The wolf and the Lamb

Delhi Church stories seem to be endless and so are the woes of the faithful too - Administrator

A  nursery class story talk of a wolf which happened to come to drink water from a stream.  Seeing a small lamb drinking water downstream shouted “How you dare to dirty the water I am supposed to drink? The Lamb meekly said “I am downstream and how can I dirty the water above?”The wolf shouted back “How dare you question me?” and jumped on the lamb and killed it.

This story is apt for the Catholic hierarchy and the laity of the church. In the famous Joint Pastoral Letter published jointly by the two Archbishops is parallel to the story above. All the Syrian catholic laity in Delhi were members of the Archdiocese of Delhi from the time of it origin. They were considered as members of the parishes for decades, and many of them were members of parish councils and worked in all the parish organisations. Now they are asked to write an application to the Archbishop of Delhi to permit them if they want to remain as members of the diocese. And then he will send these applications to the Archbishop of Faridabad for consideration. He will decide each case depending upon the pastoral exigencies before they are allowed to be the members of the Archdiocese of Delhi. 

These lay people are all already the members of the parishes of Archdiocese of Delhi. Even Church records will show them as members of Delhi Diocese parishes. We cannot understand what makes the Archbishop of Delhi to ask his existing parish members to write an application to remain in the Archdiocese. What a contradiction of common sense and logic?  Who is to take a decision regarding the life of the members of the Archdiocese of Delhi? Is it the Archbishop of Delhi who is their bishop or the Arch bishop of Faridabad who has no spiritual or emotional connection with these people ever? We can easily understand if the Archbishop of Delhi request for an application from those people who want to leave the diocese and join another diocese. We can understand it if he sent these applications for joining another diocese to The Archbishop o Faridabad for his pastoral exigencies. These pastoral exigencies are only known to him as they are divine secrets known only to the church hierarchy.

Is it a fact that the shepherds of Catholic Church lost their sense of reasoning, logic and above all the human bonding?  Are they not acting like the Wolf and treating the laity as the little sheep? These illogical and illegal actions of the high and mighty are already destroying the unity and divinity of the one and only one Catholic Church. This kind of behaviour of the so called shepherds will destroy the Church itself. We want to be proud of our shepherds. Please, for Christ sake, don’t make us feel ashamed of our church leaders. We, the catholic Laity, are searching in your corridors of power and authority, for a semblance of Christianity (the Christian values), a grain of Catholicism (the openness and oneness), the passion for spirituality (Christ-like), an iota of human connection (the bonding and brotherhood in Christ) and finally a sense of natural justice. We the laity only request you to make us feel proud of you as saintly leaders (as proclaimed Saints) of the only catholic and apostolic church – the mystical body of Christ.

Jose Paul josepaul321@yahoo.co.in