What are given below are the thoughts of an
ordinary lay person who has no expertise in civil, criminal and canon laws. The
only asset of the person is the understanding of the moral laws of human
society and the social norms to be followed by humans in their interactions and
also a clear conscience. If some of the thoughts are wrong according to
anybody, please forgive.
What is typed in bold italic is the full
text of the Joint Pastoral letter. What are typed in underline are
the repeated sentences in the JPL. What are typed in as normal as
this are the comments on the different aspects of the J.P.L
Jose Paul (Delhi)
Jose Paul (Delhi)
The Joint Pastoral Letter By Archbishop Anil J T Couto, The Metropolitan
Archbishop of Delhi & Archbishop Mar Kuriakose Bharanikulangara, Bishop of
Faridabad Eparchy
To all the Clergy, Religious and Lay Faithful in the
Archdiocese of Delhi and the Eparch of Faridabad.
It is a matter of great joy in the Holy Spirit that
the Syro-Malabar Eparchy of Faridabad has now been erected from March 2012 and
the clergy and faithful who were once entrusted to
the pastoral care of the Archdiocese of
Delhi of are now under the jurisdiction
of the Eparchy. The creation of this Eparchy is an
expression of the pastoral solicitude of His Holiness Pope emeritus Benedict
XVI and the realisation of a cherished dream of the Syro- Malabar Church.
Your statement that “It is a matter of
great joy that the Syro-Malabar Eparchy of Faridabad has now been erected from
March 2012” and that this creation of this Eparchy is the realisation of
Cherished dream of the Syro-Malabar Church” is 100% true. Yes, it was joyful
for the Hierarchy of Syro-Malabar Church in Kerala. Whether Holy Spirit was
happy about this or not is not for us to conclude. He can never be happy in
tearing the mystical body of Christ, The Church. Poor Pope Emeritus Benedict
XVI in reality was forced by tremendous
pressure from influential and vested interests to take an administrative
decision in this regard. This is not a matter of faith to be infallible in
decisions. Are human beings a commodity or property of somebody to be entrusted
to the care of another and taken back when they feel so? No wonder that you
call them sheep and as such human beings are for you a commodity and can be
bought and sold or given for safe keep as in a bank locker.
The sentence that “the clergy and faithful
who were once entrusted to the pastoral care of the Archdiocese of Delhi are
now under the jurisdiction of the Eparchy” has been repeated three times in
this letter.
Some people believe that a lie when
repeated a number of times will take the shade of truth. In the eyes of God and
true believers, a truth is always a truth and a lie is always a lie. Keralites
from all over Kerala, irrespective of their religion, have left that part of
the country looking for livelihood from times immemorial. For generations on,
Kerala Catholics ( Syrians and Latins) were going to every part of the world to
work for their livelihood. Quite a lot of us had come to Delhi. When we left
Kerala, none of us went to the Syrian Hierarchy asking them to request the
Latin Churches to accept us and take care of our spiritual needs (safe keep for
heaven). The Syrian Hierarchy never cared about any spiritual needs of anyone
anywhere outside Kerala. The Syro- Malabar church is meant to be a church in
that part of the country (Malabr) as its name suggest. In Kerala, we don’t know
what spiritual needs they cared for the Catholic Church except to compete
between the Syrian and Latin Churches in Kerala to build more and more church
buildings, Schools, colleges, orphanages, Hospitals, professional colleges and
so on.
There is no single documented evidence to
show that any of the Syrian Dioceses requested the Delhi Archdiocese to take
care of the Syrian born clergy and lay people from Kerala.
We the Syrian and Latin Catholics who came
to Delhi were accepted as Catholic church of the Archdiocese of Delhi (For that
matter all the churches of the North of India accepted any catholic as catholic).
None of us even once felt any segregation as Syrians or Latins even though we
remained as Syrians in the Catholic Church. All of us lived together, worked
together, and prayed together. The Catholic Laity had one Vincent De Paul
Society, one Legion of Mary, One friends of Mary and one pastoral council in
each church. The Syrians and latin laity participated in all activities of the
church and parish councils as the
parishners of the church. The Youth of the Catholic community had one Youth
Association and one Jesus Youth, recollections, retreats and night vigils as
one Catholic family. Our children had one catechism class for all catholic
children. Thus we believed in one Jesus and one catholic church, in one faith..
The church considered us as members of the
parish without any discrimination and we considered this church as our
parishes. We don’t believe that we contaminated the church or the church was
contaminated by us. We were members of
the parish and not orphans taken care by the benovalence of the church. As parishners, we have contributed spiritually,
emotionally, socially, physically and financially for the spiritual growth of
the community and building of a number of church buildings and also for the maintenance
and up-keep of the churches, cemeteries and seminaries as integral part of this
congregation.
The Second Para. “Since, apart from the creation of
the Eparchy of Faridabad for the faithful Syro-Malabar Church with its
territorial demarcation and the appointment of its Bishop there was no other
information given to the faithful.
You have neither given any information to
the Laity about the developments taking place in the secrecy of the clerical domain.
As a matter of fact you were hiding these developments which affect the life of
the laity spiritually, emotionally and socially. I may add it will affect the
life of the laity even financially. You have never consulted with the laity
about the desirability of all these circuses with any open scientific survey
from the laity. On Sundays, on the pulpit, you will exhort that the church is
not the clergy; it is the community of the faithful. When we hear the Sunday exhortations
about the oneness of the church, the mystical body of Christ, we do not know
what to think of meaningless words being thrown out through the mike. You must be ashamed of the words you speak
from the pulpit and also the words you have written in this JPL about the unity
and love of Jesus.
We, being your Shepherds, thought it opportune to
share with you some information that you need to keep in mind for the purpose
of deepening our communion and help each other to be a witnessing community of
the Lord in our respective places. Especially, in this year of Faith, it is
intended that the faith that we have received from our ancestors be
strengthened and our common witness of faith may be better manifested in the
modern world. It is our ardent with that through ecclesial communion between
different Sui Iuris (Autonomous) Churches, we may be able to render better
witnessing to our Christian faith in our country.
We would like to let you know that the poor
sheep expected from the two great shepherds of Catholic Church in the country
some information regarding the spiritual upliftment of the faithful. This
paragraph and the next two paragraphs are hollow platitudes of common witness
of faith to our country, ecclesial communion. This is equivalent to Devil
quoting Bible in order to attain his ulterior motives. Every word in these
paragraphs are words or love and care which proves to be hollow as the small
but operative part of your whole joint letter is devilish division of the
mystical body of Christ.
Teachings of the Church. The second Vatican Council of
which we celebrated the 50th anniversary last year stressed the
splendour of the unity in diversity of the Catholic Church recognizing the
multiplicity of the undivided Church (Luman Gentium 23). It also emphasized the
equality of various ecclesial traditions in the Catholic Church to be preserved
and fostered as a common heritage of the undivided Universal Church. Every
faithful therefore has an obligation to retain one’s own rite and follow it to
the best of one’s ability. (Orientalium Ecclesiarum 4) The establishment of the
Eparchy of Faridabad is another step to strengthen the unity and foster harmony
between different sui iuris Churches.
Further justifications for tearing the
mystical body of Christ into pieces. The second Vatican council 50 years ago
stressed the splendour of unity in diversity and multiplicity of the churches
in order to protect the church that it may not be broken into pieces due to
some prelates of the sui luris churches.
It is in the mind of Holy Mother Church that each member
of a sui iuris Church should practice their own tradition and rite, when there
is a possibility for doing so. (Who says so?)
Where there was no particular Orient structure for the Syro-Malabar faithful available
in Delhi, the Archbishop of Delhi had been
looking after their spiritual and pastoral
needs envisaged in the Code of Canon Law (CIC 383/2).
Now Holy See has established an Eparchy for syro-Malabar Catholics who live in
the northern part of the country, including the area that comprises the
Archdiocese of Delhi. Hence the Syro- Malabar Catholics have a right and duty
to avail of the ministry of this new Eparchy for all the sacraments, in
particular Baptism and Marriage. Nonetheless, the faithful of any sui iuris
church are certainly welcome to participate actively in the liturgical
celebrations in any other sui iuris church. Our faith must be practiced in
peace and serenity and without any tension.
The mind of the mother church (clergy) can
be interpreted by anybody (again clergy) in anyway according to the vested
interest of any concerned party. The clergy are clever enough to quote the
Canon Law numbers and also words like “ sui iuris” “Luman Gentinum 23”
“Orientalium Ecclesiarum 4” which many of the lay people won’t understand. They
are right. There are many catholic lay people who blindly believe that the
clergy are the ultimate in spiritually and divinity and all these words are God’s
words. Jesus himself has said “Man is not for Sabath and Sabath is for man” He
clearly said that the laws are made for the comfort of man and man is not made
for the comfort of the law”. When he went and asked the Sameritan lady for
drinking water and when he cured the blind man on a sabath day, He showed
clearly that the church should stand for the people and not bent and breaks
them for the sake of organised church laws which are only administrative and
authoritarian in nature.
If any of the eccliastical authorities feel
that they should have a new set up, go ahead and have it. Get as many people as
possible who want to join such a new set up. Nobody objects to it. Wish every
success to this attempt and also to the new members that joined this group. But
joining this group must be voluntary. It cannot be forced. Catholic Church is
one and only one. The Hierarchy commands “The faithful..........are now under
the Jurisdiction of the Eparchy” (from 2012.). Hey, what do you think? The
human beings are automatic machines.
When somebody switches a switch on, or when
somebody decides to come to Delhi and establish authority over people whom they
had no authority so far, they expect that people automatically come under their
Jurisdiction. When God created man, other than the needs of existence (food,
cloth, and shelter), He gave them three blessings which nobody on this universe
can deny them. The first one is freedom. God has given this freedom only to
human beings. He is given free will to take decisions on his life. Nobody can
touch that freedom. It is sacred. If any of the so called representatives of
God tries to take away that freedom , He or they do not represent God in
anyway. Nobody is bound to obey such autocratic orders and laws and rules which
they created for their vested interests. The second blessing he has given us is our
conscience which helps us to lead our life in this world and choose the right
and wrong actions of ours and direct us to do justice and accept justice in our
actions. Yes. I was born as a Syrian and I am a Syrian and will remain as a
Syrian throughout my life. That is what I was doing when I was a member of the
Delhi Archdiocese. They never asked me to be a Latin. I never offered to become
Latin. They accepted me as I am and I lived with them as I am. Nobody can throw
me out or force me to get out and join them.
It is against the freedom and justice God has vested in me. The third blessing God has given every human
being is the power and ability to relate to one another. There was beautiful
human connection and relationship between the members of the Catholic Church
which gives tremendous healing power to human heart. We were Malayalees,
Madrasies, Manglorians, Goans, North East peoples, Assamese, Bengalies, and
from every part of the country and we were Syrians, tribals, dalits and all
varieties of people. The healing power, the connecting power of Jesus united us
into one family. The operative part of this letter goes against human freedom,
justice and healing.
Now let us look at the last part of the
pastoral letter. The two sections which is left will be given at the end. They
are mere financial and administrative matters which also are unjust. According
to our simple knowledge, the seven sacraments are instituted by Jesus. And we
believe that all the seven are instituted by the one and only Christ and
accepted by one and only Catholic Church. What are the problems with Baptism
and Marriage? Are they special for each sui luris Church. Is there any
difference in the essence of the sacraments or difference only in rituals?
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. Consequently,
the faithful of the Syro-Malabar Church cease
to be members of the parishes of the
Archdiocese of Delhi; they can continue their
participation in parish related organization (such as Catholic Association, St.
Vincent De Paul Society, Youth Movements, Charismatic Renewal etc) through a
corresponding group in their Syro-Malabar Parish. Any exception to this norm
will have to address to the Bishop of Faridabad who in turn will apprise the
Archbishop of Delhi of the appropriate course of action according pastoral exigencies.
These two pargraphs are the most operative
part of the combined pastoral Letter. Both the members of the Hierarchy think
that they have the power to make a choice for thousands of catholic lay people.
They both conclude that they are the church and lay people are simple slaves. They
both don’t have the courage to ask the Syrian born Bishops, priests, nuns,
brothers who are a part of Latin Diocese and the Syrian born priests, nuns and
brothers of the different Latin congregations in the area of the Archdiocese of
Delhi to come out their comfort zones and join the Eparchy. For this lapse on
their part, they will quote rules, canons and exigencies and so on. A law is a
law. A Syrian born is a Syrian whether he is a priest, or she is a nun or he is
a brother. The laws of the church, according to these high priests, apply only
to the lay people. These two paragraphs goes against the spirit of moral laws,
spiritual principles, clergy made and known only to clergy the canon laws, the
civil and the criminal laws of the land. You are playing with the freedom of
the individual to remain where they are at present. You are playing with the
justice. No Clergy has the power to state the lay people have no choice. The
community of faithful are the Church and not a mere miniscule of the Church,
the clergy. No Bishop or clergy can state that a lay person cease to be member
of a church because of his birth. You can sack a person from the church for
misbehaviour. You cannot sack a group of people who had been a part and parcel
of the church as a parishners who contributed in the spiritual, social and
material development of the Church for generations and participating in all
respect to build many church buildings for the Diocese from their hard earned
wages and making them really believe and feel that they belong there. Where is
your conscience to make a statement
like this? Is this the catechism that you teach to the laity by your action?
Can any one of you be a bold follower of Christ and give the people their freedom to chose to live as Catholics.
Can you look at the heart of Jesus who is bleeding for you and me and take a
decision to live yourself and us in justice of Christ. As for the human connections, relationships and
companionships, Your combined statement that "the laity can continue to
take part in all the activities and organisations” (It appeared beautiful) but
the next part of the sentence that these social, spiritual activities must be
done as separate group in a Syrian parishes” is an example of your building of
human connection in the love of Christ. Whom are you fooling?
If we have to contribute our efforts in a
Vincent De Paul society or any other organisations as earlier, we have to apply
to the Eparchy to get permission and he will give the permission after
considering the pastoral exigencies. We can understand that if a person is to
work in an organisation which may be considered having principles in anyway contradicting
the church, it is good to get a sanction from the church authorities. For a
catholic to work in a catholic organisation, if we have to get permission from
a Bishop appears to be comical. Where are your one and only one Jesus Christ
and one and only one Catholic Church gone? What are we the lay people to think
of your intellectual and spiritual and emotional relationship to Jesus
When we were small, the catechism classes
have tried to instil in the minds of young children that whatever that the
clergy does is for Christ and he is always right. Even today there are lakhs of
catholic adults who believe that this is true and divine. No wonder whatever injustice the clergy do,
there will be lakhs of lay people follow them blindly. They are afraid that if
they disobey the clergy, the hell is the answer. Many of them are following
them because of the fear in them about the future of their souls or their
social relationships. It is easy to get numbers. Please go ahead. Wish you all
the best. But please allow us to use the God given freedom, conscience and the
human connection intact. Don’t attack that.
Paragraph dealing with Delhi Archdiocese extends
a helping hand.
You can well understand the many new challenges a new Eparchy
faces at its initial stages, not only in terms of human resources but also in
terms of financial resources and infrastructural facilities. In a spirit of
solidarity and cooperation we earnestly request all the parish priest and
superiors of the Religious houses in the archdioceses of Delhi to continue to
allow the use of their facilities where ever needed until hopefully sometime
soon the Syro-Malabar faithful of Faridabad Eparchy has their own. The same is
applied in a situation where the Archdiocese of Delhi has no infrastructure to
hold its activities while the Eparchy of Faridabad has his own infrastructure.
Human resource is no problem. If the
Eparchy applies the same yardstick he applied to the laity to the bishops,
priests, nuns and the rev. Brothers to leave their present positions and join
the Eparchy, the Eparchy will have an avalanche of human resources. But the
laws of the church are only for laity and that is made by the clergy looking at
the pastoral exigencies and their comfort zone. The remaining part of the paragraph
is only mutual adjustment for the convenience.
The organization of the parishes in the new Eparchy.
It goes without saying that “Personal Parishes” and
“Mass centres” of Syro-Malabar church do not exist anymore under the
Archdiocese of Delhi with the creation of the new Eparchy of Faridabad. It is
up to the Bishop of Faridabad to create, modify or reorganize the parishes in
this Eparchy. Accordingly at all the Mass centres of the Syro-Malabar Eparchy
of Faridabad functioning in the premises of the Archdiocese of Delhi, the
Parish Priests of the Syro-Malabar Eparchy will take the collections and make
announcements at their Masses. The Syro-Malabar Parish Priests should ensure
under the supervision of their Bishop that a reasonably agreed upon
contribution be made to the Latin rite parish towards the use of its
infrastructural facilities. The same applies vice-versa. The parish priest of
the host parish will have the authority to decide on the use of the church and
its premises in accordance with the pastoral needs of his parish as a primary
concern. An agreement to this effect may be locally drawn up with approval of
the Bishop of the host parish.
This is only about the collection of
contributions and the compensation for the use of the premises of the existing
churches. Only one feeling is that a church which was built by our partnership
is to be hired for us to pray. Comical!!!!
Conculsion.
We look forward to your generous cooperation in
ensuring your witness to the unity of the church in living in peace and harmony
in the capital and its environs.
Under the circumstances which you both ,the
great shepherds have created in the Capital and its environment, you cannot
witness to the unity of the church in peace and harmony without giving the
faithful freedom of choice, not presumed but visible Justice and human
connection in Christ. You called yourself shepherds. Please for the sake of
your own salvation and our salvation in Jesus, don’t cheat your sheep. He went
in search of the only lost sheep and gave comfort and safety to the sheep. We
expect you to be courageous to take decisions worthy as a catholic yourselves.
We the laity humbly and earnestly request
you to bring out a joint pastoral letter explaining to us in simple language
the commonness and the differences of latin and Syrian rites in matters of
faith (creed) in the catholic church and also about the sacraments. This will
be a challenge for you both. This will help us laity to take an intelligent
decision so that our spiritual care is looked after by us properly..
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