‘Faith is a conviction… theoretical knowledge is not enough’

Conversation opened. 1 unread message.

INTERVIEW WITH BISHOP MAR THOMAS ELAVANAL By Sheena George & Nelson C. J.  Soft-spoken and affable Mar Thomas Elavanal, Bishop of Kalyan Diocese, never minces words while talking about various issues related to the faithful and the diocese. In an interview, Mar Elavanal spoke about vocation, maintaining a personal relationship with God, Catholic teachings and ways to tackle inroads by Protestants, sustaining faith and the need to maintain a watch over children while using new technologies like internet and smart phone. Excerpts:  As we celebrate the year of consecrated life, how can we, as parents, encourage our children to take up this as their vocation? Vocation is a call from God. First of all what we need is prayer from the part of parents. Second, set a good example to the children. Everyday my parents used to go to church and in the morning they used to pray Rosary for us. So I was always attached to the church… and as an altar boy I used to recite the prayers in Syriac language. I still remember how my parents used to talk about priests. With at most respect they used to talk about them, like they are men of God. If a priest visited our home, my mother would go and kneel before him and kiss his hands. If she cooked something special at home, we children were entrusted to take a share of it  to the parish priests. Actually my parents never asked me whether I wanted to become a priest. My two sisters are nuns and my brother is a priest. Some of the examples of priests also motivated me to become a priest.  At home, if the parents talk negatively about priests, children will never get an idea to become a priest or nun. To conclude, I would say that the vocation to priesthood is a gift of God and I got this gift of God, the vocation, through my parents. So the parents should take up the responsibility to make the children understand that it’s a sublime vocation. Your Excellency, do you think Sunday catechism and family unit meetings are enough for children, or even adults, to get into a personal relationship with Jesus? If not, what else is necessary?   Sunday school is helping the children and youth to grow in faith. Theoretical knowledge about faith can be given through Sunday school. There also, children need good examples to get a conviction about what they learn in Sunday school. In school or college, or to become a good engineer, theoretical knowledge is sufficient. But faith is a conviction. That’s why after teaching the disciples for 3 years Jesus asked them: "who do you say I am?" This He asked to know whether they got the conviction "who He is". So whenever I talk to Catechism teachers I tell them to give the children living examples and conviction about what they learn.   Last week, when we priests were attending a retreat conducted by Fr Dominic Valanmanal, he spoke about his life experience of living in faith. That motivated me very much. Maybe I have learned the same or even more about faith theoretically but his life example inspired me. Good relationship with Jesus will give a good relationship with the church also. A good relationship with Jesus will always reflect in the relationship with our brethren and with the church. So children will never go away from the church when they become youth if they have good relationship with Jesus. How can we prevent ourselves from getting into the trap of protestant teachings?  First of all, this happens because of our lack of knowledge about our faith. We don’t know how to answer their questions or express the correct knowledge about our faith... hence we can get easily influenced by them. That’s why faith formation must be a continued process. So we must have a platform to discuss our doubts. In Catholic Church, we have three fortresses to protect our faith: 1. Word of God; 2. The Magisterium or the official teaching of the church and 3. The Sacred tradition or the teachings of the Fathers of the church. In Catholic Church, the deposit of faith is never the teaching or interpretation of one person, it’s the collective teaching. Unlike protestant teachings, Catholic Church gives importance to the Sacred traditions as a source of faith. it's never a thought or interpretation of one person. It must always fall in line with or in the light of the tradition of the church. It’s a teaching of 2,000 years. So in order not to get influenced by wrong teachings, we must have platforms to discuss and clear our doubts. Hence an ongoing adult faith formation is a must. I know about one such platform. Parents’ (who are waiting in the church to take their children back home from Catechism classes) get together on Sundays and a resource person to guide them. Whenever we get doubts about venerating Mother Mary or about matters of faith like purgatory etc., we must have such platforms for discussion to clarify our doubts. But somebody must be guiding the discussion. As inter-caste marriages are on the rise in the diocese, what can be done about the situation? What's your assessment?  Why do we discourage inter-caste marriages? In marriage, God is bringing together two persons, making them one in body, mind and spirit. They have to be one in faith to be one in spirit. If faith is not one, they can never become one in spirit. Actually speaking, they cannot pray together. Even ideologically, they can be one. But the foundation is not stable. If the one partner, who is not in Christian faith, is willing to change his/ her faith then you can say it’s a little better than keeping their different faith and getting married. In that case, you can say it's 75 per cent solved. Because there are cases of conversion and there are people who faithfully keep it.  So if somebody does that (conversion), it should not be as a mask just to enter into marriage. When the partners keep their different faith and get married, what about their children? I say this inter-caste marriage is a crime against their children. Which faith should they follow? Who will teach them? They are confusing their children. The Bible teaches no marriage is allowed with non-believers because you will lose your faith. But unfortunately many a time we have to give the consent letter. You know why? Some parents who are living in good faith find their children adamant in marrying someone from different faith.  Seeing these parents' tears and fearing that if they're not allowed to marry in the church we may lose both, we give the consent. So to keep at least one in the Church we give dispensation. But that (inter-caste marriage) is not considered as a sacrament. To receive the sacrament of matrimony, both the partners must be Catholics. I take classes for the youth and when they understand the teaching even they say this kind of marriage must not be allowed in the Church.  What are the challenges before the diocese at present and in the coming years? Has the diocese been able to take the message of Jesus to interior regions of Maharashtra?  We have four missions. I can say, to a great extend, we are able to take the message of Christ. Sangli mission is the topmost. There we have social and charitable activities -- Christ witnessing events. There was one priest in one of the villages. Every morning he used to pray before the Holy Eucharist in the church. He told the villagers if they have any prayer intentions they can give it to him so that he can pray to God about it. One day, villagers asked whether they can join the prayers. The priest agreed and together they started praying. It so happened that the villagers found their intentions answered and the number of people increased like 25-30.  One day, when I visited this place they were praying. All of them were Hindus but they were praying around the Holy Eucharist. All came to greet me touching my feet. The end result was that a whole village received our faith and we have a parish there just for Marathi people. There was nobody to oppose as the whole villagers took  the decision together and not one person. It’s a small village comprising only 35 people.  We don’t have any challenges at present or even recent times for our diocese. In most of the places, there is an understanding between us and other communities. The advantage they see is that we work for the poor out of love for our Lord and as per His commandment. We had crisis situation before but not at present. We have 185 priests in the diocese including the mission areas.  How can we prevent the young generation from endangering themselves by modern technology? For example, smart phones and internet etc...   A conscientisation must be given to the youth about this through classes. We must keep a watchful eye on them. Only parents can give that. Even in seminaries, our brothers are not allowed to use personal cell phones. The use of computer by our children must be given even more vigilant attention. Even though modern technologies have made our life easier, it has many adverse effects as well. Distraction from their studies is one of them. An enticing or tempting world has been created by the digital world. So we have to be all the more watchful or else there is every chance that our children will go wayward.  How can we encourage our youth to get involved in religious work?  What I suggest is give them various responsibilities, guiding them from behind and correcting them whenever necessary. That will make them more responsible and confident. When I visited Kalewadi parish, Pune, I saw the second trustee was a young person -- from the youth section. I was surprised. Children born and brought up in Kerala are prompted to do things more responsibly than their counterparts in Mumbai. Here in Mumbai, they are provided with whatever they need. So they are not that self responsible. So it is better to train them, giving responsibilities at a young age itself. Then they will do church work without any reluctance. Entrusting them with responsibilities, having confidence in them and giving proper guidance and correction are necessary to make them responsible. How can we the parishioners help you in your ministry?  What I feel is that members of Kalyan Diocese are a group of people who love the church and the diocese. It's not me alone... but also the priests who have visited here feel the same. People are more co-operative here than in Kerala. It's not because here it is a small number, but here we are responsible to build everything for us. In Kerala, everything is provided. Here we can have a church only if we personally contribute.    Each person plays an important role. Major Archbishop visited various churches in our diocese. After visiting these churches, the Major Archbishop asked me, how were you able to build these beautiful churches? I had to tell him, here in our diocese, we have people who are generously supportive and who collaborate with the church. It's because of the people of God we are able to build. Here we feel a sense of belongingness.  Your Excellency has turned 67 years, the diocese is 27 years old and this is your 18th year as Bishop. What do you feel when you look back all these years?  I have satisfaction and joy. When I say joy, I didn’t have any crisis situation at all. Satisfaction because Lord has done many things for our diocese like helping us build churches, buying places etc. We needed a minor seminary and a pastoral centre. All these we got by His grace. That’s why this satisfaction. Another thing is we don’t have any tension like big financial crisis or problems in relationship between priests and the bishop or with the people.