Saturday, May 31, 2008

"Dear Right vs. Left Patriot ... "

So began an email that was caught by the spam filter in one of my inboxes. Now I get stuff from a variety of mailing lists: I've no idea what the folks at "Right vs. Left" promote, and I'm sure I'll agree with some of it (so much of my politics is tilting rightward) ... but definitelynot all (Capital punishment, immigration, are just some of the areas where I'm not a political conservative). Anyway, the email asked that I read the attached message from an organization called Numbers USA. Which, it turns out, is an anti-immigration outfit. They're promoting a bill sponsored by Rep. Heath Shuler (D-NC) that would establish a system of electronic verification of documents that establish the right to work in the United States, things such as Social Security Cards.

The effect will be, of course, to make it next to impossible for the current "grey zone" to continue to exist, where so many undocumented workers produce false papers and employers look the other way. There is a huge and flourishing black-market in false papers, of course. It's an extension of the "build-the-fence" mentality, that would continue the trend of making it harder for illegal aliens to make a living in the US. The bill probably won't see the light of day. I don't think it's the right approach to solve the broken system.

The email asked me to vote in support or against the proposal. I voted against. Here's a screenshot of the results page.



Perhaps the folks at Right vs. Left need to re-target their mailing list? :)

Friday, May 30, 2008

The greatest revolution

A lot of the conversations this past week have been about economics and a proper understanding of liberation theology.

Of course, the Holy Father is the best person to turn to in this regard. I just read his homily for Corpus Christi.
The Pope affirmed this today in his homily for the feast of Corpus Christi in the Basilica of St. John Lateran. After the Mass, he led a Eucharistic procession through the streets of Rome to the Basilica of St. Mary Major.

The Eucharist has brought a social revolution, he affirmed, since believers gather before it, leaving aside differences in economic or social class, political convictions, sex and even preferences.

January 25, 2009

... we will celebrate the Conversion of St. Paul in Church, no matter that it is the 3rd Sunday of Ordinary Time. Because it's the Year of St. Paul.

Roma locuta est ... :)

Overheard late last night:

[Snippet from a much longer and convoluted conversation about the reluctance of so many priests in India to lead people to baptism, even if they might otherwise be interested in Christ. Separate post coming up on that.]

Me (already quite agitated): But what the heck about the direct command from the Lord himself?

Fr J (twinkle in his eye): Oh now. Which one? The one at the end of Matthew? What about the other Gospels?

Me (more agitation): Yes Matthew! And it's there in Mark as well. Don't tell me that the problem is just that it isn't repeated in all four? I mean it's called the Great Commission for a reason, right ... ?

Fr J: You know, I am trying to remember what they taught us about the original Greek, how there was only one imperative ...

Me: Well, it's "matheusate" which means "to make disciples." And the syntax of koine is different you know ... "bapteuzontes" is a participle but that's because it is a language full of freakin' participles. Now they're deriving theological justification for eviscerating the Great Commission because in Greek it's not in an imperative?

Fr J: Well, Scripture scholars say ...

Me (turbulent): Well SCREW the scripture scholars and [bleep] the Historical Critical Method! "They" just love telling everyone how their latest insight has finally uncovered what Jesus Really Meant. Let's go behind the text and find the Jesus We Want. But isn't that what Schweitzer warned us over a century ago? We've looked down the well of history and found our own reflection. Y'all seem to want to follow Marx more than Jesus. Better still, these freakin' scholars will tell you how Jesus actually was a Marxist ... We have four Gospels. That's it. That's what the Church has given us ...

Fr. J (now just laughing): Aiyo! It's late. Go to bed.

Me (grinning): You're just pushing my buttons ...

Fr. J: What ... all week you've done nothing but harass me!

[Actually, it's been such a grace-filled week. Not just because of the deep sharing, and the intense conversations -- the interview below was just the tip of the iceberg -- but just a deeper sense of connection to the Church in my native land, and lots of gratitude for the gift of faith in our lives.]

Thursday, May 29, 2008

Challenges: discipleship & evangelization

[This is part 5 of a 5-part interview with Fr. Jose Panadan SJ, an Indian Jesuit missionary. Introduction and links to previous parts.]

It sounds like proper catechesis is a big challenge …

Yes, definitely.

… is that a priority of the mission?

Yes, absolutely, though it is a huge challenge, both from the point of limited resources on our part, and lack of time and enthusiasm among the people. However, the children get regular catechesis in the residential schools.

What is the sense of attachment to the person of Christ among the people?

Very little among the adults. For the children, while they are with us, this is strong. However, there are small core numbers of loyal and faithful Christians here.
The small number of Christian families among these castes is a huge challenge for the continuity of the faith: because of strict endogamous practices, many girls of Christian families are married to Hindus, and stop practicing the faith. Same with boys.

Social ostracism by non-Christians is also very strong.

It seems that many elements associated with a Christian identity, or response to the Gospel are missing, or present only at a shallow level. Would you that the missionary approach you mentioned above – samajdharma versus sadhanadharma is problematic?

I would say that there are limitations to this method of evangelization.

Such as?

Religion and culture are closely bound concepts, which are very hard to distinguish or separate. When we convert people using this approach, as I have said before, their Christian identity remains very ambiguous.

If one asks the question, “Who is the Christian here?” the answer seems far from clear from the point of view of the universal Church. For the people, as well as the missionaries, their following the Ishupanth, i.e. having a devotion to Christ, and accepting him as the purnavtar means that they are Christian, notwithstanding the other challenges.

Isn’t there a compromise with the Gospel when it comes to even a tentative acceptance of caste, especially if one understands caste to be inherently discriminatory?

Yes. However, it is such a deeply entrenched reality: one has to deal with it, and live with it and accept it as a temporary accommodation, that, one hopes, will diminish with the passing generations.

Has it diminished with the longer established Christians in Gujarat, such as the Kheda Christians? Or, for that matter, even older Christians all over the country, going back to the apostolic Christian communities, where casteism is rampant?

Well, caste identity is still strong among Indian Christians, especially when it comes to endogamous practices. However, I have to say that discriminatory practices do seem to have diminished among Indian Christians in general, notwithstanding some very public conflicts, such as we have heard of in recent years from Tamil Nadu or elsewhere.

Many people have made the analogy between the caste system and slavery in the West …

That is quite an apt analogy. The mindset of slavery was not overthrown overnight, and not without a bitter struggle.

So what about discipleship? Isn’t that at one level the heart of evangelization?

We have to make a distinction between following Jesus and becoming disciples of Jesus.

Could you elaborate?

As a result of our missionary works, there will be some people who will be inspired and motivated by Christianity, the message and person of Jesus (like Gandhiji, for example). However, they may not, for a variety of reasons, follow through to the step of publicly joining the Church, through baptism, for example. These are the followers of Jesus.

… such as the Kristabhaktas in Varanasi …

Yes. Disciples on the other hand, will be those who, through baptism, consciously take up the responsibility of living and proclaiming Christ.

But, not everyone who is newly baptized is a disciple. It seems that one has many “followers of Jesus” (or, in some cases, those who just look to the missions for material benefit) among the baptized.

True.

So, again, the question is, how does one create disciples, as opposed to just followers, or just sacramentalized, nominal Christians? Some of the baptized in these missions, the way you have described them, I would hesitate to call even “followers of Jesus.” So, it seems further distinctions are necessary. So, how does one create disciples? [This, I should add, is one of the central challenges of the Church in the West as well!]

I suppose, one begins by identifying a receptive group … “followers of Jesus.”

… like the first Christians, and the God-fearers who surrounded the synagogue …

Yes … and invite them and work with them to discipleship. I have seen this myself, when people come up to me and say, “Father, this Ishupanthi life is very inspiring.” And then that becomes an opening to invite them to follow through and become an Ishupanthi themselves.

We have earlier talked about responsive groups when it comes to openness to the Gospel. Two generations after the first caste-missions started in north Gujarat, would you say that these castes are a responsive group?

This is a difficult evaluation to make. However, the Church is committed to continuing her work here. We are not ready to abandon the people. Not at all.

Changing gears, what about the challenge of persecution?

The only direct physical violence I have faced is from so-called Catholics who were upset that I could not provide them with the particular economic assistance they were looking for! However, intimidation and harassment are rampant, from government authorities, Hindu fundamentalist groups, and the general air of suspicion with which we are regarded by non-Christians.

However, there has also been active persecution of the Church in Gujarat?

Yes, in north Gujarat, a few decades back, there was an active persecution: lies were spread about us killing cows and drinking their blood in the Eucharist; a senior missionary was beaten up and false accusations filed against him which lead to his imprisonment.

In the south, in 1999, there was a fierce persecution in the Dangs district, which received national and international attention.

So, yes, periodically, the fundamentalist Hindu activists, manage to incite persecutions.

At one level, the Church recognizes that the reality of persecution will continue till the end of the world. However, at a human level, there seems to be some compromise in our missionary zeal in the face of persecution. We think, “Well, why should we invite trouble?”

Often in our experience, the light of the Lord is not visible clearly during persecution. We tend to pray, “when is my God going to show Himself as more powerful than the other gods?” Or, “Wouldn’t be nice if He worked a miracle through me right about now?”

This underscores the need for constant spiritual renewal.

Hindus simply cannot grasp the concept of religious conversion, as in changing one’s religious affiliation. Many oppose the Christian attempt to evangelize vehemently … I am thinking for instance of Arun Shourie’s book on conversion. Conversion is described as spiritual violence. How do you respond to this?

As a Christian, and as a missionary, it is my primary responsibility to preach and proclaim Christ. And I am convinced that the message and person of Jesus Christ has universal relevance. In doing so, if, people decide to become Christian, then I will welcome them. We absolutely do not coerce, or force people into becoming Christian, in any way. Besides, who am I to resist the Holy Spirit, if He is drawing someone to Christ?

I have a deep respect for Hindus and Hinduism, though definitely, not everything in Hinduism. This is not an attack on Hinduism. However, we have our own beliefs.

However, not just non-Christians, even many Catholics: theologians, priests, religious, seem to have come to the conclusion, that in today’s age, especially in the light of a new-found appreciation for religious pluralism, it is not necessary for the Church, to invite others to become Christian. Would you say that these views are common in the Church in India?

It is quite common. The general attitude seems to be, “Well, if someone happens to come our way, we will of course work with them. But we are not going to pursue conversions.”

Is that not discouraging for you?

Well, it occasionally makes me re-examine my own convictions, certainly. But, my own convictions about evangelization remain strong.

Have you had any dealings with evangelical Christians?

In 2001, I spent a month living with evangelical Christians in the Dangs district of south Gujarat.

And what was that like?

I was deeply impressed by the following things: the devotion to the Word of God. Not only devotion, but the familiarity even of the illiterate people with the Word of God. Their enthusiasm of these Christians to proclaim the Word with others. Furthermore, even though in comparison to Catholic groups, the material needs of these communities are not really taken care of, there was a deep loyalty to the person of Jesus. And like one sees in Catholic groups, there are also transformations such as giving up alcoholism, witchcraft, a reduction in extra-marital affairs (which are quite common among tribals).

I have seen illiterate, tribal lay people leading and conducting prayer services regularly. This is also common among Catholics in the tribal belt. Moreover, I saw lay missionaries from other parts of India working far from home – something that is unheard of among the Catholics. Yes, we have priests and religious, but they have institutional security and protection that these lay people do not.

I should add that this is a dated picture, that may not reflect current reality.

What about caste?
Well, these were tribals, so there is no question of caste.

And what didn’t impress you?

A rather literalistic interpretation of the Word of God. A very negative portrayal of Mother Mary. A strong focus on hell. It is almost that the fear of hell is emphasized. Not making a conscious effort towards integral development of these Christians – so their material needs are not taken care of.

In north Gujarat, I had a kind of informal rapport with a few evangelical groups that were active in the area. I have attended their prayer meetings, and preached there as well.

So, there is some sense of ecumenical collaboration?

Yes.

How widespread is this?

Not very, but it is picking up. And there isn’t much of a conscious effort by the Church to promote this.

Is there an attempt by Catholic missionaries to work more closely with evangelicals?

After the 1999 persecution, there has definitely been a conscious effect to work together. On the other hand, the Catholic Church does dissociate itself from some groups that pursue very aggressive evangelization.

Moreover, the Charismatic Renewal has also brought in some of the positive elements of the evangelical groups, into the Catholic Church in Gujarat – such as familiarity with the Word of God, lay participation and leadership (such as at prayer meetings), and an overall deeper commitment to discipleship.

Father, there seems to be so much that is opposed to your work: certainly from outside the Church, but also from inside, whether it be the downplaying of the missionary impulse, or the always present weakness and sinfulness of the human side of the Church. What keeps you going?

I keep going back to the story of Abraham, which was such an integral part of my original sense of call. I left my home and my family in response to that call, to be a blessing to the nations, or that God would use me to be a blessing to the nations. And no matter how much good I might be instrumental in bringing about through work of development and social uplift, at the deepest level, I cannot be a blessing without proclaiming Christ.

Challenges: Inculturation

[This is part 4 of a 5-part interview with Fr. Jose Panadan, an Indian Jesuit missionary. Introduction and links to other parts.]

What are some challenges that mission in Gujarat faces today?

Well inculturation: The identity of the new Christian remains very ambiguous. We have introduced new religious concepts (praying to Ishu (Jesus), or venerating Mata Mariya) into a traditional Hindu culture. However, so many elements of the original culture remain, and it becomes difficult to determine what elements ought to be displaced, or even can be displaced.

Caste: How to fight against the inherently discriminatory caste identity and build a sense of belonging to a Church which transcends caste identity – this is perhaps the biggest challenge facing not just the Gujarati missions, but the entire Church in India, where, in some places, caste discrimination has been practiced by Christians for centuries.

Even the word Khristi (Christian) in these areas has a very derogatory connotation among non-Christians. It is associated with being Dalit, and has a pejorative sense. We do not use this word with our people in north Gujarat, who are not Dalit, but caste Hindus, (even though at the lower end of the caste hierarchy).

Christianity is referred to as Ishupanth, the Way of Jesus (which is also very biblical, of course!). These castes are used to having various panths or religious paths, such as Kabirpanth or Nirantpanth. Our people are the Ishupanthis.

In the north Gujarat mission, there is a slow – very slow – change in the caste mindset. For instance, the concept of roti vyavhar (breaking bread only with one’s caste members) is slowly breaking down. However, this process will take generations.

Vegetarianism: In the north Gujarat missions, we are dealing with a strictly vegetarian community, which is also very poor and illiterate. How does one introduce biblical concepts, such as animal sacrifice, or even the consuming of Christ’s blood and body, in a world where vegetarianism is integral to their social & religious identity?

Child marriage: the castes are strictly endogamous, and marrying children off by the age of 10, though illegal, is a common practice, that is extremely difficult to challenge.

Worshipping the old gods: it is very common to go the villagers’ houses, and see images of the Hindu gods. In fact, we hardly see any Christian images. If we give them free calendars with icons or pictures of Jesus, they throw them away!

In what sense, can these new Christians – who may have been baptized, and may have learned how to pray to Ishu (but, even that, not exclusively) – in what sense can these people be called Christian? What kind of conversion – in the broadest sense of the word – has taken place?

Exclusivity of worship is a very alien concept to Hinduism. So, though these people may have accepted Christ as the purnavatar (fullest incarnation of God), there is no sense that this means that one ceases to worship the other gods. This calls for a certain pastoral sensitivity from the missionaries.

Conversion as a call to a transformation of life and outlook: we can certainly see developments in this area, especially among the children who are in our residential schools, as well as those who have graduated. For instance, caste barriers are definitely breaking down, there is less discrimination, even forgiveness and reconciliation.

The mission has also been involved in various socio-economical development activities: providing housing, watershed management programs, forming women’s cooperatives, which are also having a positive impact on the lives of these people.

The "caste-missions" of north Gujarat

[This is part 3 of a 5-part interview with Fr. Jose Panadan SJ, an Indian Jesuit missionary. Introduction and links to other parts.]

You have mentioned that the concept behind the north Gujarat caste missions is unique among missions in India. Could you elaborate?

The missions began in 1964, while the Council was in progress. There were was a conscious attempt to utilize the philosophy of the famous early 19th century Indian Christian convert Brahmabandhab Upadhyaya (the Wikepedia link also has the text of a famous hymn composed by him, Vande Sacitananada, which uses Vedic imagery and is popular among Indian Christians), who proposed a “Hindu by culture, Christian by faith” outlook, and even talked of being a “Hindu Christian.” Upadhyaya’s ideas were frowned upon by his contemporary co-religionists, and did not really catch on.

The the north Gujarat missionary approach has developed Upadhyaya's ideas, and distinguishes between samajdharma (which refers to one’s social obligations that the culture would expect) versus sadhanadharma (which is personal faith and devotion).

What were the practical consequences of this approach?

For instance, a person can maintain his caste identity: however, at the time of baptism, converts are asked to make a promise that they will not discriminate on the basis of caste. Other religious markers, such as vegetarianism, and incorporating various Hindu festivals – such as the monthly celebration of the full-moon (poonam), Navratri (a winter festival associated with Diwali) – and reinterpreting them from a Christian perspective. For the celebration of marriage and funerals, the mission has come up with an inculturated rite that involves various Hindu elements. These rites have been approved by the Indian Bishops.

Another example would be the incorporation of the custom of namni, by which the guru is honored. In local custom, the guru has an important role, and is the mediator between the divine and the people. One can see clear parallels with the Christian concept of priesthood. So, after Mass, the priest sits cross-legged, and the bhakta (devotee or disciple) will line up and bow (namni) three times to the priest, after applying rice and kunku (red powder) to the forehead, offering flowers and money (a few spare coins).

I understand that Our Lady continues to have an evangelical role in the lives of the people …

Yes, absolutely. Another example of inculturation would be introducing Our Lady in the place of the kulmata (clan or caste goddess), as a patroness of the new Christians. We do our best to catechize the people about the proper veneration due to Mother Mary. She is venerated as Our Lady of the Camels, Unteshwari Mata. There is a major pilgrimage to her shrine in Unteshwari during the Navratri festival in winter. While the Hindus celebrate Navratri, our people have seven nights of prayer and devotion, culminating with the pilgrimage on the 8th day. Some 15,000 people gather for the festival annually, which has gained prominence among all Christians, even non-Gujaratis resident in the state, and also draws non-Christians.

Last year, we marked 25 years of the Unteshwari Mandir (temple). Indian Catholics – Goans, Keralites – from as far away as Singapore, made a journey to share their testimonies of the power of the intercession of Unteshwari Mata in their lives.

I myself made a special pilgrimage to Unteshwari Mata to ask for a child for my childless brother and sister-in-law. They have since been blessed with children.

In the tribal belt, Our Lady is known by different names as well. She is also venerated around the state under various names: Niradharo ni Mata (Our Lady of the Forsaken), Anatho ni Mata (Our Lady of the Orphans), Vishweshwari Mata (Our Lady Queen of the Universe), etc. Devotion to her is very strong everywhere.

Describe the celebration of the Eucharist with these new Christians

Mass is known as parampuja, the Supreme Puja or prayer. In the tribal belt, we say Mass in their own dialects, elsewhere in Gujarati. When we celebrate Mass in the villages, local tribal customs are incorporated into Mass – for instance, during the penitential rite, a man and a woman from the community bring water to the altar, which is blessed, and then shared among the people. Singing and dancing precede Mass.

Everywhere in the villages with new Christians, Mass is offered in sitting position, which is the traditional Hindu posture for prayer . There are no churches or chapels in the villages, so I have said Mass in lemon orchards and in the fields, with goats roaming around!

Where there are churches or chapels, especially in the well-established communities of the Kheda Christians, Mass would look more traditional.

An overview of the Church in Gujarat

[This is part 2 of a 5-part interview with Fr. Jose Panadan SJ. Introduction and links to other parts.]

Can you give a brief overview of the Church in Gujarat today?

In 1891, 6 individuals from the Vankar (weavers’) caste (of Dalits) from Kheda district, who were working in St. Joseph Convent in Bandra, Bombay, as kitchen and cleaning staff, were baptized. This was the seed that lead to the beginning of the modern Catholic Church in Gujarat.

There are four Diocese (Gandhinagar, Ahmedabad, Baroda and Rajkot [which is an Oriental Diocese]). There are maybe about 200,000 Christians in Gujarat, out of a population of about 55 million.

The majority of Christians belong to the Dalit community (the “outcastes” or “untouchables” in India’s mind-bogglingly complex and infuriatingly entrenched caste system). Thanks to missionary activity, however, the Dalits are among the most educated groups in Gujarat. Originally, the Dalit Christians were from the Kheda and Anand districts, which remain the center of local Christian (as opposed to Christians who have immigrated from other parts of India) life in the state. There are a good number of vocations from these communities, several of whom serve overseas as well. The growth in the Dalit community has stalled over the past few generations: currently, growth is only by birth, and not conversions.

About 40 years ago the Church started venturing into the tribal pockets of Gujarat: Dangs, Surat, Bharuch, Valsad and Vadodara districts in the South, and Sabarkantha in the north. The growth among tribals in south Gujarat was enormous, which has stalled a bit in the past decade or so. The growth in the north was less spectacular. There is an enthusiastic vitality in the life of the Church among the tribals. India’s tribals are not traditionally part of the Hindu religion – though neo-Hindu activists are trying to change that. The religious traditions are generally animistic. There seems to be a correlation between the “Hinduization” of tribal communities, and their receptivity to the Gospel. The less “Hinduized” communities have seen a lot of growth, across India, in places such as the Chhota Nagpur belt in the east.

Around the same time, there was a mandate from Rome to reach out to other communities and castes, beyond the Dalits and tribals. This is the root of the so-called “caste missions” of north Gujarat. These have worked mainly among the Ravals, Thakors, Darbars, Kohli Patels – who are all part of the “Other Backward Caste” (OBC) classification under Indian law – and there have even been some miniscule conversions among higher castes, such as Patels and Brahmins.

What about Saurashtra?

The Rajkot Diocese, which covers the culturally and geographically distinct areas of Saurashtra and Kutch, is a Syro-Malabar jurisdiction, because the area was given to the CMI congregation to develop the missions. The CMIs, being an Oriental congregation, were granted permission to erect an Oriental Diocese. Incidentally the Syro-Malabar liturgy is celebrated in Gujarati translation in this area (and not the original Malayalam, which is the language of the state of Kerala, the home of the Syro-Malabar Rite). Masses in the Latin Rite are also said. There are really no indigenous conversions in this area, and most Catholics are immigrants from other parts of the state or the country.

All the four diocese have a number of educational, social and medical institutions, oriented towards the integral development of the surrounding society, irrespective of caste or creed. For instance, there are some 20,000 children from poor families of all religions, in residential schools around the state, who receive a free education.

Incidentally, for many years, some of the food for these children is provided by Catholic Relief Services from the United States.

What about local religious and priestly vocations?

There are priests and religious working in Gujarat from many states (such as myself). There is also a healthy number of local Gujarati vocations as well. And there are two indigenous sisters’ congregations which originated in Gujarat: The Little Sisters of Francis Xavier and the Devpriya Sisters in Rajkot.

Breaking bread with the broken: a missionary's vocational journey

[This is Part 1 of a 5-part interview with Fr. Jose Panadan SJ, a Jesuit missionary from India. Introduction and links to other parts.]

You are a Jesuit priest of the Gujarat Province (in Western India); but you are from the state of Kerala originally. Why did you choose to go so far from your home?

Right from my early childhood, my life was associated with the priest and the nuns in my parish. I was an altar boy. During that time, I always felt very attracted to the life of a priest, and felt that it was a holy vocation. After childhood I felt that call that I should be a priest. This desire was more and more developed as I heard missionary priests from my home parish who would return home for holidays and preach during Mass.

I have seen a lot of misery, poverty from my childhood: family struggles, struggles of the people; therefore I felt that I am being called by the Lord to work towards a better society, and sensed a call to be a missionary. I had a sense that the problems outside Kerala were much bigger.

During that period of my life I came across so man priests and nuns who radiated joy and seemed completely fulfilled in what they were doing.

From high school days, the story of Abraham and his call, to leave his people, and his journey into the unknown, to leave all that is familiar to him, to be a blessing to the nations – this story really resonated with me a lot, and I trace my desire to be a missionary to this story.

When I was in 12th grade, one of my friends, in passing, told me, “The Jesuits or the Don Bosco Fathers [Salesians]… Choose one of these congregations.” I knew nothing at all about them. I had never met a Jesuit in my life. But somehow, that particular proposal had an echo within me; I can’t really give a reason why. During that time my elder sister, who is a religious in north India, was looking for other congregations for me to join (such as the Vincentians, the CMIs [both are Syro-Malabar Oriental congregations]). But somehow, I wanted to be a Jesuit. So, I found two addresses of the Jesuits in two different provinces, and both called me for an interview on the same day and the same time, but at two different ends of the country! Initially, the Patna province (in northeastern India) was more attractive, because there were many sisters from my village working in India. Somehow, I still have no idea why, I ended up going for the interview to the Gujarat province.

I was 17 years old. That was the first time I traveled in a train; it was also the first time that I wore a pair of trousers in my life. [The normal village dress for men is a mundu¸ a kind of sarong.] I didn’t speak any other language other than Malayalam. I was going to a completely unknown part of the world, and leaving the family as an economic provider (as the eldest son in a poor family, I had run a side business since the 8th standard, running a small village convenience store): yet, I had no sense of sadness or fear. There was a fire burning within me. I don’t think I have had that much faith since! My family was, however, fully behind me.

Could you describe what the Catholic parish life is like in a village that you grew up in at that time?

There is one village church – 99% of the village is Catholic (of the Syro-Malabar Rite). The church had so many different sodalities and associations – such as the Marian association, the youth group, altar boys association, Mission league (to pray for missionaries). All the children and the youth would be involved in one or the other of these groups, which kept them involved in the life of the church. Every two months there was a major feast of the church which would gather the people together, and which would give a particular rhythm to the year. Daily evening prayer – the family rosary, was prayed by every house, at 8:00 pm. On holidays, the parish would organize various activities for the children as well. There was a convent of the Adoration Sisters in the village, who did a lot of catechetical work with the children, and inculcated a deep religiosity in all of us. The sisters would organize the village girls to collect some rice from every house, which would then be brought to the church and distributed to the poor. Within the village, there was also a major sanitarium for leprosy patients (the second largest such institutions in the state). This was run by the government, but the parishioners were very much involved in the lives of the residents of this institution. This also had an impact on our lives – the clothes that I wore were stitched by the residents; I was taught how to ride a bicycle by one of the residents. There was a bond, an association, with the patients. And of course, our schooling was in the church school. (Incidentally, every church in Kerala has a school associated with it. This was an idea developed by Bl. Chavara Elias Kuriakose, the founder of the CMI Congregation, who saw the need for education among the people).

Our lives were completely centered around the church.

How did your desire to be a missionary grow during your formation with the Jesuits?

For the first three years I was pursuing a college degree at Gujarat University in Ahmedabad. During the Diwali and Christmas vacations, we used to be sent to mission stations. I was deeply impressed and inspired by the work of the missionaries, wherever I went. This confirmed my sense of vocation. The Novitiate was in a village between Gandhinagar (the capital of Gujarat) and Ahmedabad (the largest city and commercial center). During the Novitiate, we had numerous “experiments,” or experiences: begging (survive for 15 days purely by begging), a hospital experience (run by the brothers of Mother Theresa’s congregation, or an old age home), a village experience (a pair of us go to a village for a month). These experiences gave me a clearer picture of the suffering of the people, and various ways in which the Jesuits were working with them, as well as deepening the call to serve people. Of course, the highlight of the Novitiate was the 30-day Ignatian retreat focused on the Spiritual Exercises.

After the two-year Novitiate, I took my vows (which, in the Society, are perpetual). This was followed by a two year Juniorate, which is focused on learning about Gujarati language and culture, which deepened my love for the people of Gujarat.
After this, I was sent for two years of philosophical studies at DeNobili College in Pune (about 100 miles SSE of Bombay), which were followed by Regency (i.e. two year pastoral experience) in Anand (in Kheda district, and the home of the largest number of local Christians in the state), where I developed a love for pastoral work. My earlier desire to pursue work in education was diminishing. After two years of Regency, I was sent to the Regional Theologate in Ahmedabad. During the first year of Theology, I found myself spending a lot of time in the villages, and was again attracted to the pastoral work and missionary life there. It was during this time that a sense of call to pastoral missionary work really deepened, despite the clear sense that this would be a more difficult life than working in educational institutions.

A few months before ordination, we were given our assignments, and I found myself being sent to the missions of north Gujarat. This was a huge disappointment. I had thought I would go to the flourishing missions of south Gujarat. It was then that I re-read a letter that I had written prior to joining, to the vocation promoter, about my joy and enthusiasm for being a missionary. And I had a clear sense that though the north Gujarat work was more challenging, this is where God was calling me.

I was ordained in December 2001, in my home parish in Kerala (this is an Indian custom), by Mar Varkey Vithayathil, the major Archbishop of the Syro-Malabar Church.

The logo that I chose for my ordination card was, “Breaking bread with the broken.”

The Christian mission in Gujarat

Map of Gujarat showing district boundaries and major missions. Scanned from The History of the Catholic Church in Gujarat, by Fr. Carlos Suriá SJ. © 1990. Gujarat Sahitya Prakash. Anand.


Over the past few days, I have had the pleasure to share the company of Fr. Jose Panadan SJ, a Jesuit of the Gujarat Province from western India, who is in the United States on a brief visit. Fr. Jose* is the brother-in-law of a close friend from college. He works as a missionary in the northern part of Gujarat, and we have had several far-ranging as well as deep conversations about mission today. He agreed to sit down for an interview for the blog, conducted late into the night over three evenings, over several cups of chai.

For me it has been an eye-opening experience, to learn so much, in great detail, about the life of the Church in Gujarat, my "home state" (i.e. the state my parents hail from). We lived in Gujarat for only three years while I was growing up, and, as a convert (I was baptized at the age of 21 in Bombay; not in Gujarat), I am not at all familiar with the Church in the state.

In addition, I have learned a great deal more about the social and cultural realities of poor and low-caste Indians, a world that is far more alien to me than anything that I have experienced as an immigrant in the United States.

Finally, what has been most moving for me, has been to get an opportunity to learn some basic Christian prayers in Gujarati**, my "mother-tongue" (though by no means my first language, which is English): the Sign of the Cross, the Our Father and the Haily Mary.

The interview is detailed and fills over 11 pages in a Word document. I am breaking it up into the following five parts:

1) Breaking bread with the broken: a missionary's vocational journey
2) An overview of the Church in Gujarat
3) The "caste-missions" of north Gujarat
4) Challenges: inculturation
5) Challenges: discipleship & evangelization.

*Fr. Jose has chosen to use his real name. It is pronounced with the "j" as in "jam", and rhymes with "rose." Appearances notwithstanding, it is not a Spanish name.

** Fr. Jose is from the southern state of Kerala, in the Catholic heartland. His native language is Malayalam. However, he is fluent in Gujarati, as well as English, and it has been a joy speaking Gujarati over the past few days!

Don't worry, I don't get it either ...

[Via Fr. B] Rioters demand a lower caste status in India.
Members of the Gujjar tribe blocked roads into the city and clashed with police as they demanded to be moved to the bottom of society to gain preferential treatment for university placements and government jobs.

More than 45,000 police fired tear gas as Gujjar mobs burnt tyres, hurled stones at passing cars and squatted on roads.

The rioting began last week in Rajasthan, when 39 members of the Gujjar tribe died in clashes with police while protesting the government's refusal to "downgrade" their caste.
This isn't the first time Gujjars have caused trouble ... last year similar protests erupted. That BBC story gives some idea of the complex social reality of caste, and how it intersects with a democratic political system.

The problem, of course, is the hugely over-bloated paternalistic Indian state ... everyone wants a piece of the pie that the sarkar wields, for his or her own clan, and the influence that the sarkar has in the lives of most Indians would make a Stalinist proud.

This week, my conversations with my Jesuit friend (to be blogged on soon) have been a huge education in some aspects of life in rural India, especially the rock solid grip of caste identity in the lives of the people, which is a foreign country to this city-dweller, raised with Western liberal values of human dignity and liberty. Just how alien these values remain to the bulk of Indian society, is now starkly clear.

Tuesday, May 27, 2008

For the feast of St. Augustine of Canterbury ...

... go read the anti-Papist screed of the Dean of the Anglican Cathedral of Sydney.

To be fair, it is also a defense of WYD.

I must say, however, it is refreshing to see Western Anglicans boldly proclaim their belief in something, even if it is the evils of Rome!

Back. Some major blogging ahead ...

A good friend is visiting me this week. He's a Jesuit priest from India, the brother-in-law of a close college friend. It's his first time outside India (it was also his first time in a plane!) ... he's in the US for a summer course, and took some time off to come down South to visit. He works as a missionary with a community of very new Christians. The stories from the mission field are simply unbelievable ... we've had some great conversations, and I hope to do an interview with him for the blog about his experience of direct evangelical work as a missionary in India, as well as share some of many stories that I have heard already.

Stay tuned!

Monday, May 26, 2008

Pensieri su Paolo


"Thoughts on Paul"

Just saw this in the newsletter for Paxbooks (the online store for Libreria Editrice Vaticana) ... a new book collecting Benedict's thoughts on St. Paul. Perfect preparation for the Pauline Year!

... now if only they didn't charge $40+ in shipping from the Vatican ... :: sigh ::

... hiatus continues ..

... am down in Atlanta for the long weekend being social. Blogging will resume shortly.

Thursday, May 22, 2008

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Kennedy's hard road an the privilege of prayer

The Anchoress. Read.

And definitely pray for the Senator and his family.

The Beginning of the Gospel of Barak Obama, the Son of God

According to Mark Shea.

This is brilliant! And hilarious! What is astonishing is that so many of the lines are verbatim quotes from pundits and talking heads.

Here are my favorite verses:
1:26 And there appeared another wonder in heaven: Behold! A great dragon in a pantsuit. And her tail drew the third part of the superdelegates, and did cast them into four star restaurants to schmooze them.

1:27 And there was war in heaven: Blessed Michelle fought against the dragon; that old serpent, called Rodham, and Clinton, which deceiveth the whole electorate.

1:28 There were signs in the Sun and moon, and Blessed Michelle appeared unto millions on televisions, iPods, and streaming computers warning that the consummation of all things was at hand and saying "He that is whole needeth not the physician, but he that is sick. Thy broken hearts are restless till they rest in Obama."

1:29 And behold the Good News spread and multiplied, so that the monks of Clooney came to him and declared, "Master! I will follow you wherever you go!" and a sister of the Halle Name went before him, making straight his path, lest at any time Obama dash his foot against a paper cup.
You have to read the original thing, with all the hyperlinks.

GO MARK SHEA!

All hail the Messiah, Our Hope!

Yeah, it's getting more and more difficult to avoid discussing the election on here. I've been advised to go read the Obama and McCain websites and their platforms. I think I shall. At least as a sop to that part of me that likes to think that I am not a single-issue voter. Um. Make that single-issue-non-voter. :) And in all fairness, as a responsible citizen-(to-be), I should take more interest in the Greatest Story Show on Earth. And of course, good ol' Gilbert Keith has wisdom, as always.
The unconscious democracy of America is a very fine thing. It is a true and deep and instinctive assumption of the equality of citizens, which even voting and elections have not destroyed.
]

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Archbishop Chaput to Roman Catholics for Obama

CNA ran a story with a summary yesterday. Today, the full text of Archbishop Chaput's column is on the First Things blog. Worth reading. He talks about his early involvement in politics, in the Democratic party, as a seminarian, prior to Robert Kennedy's assassination, and then later for Jimmy Carter's re-election bid, when he was a priest in Pennsylvania. He overlooked Carter's waffling on abortion then. And Roman Catholics for Obama seems to be following the same logic. However,
In the years after the Carter loss, I began to notice that very few of the people, including Catholics, who claimed to be "personally opposed" to abortion really did anything about it. Nor did they intend to. For most, their personal opposition was little more than pious hand-wringing and a convenient excuse—exactly as it is today. In fact, I can't name any pro-choice Catholic politician who has been active, in a sustained public way, in trying to discourage abortion and to protect unborn human life—not one. Some talk about it, and some may mean well, but there's very little action. In the United States in 2008, abortion is an acceptable form of homicide. And it will remain that way until Catholics force their political parties and elected officials to act differently.
He goes on to say that on their website, Roman Catholics for Obama quote him on whether it is acceptable for Catholics to vote for a pro-choice candidate ... incompletely, leaving out a very crucial bit
But [Catholics who support pro-choice candidates] also need a compelling proportionate reason to justify it. What is a "proportionate" reason when it comes to the abortion issue? It's the kind of reason we will be able to explain, with a clean heart, to the victims of abortion when we meet them face to face in the next life—which we most certainly will. If we're confident that these victims will accept our motives as something more than an alibi, then we can proceed.
And to conclude:
Changing the views of "pro-choice" candidates takes a lot more than verbal gymnastics, good alibis, and pious talk about "personal opposition" to killing unborn children. I'm sure Roman Catholics for Obama know that, and I wish them good luck. They'll need it.
In a related, but equally neuralgic area, Sherry W has an interesting re-post (from the 2004 election campaign conversation) on issue of communion for pro-abortion politicians. Here's a quote, an issue that I've not really seen addressed anywhere else:
Fisher then made a fascinating comment that I have not heard elsewhere - that there is no basis in Church teaching for comparing two very different "intrinsic evils" and determining that one is objectively and absolutely more grave than the other.

One can compare levels of a similar intrinsic evil. You could say that 4,000 abortions is more grave than 40 or that a genocidal conflict that killed 10,000 was a more grave evil than one in which only 500 died. But you can't, on the basis of current Catholic teaching, categorically determine that abortion, for instance, is always and absolutely more grave than a given unjust war or torture or severe economic injustice. By definition, something that is truly intrinsically evil can't be relatively less evil anymore than a person can be only mostly dead (well, outside the alternate universe of the Princess Bride, anyway - although I did encounter some situations that came pretty close on the cancer unit).

So one cannot state, as definitive Church teaching, that the gravity of the evil of abortion must outweigh all other intrinsic evils or any possible combination of intrinsic evils in our political calculations. An individual could arrive at such a prudential judgment in a particular situation in good faith but an equally faithful Catholic could come to a quite different prudential conclusion in good conscience.
(Emphases in original) Def. read the comments as well. And, Mirror of Justice is having a similar conversation.

Priest charged with sexual molestation allowed to leave the country

That's a Hindu priest, in Houston TX, who's out on a $1 million bond after being arrested on charges of molesting two children in the early 1990s. And he's being allowed to visit India after posting a $10 million guarantee that he will return to the US.

Some poor sap has posted the guarantee for him. I'd like to see a follow-up, to see if he actually does return.

Yes, I'm cynical. Hindu priests generally are temple functionaries, whose job is to perform the rituals, keep the gods -- and the people -- satisfied. There is absolutely no sense of poverty, or charity tied into the job description. (This is different from sadhus or sanyasis, those who renounce the world and wander as mendicants, or go to the forests or mountains to commune with God.) The priests attached to popular temples, whether in India or in the diaspora, live incredibly luxurious styles. As do many (though certainly not all) gurus who attract large followings, especially those in the West.

Read that again: this guy posted a one million dollar bail.

Here's the story from the Indian Express.
In an arrangement described as "unusual" by legal experts, Peter Spiegel, an entrepreneur listed as a managing member, director and treasurer of JKP, Barsana Dham, the corporate name of the temple founded by Saraswati, agreed to pay the massive guarantee money in an arrangement approved by State District Court Judge Charles Ramsay, the American Statesman reported on its website.Saraswati retrieved his passport late last week, according to Hays County court records. A spokesman for Barsana Dham said the priest intends to visit India soon.

Monday, May 19, 2008

Fr. Robert Taft SJ on liturgical reform

The latest America has an article by the eminent historian of Eastern Christianity, Fr. Robert Taft SJ, on the liturgical reform. "Return to our roots: Recovering Western Liturigcal Traditions." It's his analysis of the reforms of the Council, and he offers some suggestions of what Catholics might learn from the East.

The article is subscriber only. I'll produce the entire text below after the jump. [Please go to America and subscribe. Their web-only subscription is at a reduced rate of $12/year right now.]

It's a great read, with lots of good information. However, I found it, at least at first read, strangely dissatisfying. It's not that Fr. Taft is pussyfooting around anything (He's not known for mincing words. For instance, this rather frank discussion about relations with the Orthodox in an interview with John Allen from 2004.) and there is a lot of good historical information: the ways in which the liturgical movement did get good ideas from the East (the recovery of Holy Week, the prayers of epiclesis in the new anaphoras), or the one hugely successful pre-Conciliar reform that, for the first time in history, changed the order of the Sacraments of Initiation (Pius X's Quam Singulari in 1910), and also two main areas that he finds problematic after the reform: the reform of the Sacrament of Penance (no real details given), the Liturgy of the Hours, and (this one really resonates with me), the reception of Holy Communion from the Tabernacle during Mass.
As such, I maintain that the Roman Catholic liturgical renewal in the wake of Vatican II was an overwhelming success, returning the liturgy to the people of God to whom it rightly belongs. The reform mandated by the council was not perfect, because nothing but God is perfect. But it was done as well as was humanly possible at the time, and we owe enormous gratitude and respect to those who had the vision to implement it..
He brushes aside a huge area of concern -- liturgical experimentation and abuses -- and is clearly not happy with the "reform of the reform" agenda (which is hardly a monolithic view; the phrase, if I recall correctly, comes from Cardinal Ratzinger himself.)
My list of what was not done well or not done at all leaves aside the overly creative liturgies and other abuses that accompanied the reform. These were the fault of individuals, and not what Vatican II mandated. Nor does my list include anything the "reformers of the reform" want to reverse, like the celebration of liturgy in the vernacular, Communion in the hand, Mass facing the people or the removal of the tabernacle to a sacrament chapel.
[I didn't know the last was the fruit of the liturgical reforms. Is this correct? I thought separate chapels for the Blessed Sacarament were common in many famous European churches and basilica?] He acknowledges a need for constancy and repetition in liturgy, something, again, the West might learn from the East:
The West might learn from the East to recapture a sense of tradition, and stop getting tripped up in its own clichés. Liturgy should avoid repetition? Repetition is of the essence of ritual behavior. Liturgy should offer variety? Too much variety is the enemy of popular participation. Liturgy should be creative? But whose creativity? It is presumptuous of those who have never manifested the least creativity in any other aspect of their lives to think they are Beethoven and Shakespeare when it comes to liturgy.
Yet, there seems to be a contradiction at the conclusion of the essay: yes, we can learn from the East. But no, we shouldn't ... ?
In the last analysis, the solution to Roman Catholic liturgical problems lies not in an idealization of the Council of Trent or the East. Western Catholics, largely ignorant of the riches of their own living tradition, mistakenly look elsewhere for what they already have. I am disappointed at the failure of contemporary Catholics to understand, appreciate and market the riches of their own Latin tradition. Stuck in the aridity of late-medieval theology, the Catholic West has stalled the great movement of patristic ressourcement initiated in postwar France by authors like Yves Congar, O.P., Marie-Dominique Chenu, O.P., Jean Daniélou, S.J., and Henri de Lubac, S.J.

The Catholic West does not need to turn East, or to a dead-and-gone-forever medieval or Tridentine past; it needs to return to its roots. Latin Christianity is just as apostolic, ancient, traditional, patristic, spiritual and monastic as that of the East. A Christian culture that produced Chartres and Mont-Saint-Michel; Augustine and Cassian; Benedictine monasticism and Cîteaux; Francis of Assisi, Dominic, Ignatius Loyola, John of the Cross and Charles de Foucauld; Teresa of ávila, Thérèse of Lisieux and Blessed Mother Teresa; and the popes of my own lifetime does not have to copy anybody except Jesus Christ.
What I found dissatisfying was this:

Just what is this authentic Western liturgical tradition that has been eclipsed by the corruption of the "Latin middle ages?" It would have been nice for complete non-experts like myself to have some sense of what Fr. Taft thinks is the direction one should go in. From what little I know of the "reform of the reform" perspective (at the heart of which, I would place -- and this probably reflects my own limited reading in this area -- Cardinal Ratzinger's Spirit of the Liturgy), I don't think most people are talking about blindly aping anyone. In an article about liturgical reform, just what sense does it make to say that we don't have to copy anyone "but Jesus Christ?" That is, of course true, but it has the all the force of a pious platitude, rather than indicating a path towards recovery of an authentic, Patristic tradition that has been buried by medieval accretions.

And seriously: can one look at the reformed liturgy as it is often celebrated, with all the issues that he points out (of false creativity, novelty, and a hundred local self-styled Shakespeares and Beethovens doing their thing) and say that this is the authentic recovery of this great Latin patristic tradition which nurtured all the saints he just cited, and gave us the glories of Chartres and Citeaux?

[This has to be a tangent, because I really am not at all familiar with the literature on the issue, but what of the Conciliar and post-Conciliar concern with inculturation of the liturgy? Once we move outside the West, how has the reform played out here?]

Full text after the jump.

Return to Our Roots
Recovering Western Liturgical Traditions
By Robert F. Taft | MAY 26, 2008
the cover of America, the Catholic magazine

T hese are frustrating times for Vatican II loyalists, as the council's mandated liturgical renewal comes under attack by those who "look back in anger"—to borrow the title of John Osborne's 1956 play—at real or imagined deficiencies of the liturgical renewal carried out after the Second Vatican Council. I have been asked to comment on the present situation from my perspective as a specialist in the liturgical heritage of the Christian East. Note that I am neither a liturgist nor a liturgical reformer, but a historian of the liturgy who believes his task is to point out the facts of liturgical history and what they might mean for today. As such, I maintain that the Roman Catholic liturgical renewal in the wake of Vatican II was an overwhelming success, returning the liturgy to the people of God to whom it rightly belongs. The reform mandated by the council was not perfect, because nothing but God is perfect. But it was done as well as was humanly possible at the time, and we owe enormous gratitude and respect to those who had the vision to implement it. So rather than re-examine what has already been done well, I will concentrate on what the reform did not do well.

My list of what was not done well or not done at all leaves aside the overly creative liturgies and other abuses that accompanied the reform. These were the fault of individuals, and not what Vatican II mandated. Nor does my list include anything the "reformers of the reform" want to reverse, like the celebration of liturgy in the vernacular, Communion in the hand, Mass facing the people or the removal of the tabernacle to a sacrament chapel.

A list of work still to be done would include the order of the Christian initiation of infants, the Liturgy of the Hours, the practice of taking holy Communion from the tabernacle during Mass and the retreat from any meaningful reform of the sacrament of reconciliation, which has left confession a disappearing sacrament, at least in North America. Regarding all of these except the last, Catholics might learn from the East.
Liturgical Renewal and the Christian East

In the pre- and post-Vatican II Roman Catholic liturgical renewal, the following were directly inspired by the East: the restoration of Holy Week and the Easter Vigil under Pius XII, liturgy in the vernacular, the Spirit-epiclesis in the new post-Vatican II Roman-rite anaphoras (which calls on the Spirit to consecrate these gifts), eucharistic concelebration, Communion under both species, the permanent (and married) diaconate, the recomposition of the ancient unity of Christian initiation in the justly famous Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults, revisions in the rites of ordination and confirmation, and the attempts (in my view unsuccessful) to restore the Liturgy of the Hours.

This influence resulted from a long process of maturation in two fundamental phases: a felt need and a search for solutions consonant with tradition. The need was to renew the Roman liturgy so that, as the council's "Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy" says, the faithful might "be led to that full, conscious, and active participation in liturgical celebration which is demanded by the very nature of the liturgy, and to which the Christian people...have a right and an obligation by reason of their baptism" (No. 14). The solution consonant with tradition demanded that the rites "be restored to the vigor they had in the tradition of the Fathers" (No. 50).

That is where the East came in, when the liturgical movement among francophone Catholics drew inspiration from contacts with the Orthodox of the Russian emigration who had found refuge in France in the aftermath of the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917. As a protagonist and historian of the liturgical movement, Dom Olivier Rousseau, O.S.B. (1898-1984), explained, this was because "the Orthodox Church has preserved the liturgical spirit of the early church, and continues to live by this spirit, to drink from it as from its purest source.... This church has never departed in its piety and its offices from the liturgical spirit of the early church, to which it has always remained faithful."

What the liturgical movement did, however, was not so much imitate existing Eastern usage, as make decisions on the basis of perceived pastoral need and then find justification and support in patristic and Eastern precedents, as interpreted in the light of those needs. In other words, Western Catholics' view of Eastern liturgy and its presumed virtues is simply a mirror of their own deepest longings.

One such virtue is that Eastern liturgy has remained a stable, holistic, traditional synthesis of ritual and symbolic structure that permits liturgy to do what it is supposed to do without the self-consciousness of present-day liturgy in the West. There is a sameness, familiarity and repetitiveness at the very basis of day-to-day human culture, and Eastern tradition has retained this. Men and women who wish to gather to praise God need regularity and consistency in their prayer, which is why people object to having their worship changed every time their pastor reads a new article.

The West might learn from the East to recapture a sense of tradition, and stop getting tripped up in its own clichés. Liturgy should avoid repetition? Repetition is of the essence of ritual behavior. Liturgy should offer variety? Too much variety is the enemy of popular participation. Liturgy should be creative? But whose creativity? It is presumptuous of those who have never manifested the least creativity in any other aspect of their lives to think they are Beethoven and Shakespeare when it comes to liturgy.
Where Vatican II Failed

With a view of liturgy as tradition in mind, let me return to my list of what the Second Vatican Council failed to do well or did not do at all.

Initiation. In the theology of the fathers of the church, the church's earthly song of liturgical praise was but the icon—in the Pauline sense of mysterion, a visible appearance that is bearer of the reality it represents—of the once-and-for-all accomplished salvific worship of the Father by his Son. God the Father saves through the saving economy of his incarnate Son, Jesus, who is the icon of that saving God's work. The church is the present, living icon of that saving Jesus, and the church's ministerial acts—what we call the liturgy—are the efficacious signs of Jesus' salvific ministry at work among us.

This is the unitary patristic vision that the Flemish Dominican Edward Schillebeeckx recovered in his sacramental theology, systematizing in modern terms what fathers like Pope Leo the Great said in his Homily 74 on the Ascension: "What was visible in our Redeemer has passed over into sacraments." What Jesus did during his earthly ministry remains permanently, visibly and tangibly available in mystery through the liturgical ministry of the church. The breakdown of this holistic patristic vision into its component parts in the medieval church—leading to a list of seven discrete sacraments—ultimately dissolved in the West the ancient order and unity of the triple mystery of initiation in baptism-chrismation (confirmation)-Eucharist.

The denouement of this collapse came, ironically, as a result of one of the most successful liturgical reforms in history: St. Pius X's decree Sacra Tridentina Synodus (1905) on the frequency of Communion, and his lowering of the age of first holy Communion from adolescence to the age of reason in Quam Singulari (1910). Pius X's stunningly successful reform had the deleterious side effect of shifting the time of first Communion to before confirmation—an unheard-of novelty totally contrary to the universal ancient tradition of East and West—and displacing first confession so that it preceded first Communion. This destroyed the age-old sequence of the rites of Christian initiation. And it turned the sacrament of penance, originally intended to reconcile grave sinners, into one of the rites of Christian initiation in the Catholic West.

The Liturgy of the Hours. Similarly, in the East the Liturgy of the Hours has remained what it was meant to be, an integral part of the worship of God's people. Here too the West has lost its balance, reducing the Divine Office to the prayer of clergy and monastics. In the discussions of the post-Vatican II commission for the reform of the Divine Office, the overriding concern was to produce a prayer book for clergy and religious that would be prayed for the most part in private. Celebration "with the people" was deemed desirable, but the whole tenor and vocabulary of the commission discussions show that this was not the point of departure for understanding the Liturgy of the Hours.

The historical basis underlying much of the debate was gravely deficient, based as it was almost exclusively on post-medieval Latin tradition, with its defects of clericalism, privatization and ignorance of early and Eastern tradition. Under these conditions, it is not surprising that the new Roman Liturgy of the Hours, despite its title, is no liturgy at all, but still just a breviary, or book of prayers.

Communion from the tabernacle. Distributing holy Communion during Mass from hosts already consecrated at a previous Eucharist was totally unthinkable in the early Christian East and West. It is still inconceivable in any authentic Eastern Christian usage today. Nevertheless, it would become and has remained a common practice in Roman-rite usage despite its repeated rejection by the highest Catholic magisterial authorities: in Pope Benedict XIV's encyclical Certiores Effecti (1742); in Pope Pius XII's encyclical Mediator Dei (1947); in the 1962-1965 instructions and norms for the distribution of holy Communion at Mass; and most recently in the third edition (2002) of the General Instruction of the Roman Missal (No. 85).

The reason for disapproval is obvious to anyone familiar with eucharistic theology. The dynamic of the Eucharist is one continuous movement, in which the common community gifts are offered, accepted by God and returned to the community to be shared as God's gift to us, a sharing of something we receive from God and give to one another—in short, a communion.

Communion from the tabernacle is like inviting guests to a banquet, then preparing and eating it oneself, while serving one's guests the leftovers from a previous meal. The symbolism of a common partaking of a common meal is completely destroyed. Holy Communion is the ecclesial communion of the faithful with one another in Christ by sharing together the fruits of his sacrificial heavenly banquet they are offering together. Communion from the tabernacle can hardly claim to signify this. The Latin Middle Ages had forgotten it, and the widespread continuance of the practice of Communion from the tabernacle, which as been repeatedly stigmatized by the highest magisterium, shows that Western Catholic eucharistic piety is still stuck in the same medieval rut.

In the last analysis, the solution to Roman Catholic liturgical problems lies not in an idealization of the Council of Trent or the East. Western Catholics, largely ignorant of the riches of their own living tradition, mistakenly look elsewhere for what they already have. I am disappointed at the failure of contemporary Catholics to understand, appreciate and market the riches of their own Latin tradition. Stuck in the aridity of late-medieval theology, the Catholic West has stalled the great movement of patristic ressourcement initiated in postwar France by authors like Yves Congar, O.P., Marie-Dominique Chenu, O.P., Jean Daniélou, S.J., and Henri de Lubac, S.J.

The Catholic West does not need to turn East, or to a dead-and-gone-forever medieval or Tridentine past; it needs to return to its roots. Latin Christianity is just as apostolic, ancient, traditional, patristic, spiritual and monastic as that of the East. A Christian culture that produced Chartres and Mont-Saint-Michel; Augustine and Cassian; Benedictine monasticism and Cîteaux; Francis of Assisi, Dominic, Ignatius Loyola, John of the Cross and Charles de Foucauld; Teresa of ávila, Thérèse of Lisieux and Blessed Mother Teresa; and the popes of my own lifetime does not have to copy anybody except Jesus Christ.

Robert F. Taft, S.J., is emeritus professor of Oriental liturgy at the Pontifical Oriental Institute in Rome and consultor for liturgy of the Vatican Congregation for the Oriental Churches.
http://www.americamagazine.org/content/article.cfm?article_id=10837

Burma and China

Over two weeks after Cyclone Nargis hit Burma, the situation remains grim.
This disgraceful situation has been made worse by the regime's desire to take care of the relief effort by themselves, despite having having done a woefully inadequate job thus far. Aid continues to pile up in Rangoon without the adequate logistical capacity to deliver it to those most in need. Further problems are looming for the survivors. This week predicted heavy rains may spoil some aid that has been stockpiled and left undelivered in Rangoon airport. Other natural threats are those of disease from mosquitoes such as malaria and dengue fever along with other threats from contaminated waters sources. Footage released shows the banks of the Irrawaddy lined with corpses that will certainly contaminate what is for many people, the only available water supply.

To compound the natural threats, there are still reports arriving from inside of aid appropriation. Although the UN has set up an investigation into the matter, it seems powerless to actually put a stop to the practice. Villagers have reported having to buy gasoline and drinking water at vastly inflated prices from township authorities.
There has got to be a special circle of hell for folks such as those in Burma's junta.

China meanwhile is entering a three day period of mournin, for the victims of last week's earthquake, now described as being of magnitude 8.0. The Guardian news-blog has links to various Chinese bloggers who describe scenes from different parts of the country.

Asia News on how Christians are responding to the disasters: in China, and in Burma.

::UPDATE:: Jen Ambrose in China (Shenzhen?) shares her own experience of the moments of silence at her blog (and in the comments below).

India at peace. But not with Christians

That's the title of the latest column by Sandro Magister on the ongoing persecution of Christians in India. It's a translation of the article that appeared in the Italian magazine Mondo e Missione, which John Allen reported on last week, and which I translated last week as well.

[Quibble: I'm not sure it's entirely accurate to describe India as being "at peace." Yes, the economic reforms have changed the landscape irrevocably, but there are huge tensions still unresolved: Kashmir, the ongoing Naxalite (Maoist) guerrilla war in many parts of the rural heartland, separatist movements in the northeast, particularly in Assam. If one goes to New Delhi, or Bombay, or even the bigger regional cities, one won't really notice these, and even there the hand of Islamic radicalism makes itself felt periodically, as the recent bomb blast in Jaipur testifies. It's not as if India is at peace, and its only "problem" are Christians.]

Santa Maria Ven

I was somewhat blown away to hear a very familiar hymn today. It's sung all the time in India, though this was the first time I'd heard it in the US. Except, it was in Spanish.

The refrain in English goes like this:
Be with us Mary along the way
guide every step we take.
Lead us to Jesus your loving Son!
Come with us Mary, come.
The Spanish version:
Ven con nosotros a caminar
¡Santa Maria ven! (x2)
Here's a Youtube video of the Spanish hymn, being sung in a Marian procession. Quite cool.



This isn't the first hymn that I've encountered that's sung in American Spanish circles, as well as in India, but not in (Anglo) America. Ok, I've heard one other. Two isn't much of a statistical sample at all, but I find myself wondering, how, in some respects, the post-reform vernacular hymnody of central America and India show some similarities, which seem not to be shared by the US.

I couldn't find anything on YouTube for the English version. However, Googling around, I came across this sample from OCP. Same words, different melody, sung by Tom Booth and Jenny Pixler. The hymn is attributed to Mother Teresa. Which is totally cool. I need to ask my friends back in India if the "traditional" version is known to be composed by Mother Teresa, because I'd never heard of this attribution at all.

And though I find a lot of liturgical music in India to be well, less than ideal ... this hymn is one of my favorites. It was also sung at my baptism (which was on the Feast of the Assumption, in 1994).

Holy Trinity

The end of St. Augustine's De Trinitate at Zadok's.

Saturday, May 17, 2008

"Since you lived through the Aryan controversy ..."

Mike Aquilina shares this awesome urban legend:
There's an urban legend making the rounds about Pope Benedict's visit to the United States. The story goes that Vice-President Cheney asked the pontiff what he's been reading. The Holy Father replied that he's been researching "the Arian heresy." Cheney, thinking the pope meant "Aryan," said, "That must be interesting for you, since you lived through it. And Benedict responded, "I'm old, but I'm not that old."
Alas, it's just an urban legend, but hilarious nonetheless! What lies at its root, apparently, is the attempt of the newly elected Mayor of London to indulge in some humor by referring to the 4th century Arian controversy. The tabloids are still having a field day, it would seem.

Mike links to this piece in The Telegraph which details what the Mayor actually said, and why the Arian controversy was not just those crazy ancients dabbling in theological minutiae. A great way to head into Trinity Sunday!

Friday, May 16, 2008

"A murder of morality"

That is how a panchayat (village council) member described the murder of a young couple in a village in Haryana, not too far from Delhi. Their crime? They were in love, and she was pregnant ... however, in the Jat community, boys and girls from the same village simply don't do this. And who has confessed to the murder? The father of the young girl.
Five armed men burst into the small room and courtyard at dawn, just as 21-year-old, 22-week pregnant, Sunita was drying her face on a towel.

They punched and kicked her stomach as she called out for her sleeping boyfriend "Jassa", 22-year-old Jasbir Singh, witnesses said. When he woke, both were dragged into waiting cars, driven away and strangled.

Their bodies, half-stripped, were laid out on the dirt outside Sunita's father's house for all to see, a sign that the family's "honor" had been restored by her cold-blooded murder.
[snip]
At the small police post in Balla, a constable admitted the case was unlikely to ever reach prosecution, with the village putting enormous pressure on the police, and especially Jasbir's family, to quietly drop the case.
And while one shakes one head and goes on about how can this happen in today's India of the 21st century and the economic boom, let's not forget: human dignity has never been a huge hallmark of Indian society, which has managed, for several millenia, to keep a vast segment of society in the cruelest form of slavery. (For the record, universal human dignity has not been a hallmark of much of human history ... and even in Christian societies, the record has been far from perfect) And it's not about education and wealth -- these are prosperous upper-caste Jats (Incidentally, Haryana has one of the most skewed sex ratios, thanks to selective abortion).

NDTV: The entire village is going to make sure that no one testifies when the case goes to trial.

Times Now: No remorse for murdering my daughter. (More Indian media stories, from Google News Search)

The reporter who filed that Reuters story writes a little more at his blog -- this certainly is a challenge to the police, but also to the overall sense of the rule of law in India, which is tenuous at best. Here's an interesting comment that one R. Murugan left on his blog:
The best way to bring peace to India is to convert all north Indians to Christians. Hinduism never improves the status of any Indian. Over past 2000 years hindus have been still kept as a low caste people and that's why such things happen in North India.

South India is flourishing as South Indians adapt to Christianity quickly. In 50 years, South will overtake North in prosperity, wealth and health.

Time to think now. Indians !!
A most un-PC thought, but one that I often think about. Of course, being a Southern Indian himself (at least from his name), he can be excused for some amount of bias. But the South is hardly free from casteism, or patriarchy. And segments of the North (at least tribals) have been converted to Christianity ... and let's not forget the Norhteast ... anyway, there is no magical way to "convert all north Indians" (or all Indians). And, when it comes to caste, conversion hasn't immediately lead to an escape from the confines of caste, either in the North or the South.

[In Googling around, I found it highly ironic that the Muslim web portal IslamOnline reported this story as: "Hindus proud of honor killing." Umm, like honor-killings don't occur in the Muslim world? Puh-lease!]

Teaching the faith in a postmodern world: Cardinal Martini

First, this awesome quote from Hans Urs von Balthassar (via Intentional Disciples, at Vox Nova). Def. go read the whole thing, but this part really struck me.
To honor the tradition does not excuse one from the beginning each time, not with Augustine or Thomas or Newman, but with Christ. And the greatest figures of Christian salvation history are honored only by the one who does today what they did then, or what they would have done if they had lived today. The cross-check is quickly done, and it is shows the tremendous impoverishment, not only in spirit and life, but also quite existentially: in thoughts and points of view, themes and ideas, where people are content to understand tradition as the handing-on of ready-made results. Boredom manifests itself at once, and the neatest systematics fails to convince, remains of little consequence. The little groups of those who have come to an understanding with one another and cultivate what they take to be the tradition become more and more esoteric, foreign to the world, and more and more misunderstood, although they do not condescend to take notice of their alienation.
Can one say ... blogosphere? The two posts below (John Allen's coverage of the "Truth" conference in Switzerland, and the ongoing gay marriage debate) reminded me of this great piece by the Archbishop emeritus of Milan, Maria Cardinal Martini in America: Teaching the faith in a post-modern world. The article is available to subscribers only, but I'll transcribe the full-text after the jump. First, what is post-modernism:
A postmodern mentality could be defined in terms of oppositions: an atmosphere and a movement of thought that stands opposed to the world as we have known it until now. This mentality willingly distances itself from metaphysics, Aristotelianism, the Augustinian tradition and from Rome, considered as the center of the church, and from many other things.

This mindset keeps its distance from a former platonic Christian world, in which there was taken for granted the primacy of truth and values over feelings, of intelligence over the will, of the spirit over the flesh, of unity over pluralism, of asceticism over life, of the eternal over the temporal. In our world there is a spontaneous preference for feeling over the will, for impressions over intelligence, for an arbitrary logic and the search for pleasure over an ascetic and prohibitive morality. This is a world in which sensitivity, emotion and the present moment come first. Human existence, therefore, is a place where there is freedom without restraints, where a person exercises, or believes he can exercise, his personal empire and creativity.
Cardinal Martini is a lot more positive about this world than many (including, I would say, the reigning Pontiff)
And I say something more. Perhaps this situation is better than the one that existed previously. Christianity has an opportunity to show better its character of challenge, of objectivity, of realism, of the exercise of true freedom, of a religion linked to the life of the body and not only of the mind. In a world such as we live in today, the mystery of an unavailable and always surprising God acquires greater beauty; faith understood as risk becomes more attractive; a tragic view of existence is strengthened with happy consequences in contrast to a purely evolutionary vision. Christianity appears more beautiful, closer to people, and yet more true. The mystery of the Trinity appears as the source of meaning for life and an aid to understanding the mystery of human existence.
I hear echoes here, perhaps, of thankfulness for the dissolution of Constantinianism, and the support of the coercive power of the State in matters of religion. At least on the surface, Martini's view seems to be somewhat in opposition to the Pope's desire to defend a robust sense of objective truth. However, I don't think that the opposition is deep. Both he and the Holy Father have a deeply Christocentric view, and both talk about the importance of truly imbibing the Word, in prayer, a life lived in solidarity with the poor, and open to the action of the Spirit. Cardinal Martini's prescriptions are very apposite: do not be surprised by diversity, take risks and nourish yourself with the Gospel. He reminds us of St. Paul's exhortation to discern everything, and gives four spiritual exercises: Lectio divina, self-mastery, silence and humility.

A very hopeful vision, full of love for Christ, and unshakable confidence in His providence.

The whole article is below. A web-only, annual subscription to America costs $12 only right now (as opposed to the regular $24).


Teaching the Faith in a Postmodern World
By Carlo Maria Martini | MAY 12, 2008
the cover of America, the Catholic magazine

W hat can I say about the reality of the Catholic Church today? The theme is enormous and so much more difficult for me, living as I do in Jerusalem, with little contact with the daily life of our church communities. I am inspired, however, by the words of a great Russian thinker and man of science, Pavel Florenskij, who died in 1937 as a martyr for his Christian faith: “Only through immediate experience is it possible to perceive and value the treasure of the church.” To perceive and value the treasures of the church, one must enter through the experience of faith.

It would be very easy to draw up notebooks of complaints, full of things that are not going very well in our church. But this would be to adopt an external and depressing vision, not to see with the eyes of faith, which are the eyes of love. Of course, we should not close our eyes to things that are not going well, but we need to understand the overall picture in which the problems to be resolved are situated.

A Unique Period in Church History

As I consider the present situation of the church with the eyes of faith, I see especially two things.

First, there has never been in the history of the church a period as fortunate as ours. Our church has its greatest geographical and cultural spread and yet finds itself substantially united in the faith, with the exception of Lefebvre’s traditionalists.

Second, in the history of theology there has never been so rich a period as the last era. Even in the fourth century, the era of the great Cappadocian fathers of the Eastern church and the great fathers of the Western church, like St. Jerome, St. Ambrose and St. Augustine, there was not so great a theological flowering.

It is enough to recall the names of Henri de Lubac and Jean Daniélou, of Yves Congar, Hugo and Karl Rahner, of Hans Urs von Balthasar and his master Erich Przywara, of Oscar Cullmann, Martin Dibelius, Rudolf Bultmann, Karl Barth and of great American theologians like Reinhold Niebuhr—not to mention the liberation theologians (whatever judgment may be made in their regard now that they are being given new attention by the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith) and many others still alive, including the great theologians of the Eastern church of whom we know too little, like Pavel Florenskij and Sergei Bulgakov.

There can be very different and nuanced views of these theologians, but they certainly are an impressive group such as never existed in the church in times past.

All this has taken place in a world full of problems and challenges, such as the unjust distribution of goods and resources, poverty and hunger, and the problems of violence and maintaining peace. Another problem is the difficulty in fully understanding the limits of civil law in relation to moral law. These problems are very real, especially in certain countries, and they are often subject to a very lively dialectic of interpretation.

Indeed, sometimes it is possible to imagine that we are not all living in the same historical age. Some are still living in the time of the Council of Trent, others of the First Vatican Council. Certain people have digested the Second Vatican Council well or poorly; others are well advanced into the third millennium. We are not all true contemporaries, and this has always been a great burden for the church and requires plenty of patience and discernment.

Yet I would like to put these problems aside for now and consider our pedagogical and cultural situation and the problems associated with education and teaching.
A Postmodern Mentality

To seek a fruitful dialogue between the people of this world and the Gospel and to renew our pedagogy in the light of the example of Jesus, it is important to look closely at the so-called postmodern world, which forms a backdrop for many of these problems and which conditions the solutions.

A postmodern mentality could be defined in terms of oppositions: an atmosphere and a movement of thought that stands opposed to the world as we have known it until now. This mentality willingly distances itself from metaphysics, Aristotelianism, the Augustinian tradition and from Rome, considered as the center of the church, and from many other things.

This mindset keeps its distance from a former platonic Christian world, in which there was taken for granted the primacy of truth and values over feelings, of intelligence over the will, of the spirit over the flesh, of unity over pluralism, of asceticism over life, of the eternal over the temporal. In our world there is a spontaneous preference for feeling over the will, for impressions over intelligence, for an arbitrary logic and the search for pleasure over an ascetic and prohibitive morality. This is a world in which sensitivity, emotion and the present moment come first. Human existence, therefore, is a place where there is freedom without restraints, where a person exercises, or believes he can exercise, his personal empire and creativity.

At the same time this movement is also a revolt against an excessively rational mentality. From literature, painting, music and the new human sciences (in particular psychoanalysis), many people no longer believe they live in a world ruled by rational laws, in which Western civilization is a model for the world to imitate. It is accepted that all civilizations are equal, whereas previously we insisted on the so-called classical tradition. Nowadays there is a little of everything on the same plain, because there are no longer criteria by which to verify what is a true and authentic civilization.

There is opposition to rationality, which is seen as a source of violence, because people believe rationality can be imposed because it is true. There is acceptance of every form of dialogue and exchange because of a desire to be always open to another and to what is different, to be suspicious of oneself and to mistrust whatever wishes to affirm its identity through force. That is why Christianity is not easily accepted when it presents itself as true religion. I recall a young man who said to me recently: “Above all, don’t tell me that Christianity is true. That upsets me, that blocks me. It’s quite something else to say that Christianity is beautiful....” Beauty is preferable to truth.

In this atmosphere, technology is no longer a means at humanity’s service, but a milieu in which someone perceives the rules to interpret the world. There is no longer an essence of things, but only the use of things for a certain end determined by the will and desire of each person.

In this atmosphere, the refusal of sin and redemption is always present. It is said, “Everyone is equal, and each person is unique.” There is an absolute right to be singular and to affirm oneself. Every moral rule is out of date. There is no more sin, nor pardon, nor redemption, nor self-denial. Life can no longer be thought of as sacrifice or suffering.

A last characteristic of this movement is the refusal to accept anything that smacks of centralism or a desire to direct things from on high. There is an “anti-Roman complex” in this way of thinking. We have passed from a context in which the universal counted for more; what was written and general and timeless, what was durable and unchanging was preferred to what is particular, local and dated. Today, the preference is for a knowledge that is more contextual, local, pluralist, adaptable to different circumstances and different times.

I do not wish to say all of this is completely false. A great deal of discernment would be needed to distinguish the true from the false, what is said as an approximation from what is said with precision, that which is simply a tendency or a fashion from what is a solid declaration. What I am saying is that this mentality is everywhere, especially where there are young people, and it needs to be taken into account.

And I say something more. Perhaps this situation is better than the one that existed previously. Christianity has an opportunity to show better its character of challenge, of objectivity, of realism, of the exercise of true freedom, of a religion linked to the life of the body and not only of the mind. In a world such as we live in today, the mystery of an unavailable and always surprising God acquires greater beauty; faith understood as risk becomes more attractive; a tragic view of existence is strengthened with happy consequences in contrast to a purely evolutionary vision. Christianity appears more beautiful, closer to people, and yet more true. The mystery of the Trinity appears as the source of meaning for life and an aid to understanding the mystery of human existence.
‘Examine Everything With Discernment.’

To teach the faith in this world is nonetheless a challenge. To be prepared one must take to heart the following attitudes:

Do not be surprised by diversity. Do not be frightened by what is different or new, but look upon it as something in which is found a gift from God. Prove that you can listen to things quite different from what we usually think, but without immediately judging the speaker; try to understand what is being said and the basic arguments put forward. Young people are very sensitive about an attitude of nonjudgmental listening. This attitude gives them the courage to say what they really feel and to begin to distinguish what is really true from what only appears true. As St. Paul says, “Examine everything with discernment; keep what is good; keep your distance from every trace of evil” (1 Thes 5:21-22).

Take risks. Faith is the great risk of life. “Whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but the one who loses his life for my sake will save it” (Mt 16:25). Everything has to be given up for Christ and his Gospel.

Befriend the poor. Put the poor at the center of your life because they are the friends of Jesus who made himself one of them.

Nourish yourself with the Gospel. As Jesus tells us in the discourse on the bread of life: “For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world” (Jn 6:33).
Prayer, Humility and Silence

To help develop these attitudes, I propose four exercises:

1. Lectio divina. This is a recommendation of John Paul II: “It is especially necessary that the listening to the Word becomes an essential meeting, following the ancient and present-day tradition of lectio divina, enabling us to discover in the biblical text the living word that challenges us, directs us, which gives shape to our existence” (Novo Millennio Ineunte, No. 39). “The Word of God nourishes life, prayer and the daily journey, it is the principle of unity of the community in a unity of thought, the inspiration for continuing renewal and for apostolic creativity” (Setting Out Again From Christ, 2002, No. 24).

2. Self-mastery. We need to learn anew that the frank opposition to desires is sometimes more joyful than endless concessions to everything that seems desirable but ends in boredom and satiety.

3. Silence. We need to move away from an unhealthy slavery to rumors and endless chattering, from characterless music that only makes noise, and find each day at least one half-hour of silence and a half-day each week to think about ourselves, to reflect and pray for a longer period. That may seem difficult to ask, but when you give an example of the interior peace and tranquility that result from the exercise, the young take courage and find it to be an unprecedented source of life and joy.

4. Humility. Do not think that it is up to us to solve the great problems of our times. Leave room for the Holy Spirit, who works better than we do and more deeply. Do not wish to stifle the Spirit in others: it is the Spirit who breathes. Rather, be sensitive to its most subtle manifestations, and for that you need silence.

Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini, S.J., is the retired archbishop of Milan, Italy. This article is adapted from a talk he gave at the 44th General Chapter of the Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools in Rome on May 3, 2007. Reprinted with permission.

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