For Justice and Peace Office, religious fundamentalism and neo-liberalism are the challenges of the Indian Church
Bangkok (AsiaNews) - India is going through a "national crisis on account of the ruling [Hindu nationalist] party’s past record and its propensity for engineering communal riots targeting religious minorities. There is a growing widespread and well-strategized move to rubbish and suppress the religious freedom of the religious minorities in the country,” said Fr Charles Irudayam, in his address to the international conference on ‘Peace and reconciliation in the context of Asia.’
Fr Irudayam, who is executive secretary of the Office for Justice, Peace and Development (OJPD) of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of India (CBCI), spoke at the conference currently underway (7-11 April 2015) at the Camillian Pastoral Care Centre in Bangkok (Thailand).
In his speech, the clergyman briefly outlined the OJPD’s history and its struggle for society’s downtrodden, environmental justice, women’s emancipation and the quest for justice by the victims of religious persecution, like the Christians who endured Orissa pogroms in 2008.
Excerpts from Fr Irudayam’s report follow.
Introduction
Jesus proclaimed to the entire humanity the good news of salvation. At the heart of this good news was Jesus’ concept of the Kingdom of God – a Kingdom that would ensure justice for the violated and the vulnerable. He told his audience to seek the Kingdom and its justice. (Mt 6:33). Creating the Kingdom of righteousness has to be the only preoccupation of his followers. This is the social dimension of the Gospel message. This social dimension is “inescapable” according to Pope Francis (Evangelii Gaudium, No. 258). Of course, this social mission is an ever-present challenge to all the followers of Jesus.
In an effort to address effectively that challenge, the Vatican Council regarded it “as most opportune that an organism of the universal Church be set up in order that both the justice and love of Christ toward the poor might be developed everywhere. The role of such an organism would be to stimulate the Catholic community to promote progress in needy regions and international social justice.” (Gaudium et Spes, No. 90). The recommendation of the Vatican Council was followed by the institution of the Pontifical Commission/Council for Justice and Peace. On its part, the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI) set up the Justice, Peace and Development Commission in 1972. The same Commission is now known as the CBCI Office for Justice, Peace and Development (OJPD).
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The Current National Situation
1. Religious Fundamentalism
The national situation after the April-May general elections indicates an emergent national crisis on account of the ruling party’s past record and its propensity for engineering communal riots targeting religious minorities. There is a growing widespread and well-strategized move to rubbish and suppress the religious freedom of the religious minorities in the country. This move is evidenced by the majoritarian groups’ programme of Ghar wapasi and their agenda of hinduising the educational syllabus, in addition to the violent attacks on Christians as well as Muslims and on their places of worship.
2. Neo-liberalism
The new ruling party is very much like its predecessor in promoting the liberalised markets with unrestrained favours for the business corporations. Neo-liberalism has brought about “a system, which tends to devour everything which stands in the way of increased profits, whatever is fragile, like the environment, is defenceless before the interests of a deified market, which become the only rule.” (Evangelii Gaudium, No. 56) As Pope Francis himself rightly points out, a new tyranny has been born. This situation will lead to uncontrolled looting natural resources, displacement of millions or Tribals and pauperisation of millions of people forcing them to lead a subhuman subsistence.
3. Militarisation and Arms Race
Expanding military budget and a mad arms race have been the phenomena in the Indian arena. But with the belligerent hyper-nationalism of the ruling party, peace with the neighbouring countries has become very elusive. The prospect of war appears imminent on the nation’s horizon.
The Need for an accelerated and enhanced Justice-Peace Mission
The national situation, which is nothing but a national crisis, cannot be ignored by the Church that has this cherished dream: “We envision an India with more attributes of the Kingdom of God such as justice and equity with its consequent fruits of love, peace and joy.”
Pope Francis states that “the task of evangelization implies and demands the integral promotion of each human being.” He adds: “It is no longer possible to claim that religion should be restricted to the private sphere and that it exists only to prepare souls for heaven.”(Evangelii Gaudium, No. 182)
The Pope reiterates the Church’s obligation to be involved in the affairs of this world in order to sanctify it, to save it and to save it:
Consequently, no one can demand that religion should be relegated to the inner sanctum of personal life, without influence on societal and national life, without concern for the soundness of civil institutions, without a right to offer an opinion on events affecting society . . . . We love this magnificent planet on which God has put us, and we love the human family which dwells here, with all its tragedies and struggles, its hopes and aspirations, its strengths and weaknesses. The earth is our common home and all of us are brothers and sisters. If indeed “the just ordering of society and of the state is a central responsibility of politics”, the Church “cannot and must not remain on the sidelines in the fight for justice” (Evangelii Gaudium, No. 183)
Conclusion
The facts, the phenomena, and the situations that have been discussed above reiterate the single point that the Church that strives to establish God’s Kingdom cannot afford to ignore the emerging challenges to its social mission. The Church needs to gear up for its task and strive hard to implement the ‘inescapable’ social dimension of the Gospel.
With Pope Francis, a prophetic, justice-oriented leader at its helm, the Catholic Church is making heroic responses to the challenging situations in the world.
The statements of the last two Plenary Assemblies of the CBCI provide ample indications of the bishops’ aspiration to make the Church the seed of God’s Kingdom. But mere aspirations will not suffice; such aspirations should be matched and accompanied by concrete efforts. It can rise up to the national situation and be prophetic witness and active agent of God’s Kingdom by suitably enabling and empowering the body that has been officially created for the purpose: the CBCI Office for Justice, Peace and Development. Failure to empower OJPD may mean consciously forfeiting the golden opportunity on the part of CBCI to bear prophetic witness to the social dimension of the Gospel, which failure is tantamount to not promoting the Kingdom of God.
(Shafique Khokhar contributed to this article)
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