With cultural programmes, dinners and meetings, the Church as an institution grows, but "the mark of Christ, incarnate, crucified and risen, is not present"

  When a Mumbai church recently organised its annual parish day, I was shocked to see women and youth members gyrating to raunchy and sub-standard film songs. That too in the holy precincts of the church compound. Are we compromising on Gospel teaching? Is this what Pope Francis spoke about evangelisation and the Church going to the poorest of the poor.
 If our Lord Jesus Christ has seen this -- I'm sure he did see -- He would have fallen off the chair. My God. Why's the church adulterating its catechism and evangelism?
 It's common to see adulterated forms of Christianity in our Church these days. In many places, Churches are run like clubs with a fascination for cultural and social programmes -- largely aimed at social and political gains. In other words, Church becomes the property of a select few who convert the Church into an institution with no place for Gospel and Jesus. Do we need a worldly Church with superficial spiritual and pastoral trappings? 

   These "select few" convert the churches into cultural palaces with dances, songs and entertainment sessions. Where is evangelisation? Instead of getting a spiritual feed, there's a concern to be seen, into a social life full of appearances, meetings, dinners and receptions. What a lay person gets is cultural feed or entertainment programmes. Church, in this manner, accomplishes the task of keeping its flock in tact. A big worry of the Catholic Church is keeping its flock together. With some Protestant churches working overtime to woo away Catholics, the Church doesn't want its numbers to dwindle. 

  What’s wrong in having cultural programmes? Yes, they are needed, and part of our social life. But one can always go to a club for such activities. Should we use the church to conduct vulgar display of such activities? No.  Bible stories are rarely depicted through such programmes.

 No doubt, with cultural programmes, dinners and meetings, the Church as an institution grows, but "the mark of Christ, incarnate, crucified and risen, is not present".

  As Pope Francis said in his apostolic exhortation, "closed and elite groups are formed, and no effort is made to go forth and seek out those who are distant or the immense multitudes who thirst for Christ." Some of our churches are good examples of “closed and elite groups” which control the church management. They have deep pockets and get things done by throwing money.
 A heavy dose of cultural programmes, especially raunchy dances and songs, leads to an empty pleasure of complacency and self-indulgence which, in turn, replaces the evangelical fervour. We lose our track. Will we be able to say confidently what St Paul said: “I have finished my race and I have kept my faith.”

  Doubtful. We digress and divert our attention. "We indulge in endless fantasies and we lose contact with the real lives and difficulties of our people," Pope says.
 "Those who have fallen into this worldliness look on from above and afar, they reject the prophecy of their brothers and sisters, they discredit those who raise questions, they constantly point out the mistakes of others and they are obsessed by appearances. Their hearts are open only to the limited horizon of their own immanence and interests, and as a consequence they neither learn from their sins nor are they genuinely open to forgiveness," Pope says.

  There’s another group of people who work for the prestige of the Church. Pope Francis very clearly put it, "in some people we see an ostentatious preoccupation for the liturgy, for doctrine and for the Church's prestige, but without any concern that the Gospel have a real impact on God's faithful people and the concrete needs of the present time."
 “In this way, the life of the Church turns into a museum piece or something which is the property of a select few," he says.
  This is a tremendous corruption disguised as a good. We need to avoid it by making the Church constantly go out from herself, keeping her mission focused on Jesus Christ, and her commitment to the poor. "God save us from a worldly Church with superficial spiritual and pastoral trappings," he says.
This stifling worldliness can only be healed by breathing in the pure air of the Holy Spirit who frees us from self-centredness cloaked in an outward religiosity bereft of God.

 Let us not allow ourselves to be robbed of the Gospel.