Catholic Church must stop the mad race to construct palatial churches, engineering and medical colleges

 Jesus Christ, who was born and died a Jew, went to the synagogues to teach -- not to build new synagogues. But the new thinking in the Church curia and powerful moneybags who help the clergy in controlling church administration is: let there be magnificent and luxurious church buildings, engineering and medical colleges.

 Does the Catholic Church need more luxury hospitals, engineering and medical colleges? Do we need opulent and palatial church edifices? Cardinal George Alencherry, head of the Syro-Malabar Church, is in the eye of a storm after debt-laden Ernakulam-Angamally Archdiocese recently got entangled in a murky land deal. The land was for a medical college. Catholic dioceses which have lost their focus are busy building institutions or buying expensive cars. There’s no time for evangelism or spirituality.

 Unfortunately, there’s no transparency in the administration of Church as clergy has full control over everything. Believers are powerless and ignorant about the decisions of the clergy. Laity has no idea about the accounts of dioceses.

 While bishops and dioceses are busy building institutions, parishes are competing to build tony, expansive churches.  A parish in Mumbai recently decided to demolish a beautiful 19-year old structure – not 900 years old -- and go for a bigger and spacious four-storied church which is estimated to cost Rs 7.5 crore. However, its construction is expected to overshoot the estimate and touch at least Rs 10 crore. 

  In Kerala, every third church is under renovation or reconstruction. Saving the souls is now secondary. This is also at a time when people, even faithful, don't have roof over their heads, and struggling to keep both ends meet. Spending crores of rupees on opulent churches, hospitals and engineering colleges is an atrocious idea in a country like India where a sizeable number of people live below the poverty line.

 Often, rich people in the parish are roped in cleverly and they don't mind diverting part of the black money generated from their businesses for church construction. Yes, the sad part is that church authorities are after these nouveau rich for big construction activities of the church. Parishioners are given specific amount as contribution for church construction. No wonder, these moneybags are now controlling most churches.

 There were complaints from poor people who were unable to give their share of Rs 35,000 or Rs 50,000 for church construction in their parishes. In one case, daughter's baptism was blocked until he cleared his dues. There was another complaint in North Kerala about overestimating the construction cost and money collected from poor people getting diverted to the pockets of some people.  
 The multi-crore church in Edappalli, Kerala, had recently raised many eyebrows. “It is a sin before God if the money offered by faithful is used for luxury instead of utilising it for social welfare projects or to help the needy,” Cardinal George Alencherry said while consecrating the Rs 40 crore plus church.
 There's also a demand that the Syro-Malabar Church should put a moratorium on building new churches. 

 Why are churches going in for costly renovations, expansions and remodelling? Is the idea to remain contemporary and show its prowess to the world? Is it to proclaim to the world we are big and powerful? In fact, Jesus never built any church. Nor did he ask his followers to build churches for worship. When his disciples called his attention to look at the huge stones with which Jerusalem temple was built (That was the architectural wonder of his times) he told them flatly: Not a stone upon a stone will be left intact.

  In Europe, Church constructed huge buildings many decades ago. That's history. Most of them are either lying closed or auctioned off with some churches eventually getting converted into hotels and liquor bars. Will history repeat in India?