Sunday 18 December 2016

We don’t need clericalism in the Church

  Pope Francis has broached the subject of clericalism again in the church, much to the discomfort of clergy. 
  The spirit of clericalism is an evil that is present in the Church today, and the victim of this spirit is the people, who feel discarded and abused. That was the Pope’s message in the beginning of December. If there’s someone who consistently opposes the clerical attitude in the Roman Catholic Church, that’s the Pope himself.  He has understood that the menace of clericalism is at the root of most of the problems troubling the Catholic Church.
  Unam Sanctam Catholicam defines clericalism as a state of affairs in which there is an unnecessary or overly exaggerated importance attributed to clergy, in such a way that the laity relate to them as subjects to be ruled rather than a people to be lovingly pastored. “Basically, a clericalist ideology is one that places too much emphasis on the clergy or attributes undue importance to their actions. It is a defect of the virtue of temperance by excess as applied to the government of the Church,” it says.
  It has often led to sacramental blackmails in the church which are suppressed within its four walls.
  Pope Francis warned pastors of the dangers of becoming “intellectuals of religion” with a morality far from the Revelation of God. The poor and humble people who have faith in the Lord are the victims of the “intellectuals of religion,” those who are “seduced by clericalism,” who will be preceded in the Kingdom of Heaven by repentant sinners.
The law of the high priests is far from Revelation
  The Pope directed his attention to Jesus, who in the day’s Gospel turns to the chief priests and the elders of the people, and focuses precisely on their role. “They had juridical, moral, religious authority,” he said. “They decided everything. Annas and Caiaphas, for example, judged Jesus. They were the high priests who decided to kill Lazarus; Judas, too, went to them to bargain, and thus Jesus was sold. They arrived at this state of arrogance and tyranny towards the people, Pope said.
 Judas was a traitor, he sinned gravely. He sinned forcefully. But then the Gospel says, “He repented, and went to them to return the money.”
 And what did they (priests) do? “It’s your problem,they said and left him alone discarded. The poor Judas, a traitor and repentant, was not welcomed by the pastors. They had forgotten the First Commandment, which God had given to our father Abraham: “Walk in my presence and be blameless.” They did not walk: they always stopped in their own convictions. They were not blameless.
 Pope said they had forgotten the Ten Commandments of Moses: “With the law they themselves had made – intellectualistic, sophisticated, casuistic – they cancelled the law the Lord had made, they lacked the memory that connects the current moment with Revelation.” In the past their victim was Jesus; in a similar way, now their victim is the humble and poor people who trust in the Lord, those who are discarded, those who understand repentance even if they do not fulfil the law, and suffer these injustices.
 They feel condemned and abused, Pope said, by those who are vain, proud, arrogant. And one who was cast aside by these people, Pope Francis observed, was Judas.
  They were the intellectuals of religion, those who had the power, who advanced the catechesis of the people with a morality composed by their own intelligence and not by the revelation. The evil of clericalism can still be found in the Church today.
 “There is that spirit of clericalism,” he explained. “Clerics feel they are superior, they are far from the people. They have no time to hear the poor, the suffering, prisoners, the sick,” he said.
 The evil of clericalism is a very ugly thing. It is a new edition of these people. And the victim is the same: the poor and humble people who await the Lord. The Father has always sought to be close to us: He sent His Son. We are waiting, waiting in joyful expectation, exulting. But the Son didn’t join the game of these people. The Son went with the sick, the poor, the discarded, the publicans, the sinners – and that is scandalous – the prostitutes. Today, too, Jesus says to all of us, and even to those who are seduced by clericalism: “The sinners and the prostitutes will go before you into the Kingdom of Heaven.”
  Writing in National Catholic Reporter, Robert McClory said, “clericalism is contagious, breeding a kind of mentality that revels in ecclesiastical ambition, status and power. For some, especially those attracted to the episcopacy, it often leads to indifference toward the experiences and needs of ordinary Catholics. It encourages the creation (or repetition) of teachings and regulations worked out in ivory-tower isolation from the real world.”
 “For many generations earnest, young male seminarians have been taught that they are aspiring to a higher level not available to the laity, a level at which they will have the authority to teach, sanctify and govern those below,” he says.
 “In effect, they become members of a kind of boys club that is warm, supportive and exclusive — and never breaks ranks. For what they give up, they can expect a relatively high standard of living and the respect, even adulation (at least until the abuse scandal hit), of their grateful congregations,” McClory writes.
 “Priests were so well respected that they were often times feared rather than loved, the sacraments so revered that their power was almost magical, the stress on clerical obedience so emphatic that independent thought was stifled, and the hierarchy exercised so much power that the priesthood became in effect a boundary restricting the faithful's access to God rather than an intermediary who brought their petitions to God,” says Unam Sanctam Catholicam.
 Will Pope succeed in eliminating clericalism from the Catholic Church? He himself set an example with his frugal lifestyle, avoiding pomp and pageantry, after becoming the Pope. It’s not going to be an easy task.
 The following incident is a classic case of clericalism happened over two years ago. Similar incidents are frequent in the Catholic world but remain unreported.
 An unmarried woman with a baby had to embark on a depressing pilgrimage around Buenos Aires city to find a place where she could have her baby baptised. She was turned away by priests.
 The Archbishop of the region questioned, “Why a poor girl, who has resisted the temptation to have an abortion and stood up at great cost to herself for the right to life should be persecuted in such a way.”
 The Archbishop reminded the priests that the young woman was requesting baptism for her child, not herself, and that they have no right to deny a sacrament in that manner.
“I say this with sadness and if it sounds like a complaint or an offensive comment please forgive me: in our ecclesiastical region there are presbyteries that will not baptise children whose mothers are not married, because they have been conceived outside holy wedlock,” a Vatican insider quoted the Archbishop as saying.
 The Archbishop said he was making a call to end what he called sacramental blackmail.
 He went on to speak about the hijacking of a sacrament, calling it an expression of a rigorous and “hypocritical neo-clericalism”, which uses the sacraments as tools to affirm its own supremacy.
 He was critical of priests for what he described as rubbing the fragility and the wounds of people in their faces by hosing down their hopes and expectations, simply because they do not fit squarely into parish requirements or live up to someone else’s moral expectation.
  He said that apart from being misleading, such pastoral models distort and reject the dynamic of Jesus Christ’s incarnation, which he pointed out cannot be reduced to a doctrinal slogan or used to serve the power hungry.
 The Archbishop was none other than Jorge Mario Bergoglio – currently Pope Francis. This happened months before his selection as Pope.


Sunday 11 December 2016

My tryst with terror in Christmas season... twice in 25 years

CHRISTMAS SEASON MUSINGS
Peace was shattered, not once, twice during Christmas season in Mumbai 
By George Mathew

 Circa 1992. Winter had set in. It was that period of time when the angels in Bethlehem proclaimed: “Peace on earth.” But it was not to be in India’s commercial capital -- Mumbai. There was an uneasy calm in the Maximum City, but sadly minimum good governance. It was a lull before the storm. I learnt it the hard way -- that the world was not at peace, because human hearts were not at peace.
 I was then comparatively new to Mumbai, a hodge-podge of ideas, people, caste and creed. When December approached, it appeared as calm, cool and quiet as previous years' Christmas days were. But this time it turned out to be deceptive. Just days before the Christmas day, riots broke out in the metropolis. People were at war.  Communities were at war at a time when people were ushering in the birthday of the Prince of Peace – Jesus Christ. For Mumbai and its people, the season which was supposed to be tranquil and serene changed overnight.
 On December 6, 1992, Babri Masjid (mosque) – considered as the birthplace of Lord Rama -- in UP state was demolished by a big crowd of Hindus. It soon triggered the riots in Mumbai. Hindus and Muslims attacked each other.  Blood started flowing on the streets of Mumbai. When the enemies of peace galvanised into action, it was chaos all over the city.
 During the Christmas week, I was caught in the middle of the madness when the world was about to usher in Christmas. My job demanded long working hours and late nights. One day, when the riots were at the peak and curfew was in force in several areas, I was travelling back home in the night after the duty. I was caught in the middle of a clash between two communities. I managed to escape from the scene, but was holed up in an abandoned building near the railway station for the entire night. I could see people running helter-skelter with armed rioters chasing them. I was jittery but managed to regain my composure. There was no way I could have reached home safely and prepare for the Christmas as people were involved in pitched battle on the roads. I spent almost 6 hours in the dilapidated building and ventured out only in the morning when curfew was relaxed.
  I was forced to move into a South Mumbai hotel for the next one week as travelling was quite risky during the night and curfew was in force. The mayhem on Mumbai streets continued till the new year – January 1993 – with around 900 people losing their lives in the riots.
  Come 2008, history repeated itself. Yes, November 26, to be precise. Christmas was just four weeks away. This time it was terrorists from across the border. They came armed to the teeth and targeted 11 locations in the city, including the Oberoi hotel. When they barged into the hotel throwing grenades and shooting indiscriminately, I was just 25 metres away across the road. I ran for my life to the nearby Express Tower building where I work. It’s bang opposite Oberoi. Bullets whizzed past around me. I couldn't move out of the building and police asked us to stay inside for the night. I could see explosions and hear gun shots throughout the night. It was a sleepless night and I could leave Express Tower only the next day morning. Terrorists killed several innocent people in the hotel.  
  The thought that they could have entered Express Tower instead of Oberoi still unnerves and intimidates me.
  Although the stand-off ended in two days, I was shaken and couldn't sleep for several days. More so, because anything could have happened on that fateful evening as I used to visit Oberoi frequently for meetings and seminars. Over 160 people were dead in the 2008 Mumbai terror attack. When the Christmas day – December 25 -- came in 2008, images of blazing guns of the terrorists were still fresh in my mind. They refuse to go even now.
 If the first incident in 1992 brought the fear of God in me, the second incident in 2008 cemented that relationship with God. After these two incidents, when the Christmas season approaches, I always think about the love of God and how He protected me in difficult and dangerous times. I also realised that our daily warfare is not against sins and sinful nature alone, but also against the terrorists and religious bigots who make peace impossible.
  Someone inside me also reminded that it's not “first the feast, and then the hangover” in the last eight Christmas seasons. The enemies of peace won’t just lie down of their own accord. The world is passing through difficult times. The messengers of devil can spring a surprise anywhere at any time. The prince of darkness will try his best to trap people. So watch out. 
 We may have to pass through the wringer again and again. The only way to defeat the armies of devil is to have close relationship with God. Trust in Him. Leave everything to Him. Let Him guide us through this turbulent period. He’s our protector, saviour, healer, redeemer and teacher.  
 There's no doubt peace is a fruit of victory. When we look at the biblical notion of peace, it may not be quite the peace that some have in mind. It may not be politeness or political correctness. It is not just the absence of riots or peaceful co-existence. As Catholic scholar Dr Marcellino D'Ambrosio said, it’s rather the right relationship between people and God.
  Believing and following God’s word can go a long way towards driving out the darkness and bringing peace and light in our lives. Let's do it right in this Christmas season. That’s the spirit of Christmas. It also means taking the message of Christmas that our Lord Jesus Christ is alive even today. He came into this world to save us and He will come again. Be holy to welcome Him.