishops, when some one told him Bishops fear that their
honest views might offend him. NO he told them sternly. Instead he wanted them
to speak out boldly, bluntly but also listen with humility to learn. So
questions like cohabitation, gay-marriages, admitting divorced to communion etc
are discussed freely, openly. Nay the tacit instruction to all is, not to use
any more judgemental phrases like homosexuality instead of the civilized ‘gay-unions’, living in sin instead of co-habitation etc.
As for spirited debate
in Almaya, I too fully admit, discussion on honorific titles like Bishops with
or without Arch is silly, trivial, puerile and fit only for immature, puny
minds. But honestly it was news to me when Team Rite wrote: “SM Eparchy carries
his name as “Archbishop of Delhi-Faridabad Eparchy” in fund collecting
literature, when the name “Faridabad” was given clearly to distinguish it from
“Delhi”. If this report is true, I fail miserably to understand how such an
oversight could have happened on the part the Bishop of Faridabad. At the same
time, it also shows how a discussion even on this silly topic has actually lead
us to a profound, howling error and blunder which ought to be corrected
instantly. Personally I hope such misleading letter heads, if any, would
disappear forthwith.
No Admiration Lost
This does not in any way
diminish my admiration for Bishop Kuriakose, for answering my email promptly
and giving interviews to secular papers imitating Pope Francis. I have been
requesting, encouraging and pleading with bishops I love and admire to do this
for years. Unfortunately no one has deigned to take my unsolicited advice
seriously. For example, starting last December (2013) a one month campaign led
by writers in Almaya – some signed by 18 persons – to the Triumvir of Bishops
in Ernakulam to get a vertical dialogue started, failed to get even an
acknowledgement from Cardinal and other bishops, except for a solitary response
to me from Bp. Puthur which I published here.
When returning
from US last year, the vocal sections of the SMC in USA requested me to act as
their messenger or post man to carry their repeated petitions and memorandums
to the CMC hierarchy for which they could not get even an
acknowledgement. I obliged them willingly, distributed the copies to all three
bishops, even went to Kakkanad and discussed their issues for one hour with
Bishop Putur, who subsequently graciously sent a letter of acknowledgement to
Thomas Koovalloor in New York. Their piercing complaint was they could always
get a reply in one week from Latin Bishops in US while it was impossible to get
any from CM Bishops in Kerala.
Now friends of Almaya in
Chennai write saying they have given up writing to Bishops and Nuncios because
none of them ever reply. Please see: Chennai CM laity Write to Nuncio, published
below. Still all Bishops wax eloquent on dialogue, dialogue, dialogue ad nausea
and perpetually indulge in monologue. This is double talk. At the Rome Synod
Bishops dialogue with all and on all topics but refuse to do it at diocesan
level, where the rule enforced seems to be: “pray, pay and obey” not
dialogue to reach consensus.This must be corrected at any cost.
Kalarical’s View
I believe this is
what prompted writer and scholar Chacko Kalarical to call Bp. Kuriacose one of
the best CM bishops although some of his critics may like to understand it as
“Best among the Worst CMC Bishops.” But I am inclined to agree fully with
Kalarickal that we in the Alamyasabdam very much need Bishops like
Bharanikulangara ready to acknowledge mails and discuss issues with us.
Without such persons how can there be any vertical dialogue, any
connection between the much maligned hierarchical church, also called the
Institutional Church which has long past its “sell-by-date” or “shell life” and
the wayfaring Church of the voiceless faithful trudging the dusty road of
salvation history.
The first is also known
as the Church of Glory (Eclesia Gloriae) with all its
triumphalism, royal splendour and honorific titles. The second is called the
Domestic Church or the Church
of the Cross (Eclesia
Crucis) of sinners, drunkards, drug addicts, publicans, prostitutes,
divorced, lesbians etc. It is this kind of a vivisection of the Church of Jesus
who came to save the lost, last, least, marginalised and crushed under on the peripheries
as Samaritans and sinners on one side, and on the other, the church of the
so-called, selected, elected, sanctified and glorified, that Pope Francis and
the on going Rome Synod is trying to wipe out. To do this we need any number of
Bishops like Bharanikulangara, who are ready to dialogue and speak out.
Speaking out sometimes can mean speaking rot, or stupid things in the case of
all of us due to our “brokenness” from which even the best of us are not
exempt, as highlighted in the on going synod.
As for the Joined
Pastoral (JP) to the SM Church citizens, I have already written too much in
addition to what appeared in secular press. According to reports the
enforcement of the JP is kept in abeyance while the discussion continues. On
this the only thing I wish to hear from the signatories of the JP is a clear
YES or NO to the following question to clear my confusion: “Do they still
subscribe to the crucial sentence and Para which says: “From the day the
Eparchy of Faridabad was created in 2012 all the Syro-Malabar faithful once
pastorally cared for by the Archdiocese of Delhi have automatically become part of the Eparchy which has been
exclusively created for them. Basically,
there is no choice in this matter.” If they do, I can find no meaning when the
Eparch of Faridabad unilaterally talks about or offers all sorts of freedoms
and readiness to accommodate.
For me
offering freedoms enumerated in the interview has meaning only when this part
of the JP stands cancelled or the authors of the JP withdraws the JP issued
without the consent of Church Citizens who are of age to decide on their
religious and moral practice. It is the mark of the wise to change views (Mutare
consilium EST sapientis). Even the wisest among us make mistakes, also the
so-called infalible.Don’t we? So more strength to open discussion till true
light dawns on all of us.
jkottoor@asianetindia.com,
Mob.9446219203
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