Year of Faith in India: Poverty is destroying the country
Mumbai ( AsiaNews) - A national symposium to reflect on how the Church's social doctrine is put into practice in India today, beginning with the documents of Vatican Council II. Organized by the Conference of Catholic Bishops of India-Latin Rite (CCBI-LR) Commission for Theology and Doctrine ( CCBI - LR ), as the Year of Faith draws to a close, the meeting was held last October 25 to 27 at St. Pius College. It was attended by bishops , priests, religious and 550 delegates from 44 dioceses around the country. Bishop Agnelo Gracias, President of the Commission , said : " We reflected on the India of today. Ours is a country marked by much progress economically and technologically, by a lot of compassion, a country becoming more and more homogeneous/unified under the impact of the media and globalization. But India has its ugly features too. We discerned five ugly faces of our country:
- A country with a lot of resources but marked by dehumanizing poverty
- A country where women are venerated but discriminated upon and victims of sexual violence
- A country, the birthplace of major religious traditions, but marred by communalism and religious strife
- A country where life is held as sacred but is succumbing to the culture of death
- A country where nature is revered but faces ecological threats
A country marked by dehumanizing poverty:
We come across two types of India: on the one side there is a fast developing economy and on the other, the fast growing number of poor totally disregarded. Every third person is below poverty line, with around 300 million migrants for jobs and survival. According to the 2011-13 Global Hunger Index report, a quarter of the world's hungry live in India (210 million out of 842 million) and 43.5% of the world's underweight children under 5 years are Indians (Hindustan Times, 21.10.2013).
In this India, how can we play a prophetic and witnessing role to the person and message of Jesus Christ? How can we fight against poverty and build a civilization of love, in some practical and meaningful ways? These were the questions we grappled with. Various initiatives came to our mind:
- We appeal to our leaders to follow the lead given by Pope Francis who wants the Church to be 'the Church of the Poor'. On the occasion of his visit to Assisi, the Pope said: "The Catholic Church must strip itself of all vanity, arrogance and pride and humbly serve the poorest in society"
- We appeal to our bishops to implement the CBCI Education Policy making our educational and other institutions pro-poor
- We the participants of this Symposium want to fight against the culture of well-being, that makes us think of ourselves and makes us so insensitive to the cries of others that it leads to a 'globalization of indifference'. Like the rich man in the parable of Jesus, we are accustomed to the suffering of Lazarus. It doesn't concern us.
- We will struggle against corruption in whatever way we can, neither paying nor giving bribes, getting a receipt for every purchase, paying just wages to those who work for us. We will use the mechanisms and facilities available to us like the RTI or Food Security Bill to fight corruption and to alleviate the lot of the poor. We will be bold in denouncing all that is evil, unjust and wrong in order to truly announce the "Good News". The culture of silence has resulted in 'the culture of death'.
- We will have a special concern for the weak and the marginalized, particularly the Dalits, joining in protests against the violation of human rights. We urge our parishes to be more caring towards them, welcoming them into our parish. We want to be persons who hold out HOPE to them. Following the example of the first Christians who shared generously with the poor, we will make personal sacrifices, whatever they may cost for us, for the poor, the dalits and the tribals of today. Only then will we become truly the Church of the poor
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